Definition:
Psychic stress is understood as the totality of all detectable influences that come from outside and have a psychological effect on a person. The mental stress is defined as the individual effect of this stress on the person.
Psychological factors are those influences which demand the mental performance of the human being.
Stress is medically understood as the non-specific reaction of the body to every demand placed on it. In general usage, "stress" is established as an unspecific term for psychological stress and strain.
In general, the effects of psychic stress or psychological factors vary greatly from individual to individual and are not always predictable, as they can depend strongly on the physical and mental capacity, general constitution or life circumstances of the individual.
There is a variety of psychological factors that result from working conditions, of great importance are e.g. the following:
- Work task (e.g. work compression)
- Work organization (e.g. unclear processes, work schedule)
- Workplace design and environment (e.g. noise, climate, lighting)
During longer expeditions to polar regions, further factors result from the special working conditions and the special working environment:
- Polar day / polar night with long-lasting brightness or darkness
- Workload e.g. due to project specifications, schedules, unforeseen events, failures
- Lack of privacy e.g. due to working and living in a confined space over a longer
period of time
- Monotonousness due to prolonged use
- remoteness from home due to distance and limited communication
Expedition participants who need immediate psychological help can directly contact the follwing experts
for counseling & solace in a generally stressful time period:
Ute Seemann
phone 0049 170 3114268
mail seemann@baz-hb.de
for Critical Incident Stress Management after acute stressful events:
'Federal association for stress management after stressful events'
phone 0049 1805 872 862
Critical Incident Stress Management information sheet
& recommendations in case of critical incidents:
Lack of privacy
The need for privacy is an elementary component of human nature, whereby privacy refers to the non-public area in which a person can freely develop his personality unhindered by external influences.
In the context of a scientific expedition, the privacy of the individual participant is naturally strongly restricted over longer periods of time, whereby here not only the privacy in form of a retreat in leisure time, but also the privacy that the individual participant needs during his or her working hours in order to concentrate and organize is to be considered.
To make matters worse, leisure time and working time on expeditions are often not clearly and neatly separated from each other, and the immediate proximity of the workplace, leisure time and colleagues creates a kind of constant readiness and availability that further restricts privacy.
Lack of privacy due to housing in multi-bed accommodation (chambers) can have a major impact on people's mental capability. One lives in a confined space with one (or more) stranger(s), habitual private rituals cannot be performed, or can only be performed to a limited extent or under observation, and the space to be used privately is strictly limited or "public". Affected people perceive the "being under observation" and the small distance to the roommate as an intrusion into their intimate sphere and may react irritated and rejecting.
This situation can be aggravated by cultural differences in the behavior of the "roommates". Thus, a high conflict potential can develop here, and over a longer period of time "quirks", habits or characteristics of the co-inhabitant can become a strong psychological stress, which can lead to tension, frustration, stress, reduced efficiency, the reduction of consciousness and the cognitive abilities. In the longer term, this can result in hidden or open aggressiveness.
Since privacy is naturally restricted during a (ship) expedition, participants should be informed in advance about these stress factors and symptoms. If possible, the chambers should be occupied as desired and working hours or working group membership should also be considered.
Mutual consideration (e.g. in case of shift change and disturbance on the chamber but also in case of personal habits) should be a matter of course and, if possible, trusted persons and conflict mediators should be named within the group who can be addressed in case of arising symptoms or in case of conflict.
In case of strong personal mental stress on individual participants, there should be the possibility of a "chamber exchange". It would be ideal if in case of psychological stress, e.g. due to external factors (incidents at home, etc.), there were also (at least temporarily) the possibility of evading into individual accommodation.
A certain degree of privacy is also important during work, team and group work certainly offers many advantages, but constant team work can also be counterproductive due to a lack of opportunities for retreat and concentration and lead to lack of concentration, listlessness, loss of performance and irritability. These consequences of psychological stress may lead to a reduction in performance and willingness to perform, which may ultimately result in quality of work, but also in reduced safety awareness and an increased frequency of mistakes and accidents.
In order to prevent this situation, the individual should also have sufficient opportunities for retreat and concentration during work. This can take place, for example, through mutual consideration in the laboratory (e.g. no loud music, meetings not next to working colleagues), but also through measures such as "personal" workplaces (which are then available again in the next shift) and a balance between independent and joint work.
Furthermore, the free time of colleagues should be respected (e.g. postponing questions until the next day instead of disturbing them) and it is recommended to hold meetings and work meetings in a regular and scheduled manner in order to enable regular and concentrated work.
Monotony
Particularly on long expeditions, when a certain routine has set in and the workflow no longer holds any surprises, the psychological strain of monotony can occur.
This can manifest itself, for example, in a drop in performance, lack of interest, boredom with fatigue, reduced alertness, a drop in mental alertness, fluctuations in the ability to perform and react, and consequently in the increased occurrence of errors.
Especially in field and laboratory work, the occurrence of errors can lead to serious accidents with personal injury, so that the consequences caused by monotony are to be prevented.
A structured work plan in which for example, goals and milestones (with subsequent "restart") are defined can be helpful, and in which - if possible - an exchange of tasks and variety in the work processes within the group is planned.
An important means of interrupting monotony during an expedition is also the occurrence of social events that interrupt everyday work and give the participant the opportunity to break out of the routine or to build up a certain anticipation. These can be e.g. special days (Sunday, sailor's Sunday, special holidays, "mountain festival", game or sport tournaments etc.) and in the work flow there should also be the possibility to participate in these (see section Polar Day / Polar Night). Also, days off firmly integrated into the schedule offer the employee the opportunity to break out of the monotony and do something "completely different".
Seclusion / homesickness
The remoteness or long distance to home during polar expeditions represents a special form of psychological stress. This can lead to reactions such as homesickness, sadness and melancholy, but also to depressive mood with reduced performance, reduced attention and demotivation.
This situation can become aggravated by unforeseen personal events or incidents at home (illness or death of relatives, etc.), since an immediate return of the affected person is usually not possible.
This form of stress cannot be ruled out, especially since the effects are very individual, since they depend very much on the personal situation and mental performance as well as on the experience and circumstances of the individual.
The participants should be informed in advance about this problem and be aware of it. If possible, trusted persons should be named who will be available as contact persons in case of symptoms.
In general, boredom is also seen as conducive to homesickness symptoms, which means that distraction, work but also other issues, involvement in a new social environment and regular sport or involvement in a particular hobby can reduce the occurrence of these symptoms.
Furthermore, it is important to have regular and reliable ways of communication with your home; which will generally be WhatsApp, but also the possibility of using a satellite telephone (you need to buy a phone card).
Also, the involvement of all persons in "social events" on board (e.g. also consideration of birthdays) plays an important role in the avoidance of homesickness symptoms, e.g. when planning social events or community projects (e.g. sports programs or the like) it should be considered that they do not always take place when the same people cannot participate due to shift work or work load.
