Summary of research issues in personal, interpersonal, and group dynamics

People working on space missions, whether they are crewmembers or Mission Control personnel, must interact in groups. Consequently, it is important to consider interpersonal and group dynamic issues to assure that mission goals are accomplished. Simulation studies on Earth and anecdotal reports from space have described a number of such issues that include crew heterogeneity, culture and language variations, leadership roles, and personality differences. Problems that can result include increased group tension, decreased cohesion, subgrouping, scapegoating, miscommunication, role confusion, and displacement of tension and dysphoria from one group to another. The three papers by Drs. Caldwell, Kanas, and Stuster that are presented in this session address some of these issues at the group level. They suggest three critical questions related to: 1) improving communication between space crews and Mission Control personnel; 2) dealing with emotional and interpersonal decrements during the second half of space missions; and 3) minimizing the effects of culture and language differences. These questions in turn lead to six research strategies related to: 1) developing and testing new technologies to enhance crew-ground communication; 2) developing tools to recognize important communication themes and the factors that affect them over time; 3) studying the ability of voice analysis technology to detect on-board interpersonal stress; 4) developing and testing countermeasures to deal with second half emotional and interpersonal decrements; 5) studying the effects of cultural and language differences on crew tension, cohesion, and performance; and 6) studying the effects of crew heterogeneity and size on crew tension, cohesion, and performance.