Emotional Energy, Work Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Similarity During the Mars 520 Study

Transcription

1 SHORT COMMUNICATION Emotional Energy, Work Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Similarity During the Mars 520 Study Iva Šolcová, Vadim Gushin, Alla Vinokhodova, and Jiří Lukavský Š OLCOVÁ I, G USHIN V, V INOKHODOVA A, L UKAVSKÝ J. Emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and perceived similarity during the Mars 520 study. Aviat Space Environ Med 2013; 84:1 5. Background: The objective of the present research was to study the dynamics of changes in emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and perceived similarity in the crew of the Mars 520 experimental study. Methods: The study comprised six volunteers, all men, between yr of age ( M ; SD ). The Mars 520 experimental study simulated all the elements of the proposed Mars mission that could be ground simulated, i.e., traveling to Mars, orbiting it, landing, and returning to Earth. During the simulation, measures of emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and perceived similarity were repeated every month. The data were analyzed using linear mixed effect models. Results: Emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and perceived similarity gradually increased in the course of the simulation. Discussion: There was no evidence for a so-called third quarter phenomenon (the most strenuous period of group isolation, psychologically, emotionally, and socially) in our data. On the contrary, work self-efficacy, emotional energy, and group cohesion (indexed here by the subject s perceived similarity to others) increased significantly in the course of the simulation, with the latter two variables showing positive growth in the group functioning. Keywords: group salutogenesis, interaction rituals, interpersonal perception, third quarter phenomenon. T HE MARS 520 experimental study was created to simulate a long-term mission to space in order to address several yet unsolved questions concerning life and work during extended spaceflight. The main question concerned how well a crew handles being in close quarters for almost 18 mo and how individual and group functioning is affected. We focused on the dynamics of changes in emotional energy and work selfefficacy. We also studied interpersonal perceptions as an indicator of group cohesion in the crew. Emotional energy is a constituent part of vigor ( 12 ). An individual s level of vigor may be considered an indicator of one s optimal psychological functioning. Emotional energy is supposed to detect a discrete, affective response to one s ongoing interaction with specific elements in the work environment and with the workplace situation as a whole. Shirom s ( 13 ) conceptualization of emotional energy concerns the significant members of one s social milieu. According to Shirom ( 12 ), work groups tend to share emotions because of common experiences and common organizational features. According to Collins ( 5 ), individuals derive their emotional energy from their participation in interaction rituals that are further formed into chains, networks, and other structures. Although Shirom and Collins conceptualize their emotional energy from differing points, they arrive at very similar result. According to Collins theory, the dynamics of the group is based on interaction rituals (IR). The IR are defined by four conditions (prerequisites) : 1) two or more persons in co-presence; 2) a boundary that demarcates insiders from outsiders; 3) that all the parties of IR focus their attention upon a common object or activity; and 4) that participants share a common mood or emotional experience. Of the four conditions, the first two are present in the condition of the simulation. Hypothetically, the third condition could be met if all the crewmembers share the common goal: a successful mission. Supposedly, there are the periods during simulation during which the crewmembers share a common mood or emotional experience, e.g., the celebration of birthdays and New Year, the periods of pre-landing and landing on Mars, etc. Work self-efficacy refers to one s feelings of competence and successful achievement in one s work. Work self-efficacy assesses workers confidence in managing themselves in the workplace. When investigating group cohesion, we focused on social cohesion as defined by Turner ( 17 ). According to his theory, social cohesion can arise as a direct product of social identification. Social cohesion can be created on the basis of the similarities perceived between oneself and fellow group members. Perceived similarity of group members creates intragroup liking. Interpersonal attraction or positive attitudes among group members is, according to Lott and Lott (9, p. 259), central to the cohesiveness of small groups. Group cohesion may be viewed as the result of interpersonal attraction. It is determined by self-perception and perceptions of the other crewmembers, as well as a similarity of personal values ( 1 ). An increase in group cohesion is accompanied by a more favorable appreciation of interpersonal interaction and also by the increase of conforming From the Institute of Psychology, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic; and the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. This manuscript was received for review in February It was accepted for publication in June Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Iva Š olcová, Ph.D., Institute of Psychology, Hybernská 8, Praha 1, Prague , Czech Republic; solcova@praha.psu.cas.cz. Reprint & Copyright by the Aerospace Medical Association, Alexandria, VA. DOI: /ASEM Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine x Vol. 84, No. 10 x October

2 Q1 behavior within the group. In a cohesive group, a person who feels sympathy toward his or her fellow crewmembers also often regards these members as similar to herself or himself and, thus, we can expect a higher level of mutual identification among the group members ( 9, 17 ). METHODS Subjects The study comprised six volunteers, all men, between yr of age ( M ; SD ) at the beginning of the simulation. The subjects gave informed consent prior to their participation and they received a payment for their participation. The proposal of the Mars 520 study was approved by the Biomedical Ethics Commission of the Institute of Biomedical Problems. Equipment The crewmembers spent their days in an experimental facility located in the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The mission began 3 June 2010 and ended 4 November The crew simulated all the elements of the proposed Mars mission that could be simulated on the ground, i.e., traveling to Mars, orbiting it, landing, and returning to Earth. The living conditions, such as communication, the food supply and the crew s diet, and levels of humidity, temperature, pressure, and gas composition were identical to that of the crews on the International Space Station. Also, the daily timeline was analogous to the schedule employed on the ISS; the crew performed maintenance, experiments, and other activities in a similar manner. Procedure The simulation portion of the experiment started on 3 June 2010 and ended on 4 November During the simulation, measures of emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and interpersonal perception were repeated every month. The first measurement was taken prior to the beginning of the simulation period. Measurements were coded with numbers: the first measurement was coded as 0 and last measurement as 17. The measurements were administered on a personal computer. The first administration of the measurements included assistance from the investigators. To measure emotional energy, four items capturing the construct from the Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure was employed. An English and a Russian version of the Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure is available on the web at ;ashirom/. The wording of certain items was adapted to the specific conditions of the Mars 520, e.g., I feel able to be sensitive to the needs of coworkers and customers was changed to I feel able to be sensitive to the needs of crewmates. All items are scored on a 7-point frequency scale, ranging from 1 (never or almost never) to 7 (always or almost always). The high score indicates a high level of emotional energy. Two items were developed by present authors to capture work self-efficacy ( I feel competent to do my working tasks. I feel competent to stand to my working schedule. ). These items were also scored on a 7-point frequency scale, ranging from 1 (never or almost) to 7 (always or almost always). The higher score designated a higher level of work self-efficacy. We used Personal Self-Perception and Attitudes (PSPA) software to study the personal perceptions of both crewmembers and mission control (MCC) personnel, and analyze the subjects attitudes toward their social environment. PSPA is a computerized version of the so-called repertory grid technique (6 ). In the first stage, the subject selects a group of 12 persons, including the other crewmembers and MCC, and his Self in the past, present (Real Self), and future (Ideal Self). In the second stage, the subject creates 12 bipolar scales for evaluation on the basis of his personal interaction with the selected people. In the third stage, he evaluates the selected persons using the proposed criteria. We investigated similarities and differences of the subjects perceptions regarding the crewmembers, MCC personnel, and Self-images. The perceived similarity between the people was calculated as a ratio of 1 divided by the average distance between the subject and Real Self-images of other crewmembers, i.e., the given subject as seen by others. The increase in the group s average rate of perceived similarity can be regarded as a sign of group identification and integration. We decided to use PSPA because it provides indirect assessment of group cohesion that is not affected by social desirability and/or defensive mechanisms. Statistical Analysis We calculated the raw score total of emotional energy for every participant and for all measurement sessions. For the following analyses, we pooled the measurements into four stages corresponding to four quarters of the mission duration (Quarter 1 included measurements 1 4; Q2: 5 8; Q3: 10 13; Q4: 14 17). Note that the initial baseline is not included in the analysis and the simulated landing on Mars (session 9) has been omitted because it was an exceptional situation in the run of the simulation. The reason to divide the measurements to four phases was twofold: 1) there is evidence of negative changes in mood and performance after a mission s halfway point in some studies (the so-called third-quarter phenomenon; 4, 3 ); and 2) the aggregation of data helped to provide more robust estimates for each time period. The data concerning work self-efficacy and perceived similarity were processed in the same way. We analyzed the data using linear mixed effect models. All data were analyzed using R ( 11 ) and R packages lme4 ( 3 ) and languager ( 2 ). To assess the validity of the mixed effects analyses, we performed likelihood ratio tests comparing the models with fixed effects to the null models with only the random effects. We rejected results in which the model including fixed effects did not differ 2 Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine x Vol. 84, No. 10 x October 2013

3 TABLE I. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF EMOTIONAL ENERGY. Stage/ Quarter Number of Measurements Mean SD Median SE significantly from the null model. Throughout the paper, we present confidence intervals estimated with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method and P-values that are considered significant at the a level. The changes in emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and perceived similarity over time were assessed using linear mixed effect models with appropriate scores as dependent variable, participants as random factor, and time (continuous, 1 4) as fixed effects. RESULTS The descriptive statistics of emotional energy and work self-efficacy are displayed in Table I and II, respectively. We found that emotional energy gradually increased over time [increment 0.63; 95%CI 5 (0.20, 1.05); P , Fig. 1 ]. This increase was observed in all (individual increments ranging from 0.36 to 2.15) but one subject (increment ). We were interested in the potential third-quarter phenomenon. To assess this effect we separately tested if there was a significant drop in emotional energy between the second and third quarter using model contrasts. However, we observed only a non-significant increase in emotional energy [increase ; 95%CI 5 (21.03; 2.16)]. The results for work self-efficacy show a similar pattern: work self-efficacy scores gradually increased over time [increment 0.40; 95%CI 5 (0.20;0.60); P, 0.001; Fig. 2 ]. The increase was observed in all subjects (range 0.09 to 0.93). It is important to note that 54% of all observed scores were equal to the potential maximum of the scale (14 points). The proportion of the maximum scores increased during the mission (from 35% during Q1 and 46% in Q2 to 70% and 67% in Q3 and Q4). We observed a non-significant increase of work self-efficacy between Q2 and Q3 [increase ; 95%CI 5 ( 20.19;1.32)]. The descriptive statistics of perceived similarity are displayed in Table III. The group means of perceived similarity (PSPA), aggregated accordingly to four periods of isolation, are presented in Fig. 3. The perceived similarity increased over time [increment 0.052; 95%CI 5 Fig. 1. Emotional energy: results of linear regression analysis. (0.025;0.076); P, 0.001]. The increase was observed in all (individual increments ranging from to 0.204) but one subject (increment ). The participant who did not display an increase in perceived similarity was different from the participant who did not display an increase in emotional energy. DISCUSSION The third quarter of the mission, regardless of length of confinement, has been suggested by some authors as TABLE II. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF WORK SELF-EFFICACY. Stage/ Quarter Number of Measurements Mean SD Median SE Fig. 2. Work self-efficacy: results of linear regression analysis. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine x Vol. 84, No. 10 x October

4 TABLE III. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF PERCEIVED SIMILARITY. Stage/ Quarter Number of Measurements Mean SD Median SE being the most strenuous psychologically, emotionally, and socially ( 4, 8, 10 ). There was no evidence for such a phenomenon in our data. Our results thus augment the literature that does not support the third quarter phenomenon assumption ( 8 ). Emotional energy, as defined by a person s feeling capable of emotionally investing in relationships, significantly increased in the fourth quarter of simulation. On the basis of our results, we can support Collins ( 5 ) assertion concerning interaction rituals. Solidarity experiences based in face-to-face interaction, shared emotions, and a shared focus of attention all of which were present in the simulation conditions led to a gradually increasing level of emotional energy during the period of simulation. Work self-efficacy gradually increased in a similar way. In the fourth quarter of the simulation the work self-efficacy increased significantly. Group integration as indexed here by perceived similarity gradually increased in the course of the simulation and remained high during Q4. Suedfeld ( 14, 15 ) and Ihle, Ritcher, and Kanas ( 7 ) introduce the general concept of space salutogenesis, which they define as the phenomenon of personal growth and improved psychological functioning after a shared experience. This concept was confirmed by the astronauts Fig. 3. Perceived similarity: results of linear regression analysis. reports of increased self-confidence, courage, care for others, etc. Moreover, in a recent study, Suedfeld et al. (16 ) define the set of psychological characteristics, or personal values, differentiating this professional group from the general population. However, all of the authors refer to the individual level. As we have shown in this paper, we should broaden the concept of space salutogenesis to include group functioning. Emotional energy and perceived similarity represent in this case the important factors of group salutogenesis. To summarize, in our study, there was no evidence for the third-quarter phenomenon, where mood and cohesion levels are thought to worsen after the halfway point of a mission involving isolated individuals. On the contrary, emotional energy, work self-efficacy, and group cohesion gradually increased during the course of the simulation. The feeling of being a part of well-functioning team probably played an important role. Our task for the future is to explore the psychological outcomes of missions that were not successful. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors hereby wish to express their appreciation and gratitude to the Institute of Biomedical Problems, Moscow, and the Czech Science Foundation (project no. P407/11/2226) that have made this study possible. Authors and affiliations: Iva Š olcová, Ph.D., and Ji ř í Lukavský, Ph.D., Institute of Psychology, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic; and Vadim Gushin, M.D., Ph.D., and Alla Vinokhodova, Ph.D., State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. REFERENCES 1. Anzieu D, Martin J-Y. La dynamique des groupes restreints. Paris: PUF; Baayen RH. languager: data sets and functions with analyzing linguistic data: a practical introduction to statistics. 2011; Retrieved 10 July 2012 from ;baayen/ publications/baayencupstats.pdf. 3. Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B. lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes. R package version ; Retri e ved 1 July 2011 from package 5lme4. 4. Bechtel RB, Berning A. The third-quarter phenomenon: do people experience discomfort after stress has passed? In: Harrison AA, Clearwater YA, McKay CP, eds. From Antartica to outer space. New York: Springer Verlag; 1991: Collins R. Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; Francella F, Bannister D, Bell R. A manual for repertory grid technique, 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell; Ihle EC, Ritsher JB, Kanas N. Positive psychological outcomes of spaceflight: an empirical study. Aviat Space Environ Med 2006 ; 77 : Kanas N, Manzey D. Space psychology and psychiatry, 2nd ed. El Segundo, Dordrecht: Microcosm Press, Springer Verlag; Lott AJ, Lott BE. Group cohesiveness as interpersonal attraction: a review of relationships with antecedent and consequent variables. Psychol Bull 1965 ; 64 : Palmai G. Psychological observations on an isolated groups in Antarctica. Br J Psychiatry 1963 ; 109 : R Development Core Team. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; Shirom A. Feeling vigorous at work? The construct of vigor and the study of positive affect in organizations. In: Perrewe PL, Ganster DC, eds. Research in occupational stress and wellbeing, vol. 3: emotional and physiological processes and 4 Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine x Vol. 84, No. 10 x October 2013

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6 Author Query sheet ASEM3679 Q1 : Author: the date at the end of this sentence, 23 June 2010, was removed, as this date is after the beginning of the simulation period, which is stated as having started 3 June 2010 and this sentence states that the first measurement was taken prior to that date. If this is incorrect, please clarify.