Changes in expeditioners' personality measures during 1 year Antarctic expeditions

Abstract The extreme working and living conditions at Antarctic stations cause numerous psychological changes in expeditioners. However, research on the changes in expeditioners' personality traits is virtually non-existent. Therefore, the present study aims to determine the changes in expeditioners' personality measures during 1 year Antarctic expeditions. This study examined 56 expeditioners working at the Ukrainian Antarctic Akademik Vernadsky station (52 men, 4 women; ages 20–63 years, M = 38.12, SD = 10.01) who participated in five annual expeditions between 2016 and 2021. The Ukrainian adaptations of four measures were used: the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Leonhard-Schmieschek Questionnaire and the Leary Interpersonal Checklist. During 1 year Antarctic expeditions, 8 of the 26 indicators used to describe expeditioners' personality measures changed significantly (P < 0.001–0.1). These indicators belonged to three of the four measures used in the study and were assessed as personally unfavourable. They included increased psychoticism and competing, managerial-autocratic, aggressive-sadistic, responsible-hypernormal, competitive-narcissistic and self-effacing-masochistic styles and a decreased accommodating style. Based on these results, promising areas for further research that could improve psychological selection, training and work for Antarctic expedition personnel are outlined.