PATTERNS OF AQUMAUT BEHAVIOR 



Robert Helmreich 

 The University of Texas at Austin 



This section describes overall patterns of behavior shown by the ten teams of 

 aquanauts. These data focus on the general patterns of observed behavior in 

 the habitat and also on group differences in behavior across missions. The 

 data are presented in several ways: (1) all ten missions are contrasted using 

 percentage of total mission time spent on each activity as the basis for com- 

 parison. In these analyses, missions of different lengths as well as the female 

 and international missions are treated equally; (2) missions of different dura- 

 tions are compared; (3) the reactions of the female crew are related to those 

 of other crews; and (4) relations between scientists and engineers are discussed. 



Two Important Notes 



(1) As this is a preliminary analysis, data have not been adjusted to account 

 for externally caused perturbations in aquanaut behavior such as storms, equip- 

 ment malfunction, and illness. These factors will be included in later analy- 

 ses; their function in the present treatment is to increase the error variance 

 in comparisons and to reduce the significance of obtained results. Thus, this 

 preliminary analysis provides the most rigorous test of the lawfulness of the 

 observed behavior. 



(2) The stability and accuracy of the observational data should be emphasized. 

 The variables that were recorded were objective and observers were highly 

 trained. The reliability of the measures collected was assessed by having an 

 independent observer recode the data from video tapes. His observations were 

 then compared (by computing reliability coefficients) with those the observers 

 made at the time the video tape was recorded. Across all variables, the corre- 

 lations averaged between .89 and .97, indicating that the judgment of on-site 

 observers were highly reliable and objective. This makes it possible to place 

 great faith in validity of behavioral indices. It should also be noted that 

 reliabilities were highest on the more crucial criterion measures such as activ- 

 ity and location and were lower on secondary (and more difficult) judgments such 

 as motion and posture. Another index of reliability was the number of times the 

 "Don't Know" category was employed by observers (when they could not ascertain 

 the location or activity of an aquanaut). Less than 0.5% of the observations 

 were in this category. Given that over 35,000 observations were made per sub- 

 ject, this speaks well of observer ability. 



Team and Individual Identity 



Because pre-mission testing involved many variables concerned with personal 

 characteristics and because the Behavior Program monitored behavior continuously 

 during the period spent in the habitat, special efforts have been made to pre- 

 serve the anonymity of teams and aquanauts. Each team has been assigned a 

 letter code unrelated to mission designation and each aquanaut a number desig- 

 nator within the team. Accordingly, references to teams or individuals do not 

 systematically identify particular aquanauts. 



VIII-30 



