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Abstract

With a renewed impetus and appetite for human space exploration, both government-funded agencies and private companies are focusing on longer and farther crewed missions into the solar system. Such space missions rely on highly interdependent teams living and working together in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. Understanding the behavioral patterns of teams in ICE environments is, thus, paramount for the future success of such missions. Due to the complexity of studying ICE teams, several researchers have called for methodological innovations to advance knowledge in this area. In the current research, a proof-of-concept methodological approach is introduced that provides a potential solution for several shortcomings of traditional approaches. A behavior sequence analysis (BSA) approach was used to analyze two historical polar expedition journals, resulting in data depicting transitions from antecedent behaviors or emotions into sequitur behaviors/emotions amongst the expeditions’ teams. The data are described, illustrated by corresponding state transition diagrams, and possible ways of interpreting the data are introduced. Applications and limitations of the used approach as well as possible future developmental steps for the method are discussed. In general, BSA was demonstrated as a potentially useful methodology for extracting meaningful data from long texts, showing detailed connections between a myriad of events, behaviors, and emotional responses of individuals and wider teams.

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