Challenges & Promise in Antarctic Psychology

• Main Author: Shalev, Amit
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/18558

Antarctic psychology research has a fundamental shortage of tools and standard fundamentals which must be addressed in order to fulfill its promise and reap benefits that for decades have been discussed but have yet to be fully realized: (1) creation of mental health intervention regiments and training protocols for expeditioners and support staff, (2) leveraging in a practical manner positive experiences resulting from Antarctic deployments, and (3) facilitating the use of Antarctica as a space analogue for psychological study. These benefits could increase the well-being of expeditioners, amplify the utility of Antarctic psychology learnings in other fields, and increase vectors for positive attention in the public eye. Achieving these benefits requires international coordination in the research community to create a roadmap of challenges, open questions, and unaddressed fundamentals in the field, and use that roadmap to drive research study designs through different NAPs across the continent and across multiple seasons.