Psychology of Space Exploration

Psychology of Space Exploration

Results

We want to emphasize that the findings reported here concentrate on the
impact of status as a member of the national majority or a minority within a space
crew. Main effect differences as a function of minority-majority status based on
characteristics other than nationality (e.g., gender, occupation, or job category on
a space mission) are not reported.
In the findings described below, all cited differences were significant at p = .05
or better unless otherwise specified.

Value Hierarchies

1. Preflight differences: In references to their life before the mission, the 18
   majority sources for whom we had complete data referred significantly more
   often to Achievement than did the 19 minorities.


2. In-flight differences: For the period of flight, internal analyses showed sig-
   nificant majority-minority differences on Achievement and Spirituality, with
   majority crewmembers higher on both.
   Achievement and Conformity also showed interactions with nationality. Across
   all categories, Russians mentioned Achievement the most often. Americans ranked
   the highest on both values when flying in minority status, but Russians ranked highest
   when they were in the majority (see figure 1). With regard to Conformity, Americans
   were high when they were in the minority but low in the majority; Russians were the
   opposite (see figure 2).
   Minorities and majorities also differed significantly as a function of flight dura-
   tion. When discussing in-flight periods lasting over four months, minorities empha-
   sized Security more than majorities: the reverse was true for short (less than two
   weeks) missions.
   Of the 18 minority astronauts who made references to values while they were in
   space, 8 flew with predominantly American crews and 10 with Russian crews. Those
   who flew with the Americans showed significantly less Hedonism, Self-Direction,
   Conformity, and Security than those who flew with the Russians. Comparing minor-
   ities and majorities flying in American or Russian crews, we found an interaction:
   non-Americans flying with NASA mentioned Universalism more frequently than