Psychology of Space Exploration
OTHER APPROACHES TO CULTURALLY
DISTINCTIVE VALUES
On a theoretical basis, S. H. Schwartz and A. Bardi have asserted that val-
ues constitute the central, nodal features of cultures that inevitably radiate to and
affect all aspects of human behavior, conduct, and performance.^40 Schwartz has
developed and extensively investigated in 20 nations a set of 11 values based on
important and stable life goals.^41 Schwartz’s value categories have been studied in
relation to national differences (American versus Russian), majority versus minor-
ity status, and host versus guest status in multinational space crews. These results
are reported in chapter 7 of this volume. On Earth, Russian teachers endorsed hier-
archy and conservatism to a greater degree and intellectual and affective autonomy
to a lesser degree than did their colleagues in several countries of Western Europe.
Relevant as the differences in collectivism-individualism are, they should not
be the sole or principal focus of investigation. As already noted, even greater con-
trasts have been uncovered in power distance and uncertainty avoidance, as have
substantial differences in masculinity-femininity and long-term orientation. Recent
historical and sociological analyses of Russian society and polity emphasize the role
of vertical and hierarchical, dominant-submissive relationships within the Russian
social structure.^42 Their reverberations in human interaction, especially in the con-
text of teamwork under demanding and stressful conditions, do not appear to have
been studied systematically or intensively. Similarly, it is not yet clear in what ways,
if at all, the substantial Russian-American differences in uncertainty avoidance may
be manifested in space. The discrepancies in ratings in masculinity-femininity and
long-term versus short-term orientation appear to be baffling or even counterintu-
itive and call for open-ended exploration through basic and applied research. In
- S. H. Schwartz and A. Bardi, “Influences of Adaptation to Communist Rule on Value
Priorities in Eastern Europe,” Political Psychology 18 (1997 ): 385–410. - Shalom H. Schwartz, “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical
Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 25
(1992): 1–65. - Y. Afanas’ev, Opasnaya Rossia (Dangerous Russia) (Moscow: Russian State Humanities
University Press, 2001); V. Shlapentokh, Fear in Contemporary Society: Its Negative and Positive
Effects (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); V. Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia as a
Feudal Society (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).