Psychology of Space Exploration
tunities to form friendships and create a more interesting social experience.^3 Larger
crews also appear to get along better, exhibit less hostility, be more stable, and make
better and more efficient decisions, particularly if they are odd-numbered, because
in the event of a tie, one crewmember can cast the deciding vote.^4
In addition to the size of the crew, crew composition also refers to the charac-
teristics of the individual members. Each crewmember brings his or her own unique
qualities to the crew based on his or her experiences; attitudes; personality; motiva-
tion; and combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities. For example, differences
related to national culture and ethnic background are important crew composi-
tion considerations. Although not a significant problem, there have been cases in
which cultural diversity led to difficulties in crew interactions. For instance, U.S.
astronauts cited cultural factors related to personal hygiene and housekeeping prac-
tices as partially responsible for incidents of miscommunication and interpersonal
conflict before, during, and after international Space Shuttle missions based on
responses to a survey conducted by Patricia Santy and colleagues.^5 Nine respon-
dents—astronauts from flights between 1981 and 1990—reported over 40 incidents
of misunderstanding and interpersonal friction related to culture, with at least five
rated as having a high impact on the mission.
This chapter focuses on the most salient crew composition characteristic that
influences crew interactions: the gender of the individual crewmembers. For this
discussion, it is worthwhile to reiterate the distinction between the terms “sex”
and “gender.” As Stephen Davis and Joseph Palladino note, “sex” is a biological
classification of male or female, whereas “gender” refers to the cultural and social
expectations about what is masculine or feminine.^6 In the context of interpersonal
relations, these gender-based expectations significantly influence how a man or
woman interacts with others, from styles of verbal and nonverbal communication
to the expression and interpretation of emotions. Although gender differences have
- Albert A. Harrison, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001), p. 138. - Kanas and Manzey, Space Psychology and Psychiatry, pp. 87–88.
- Patricia Santy, Albert Holland, L. Looper, and Regina Marcondes-North, “Multicultural
Factors in the Space Environment: Results of an International Shuttle Crew Debrief,” Aviation,
Space, and Environmental Medicine 64 (1993): 196–200. - Stephen F. Davis and Joseph J. Palladino, Psychology (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2007).