Abstract
Evidence from extreme environments suggests that there are relationships between difficulties of adaptation and psychological factors such as personality. In the framework of microgravity research on humans, the aim of this exploratory study was to investigate inter-individual differences of parabonauts on the basis of quality of adaptation to the physical demands of parabolic flights. The personality characteristics of two groups of parabonauts with a different quality of adaptation (an Adaptive group, N = 7, and a Maladaptive group, N = 15) were assessed using the Sensation Seeking Scale, Brief COPE, and MSSQ-Short. Compared to the Maladaptive group, the individuals of the Adaptive group scored higher on Boredom Susceptibility (i.e., a subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale), lower on scales of susceptibility to motion sickness (MSSQ-Short) and tended to score lower on Instrumental Support Seeking (i.e., a subscale of the Brief COPE). These results suggest that individuals of the Adaptive group are more intolerant to monotony, present an aversion to repetitive and routine activities, are less susceptible to motion sickness and less dependent on problem-focused strategies. These characteristics may have contributed to developing a certain degree of flexibility in these subjects when faced with the parabolic flight situation and thus, may have favored them. The identification of differences of personality characteristics between individuals who have expressed difficulties of adaptation from those who have adapted successfully could help to prevent the risk of maladaptation and improve the well-being of (future) commercial or occupational aerospace passengers. More generally, these results could be extended to extreme environments and professional and/or sports domains likely to involve risk taking and unusual situations.
Highlights
Described as mimicking spaceflight-associated conditions (e.g., Strewe et al, 2012), parabolic flights constitute the best ecological model on earth to investigate the effects of microgravity and/or different gravity transitions and, to study human adaptation to these physical demands presented by the space environment
The logistic regression model (χ2 = 13.26, df = 2, p < 0.001; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.63) gave 93.33% correct classification for “not successfully adapted” and showed that “not successfully adapted” was predicted by the Total MSS score (p < 0.01) and the Boredom Susceptibility (p < 0.05). The objective of this exploratory study was to identify differences in dispositional characteristics such as sensation seeking or trait coping strategies according to the quality of adaptation to the physical demands of parabolic flights
No significant differences were found in the subscale of the Brief COPE, except for a trend in Instrumental Support Seeking (i.e., p = 0.078)—a problem-focused strategy that corresponds to seeking information, assistance and/or advice (Muller and Spitz, 2003) with a higher score for the Maladaptive group compared to the Adaptive group
Summary
Described as mimicking spaceflight-associated conditions (e.g., Strewe et al, 2012), parabolic flights constitute the best ecological model on earth to investigate the effects of microgravity and/or different gravity transitions and, to study human adaptation to these physical demands presented by the space environment. Recent studies have investigated the psychological factors affecting people participating in parabolic flights (i.e., parabonauts) in order to try to identify possible predictors of maladaptation on one hand (e.g., Choukèr et al, 2010; Strewe et al, 2012; Van Ombergen et al, 2016; Collado et al, 2017; Golding et al, 2017) and to better describe this specific population on the other hand (e.g., Collado et al, 2014; Montag et al, 2016). Our hypothesis was that parabonauts who have expressed difficulties adapting could present differences in traitcoping strategies or subscales of sensation seeking that are likely to hinder their adaptation compared to parabonauts who have adapted successfully
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
