Coping strategies for the participants in the Antarctic expedition

Abstract

The ХХV Bulgarian Antarctic expedition on the Livingston isles, which included scientists and alpinists, began in November 2016. The aim of the present research is to study security need and sensation seeking and to find a relation with the participants’preferred coping strategies in highly risky activities in an extreme climatic and social environment. Subject of the study were 21 participants in the Antarctic expedition, mean age 27 and 70. We have used: Security need scale; Scale for assessment of Psychic Instability and Sensation Seeking Scale and the Bulgarian adaptation of Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced scale – COPE 1. Low levels of Security need are established. The leading subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale are those of sensation seeking, followed by dysfunctional impulsiveness. Functional impulsiveness is characterized with the lowest values. The cognitive engagement coping strategies are the main ones, whereas cognitive and emotional disengagement strategies are the least used. The results from the regression analysis show that the high levels of sensation seeking influence negatively the use of the strategic behavioral disengagement. The present study adds to the understanding the role of security need and sensation seeking being a motivational power of human behavior, which is in the base of the desire to participate in difficult and challenging missions in extreme conditions in highly risky activities.