From ‘what you need to do’ to ‘who you need to be’ — on the personality of astronauts
Dr Nathan Smith, University of Northampton
When Tom Wolfe wrote ‘The Right Stuff’ back in 1987 it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 2 months. The dialogue focused on the persona of astronauts and the indomitable nature of such individuals. Evidently this topic sparked the imagination of a general readership and ignited interest in all of those armchair astronauts out there. However, after reading Wolfe’s seminal text, the question still remains “what exactly is the ‘right stuff?”
Before I give you an answer I want to quickly set the scene for the current post…
With the launch of Britain’s first European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Major Tim Peake, there have been many questions and articles along the lines of ‘how do I become an astronaut?’ Getting into space is likely to become more possible over the next 50–100 years. There is an increasing commercial interest in space flight and companies such as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are working on bringing space flight opportunities to the people (at least to those of us with deep pockets!). However, despite the potential for spaceflight to become more accessible, the opportunity to become an agency-funded ‘astronaut’ will still likely be for the select-few. This is for good reason — the demands placed upon such individuals and the expertise needed when operating in extreme, isolated and confined environments for extended periods of time takes a certain type of character. It is not surprising then, that space agency selection processes, such as those adopted by the ESA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Russian and Chinese Space Agencies are notably comprehensive, and very competitive. For instance, when the ESA put out their previous call for astronaut applicants in 2008/2009, out of over 10,000 candidates, just 6 were eventually selected.
Within their highly lauded textbook entitled ‘Space Psychology and Psychiatry’ Professors Nick Kanas and Dietrich Manzey discuss the importance of selecting the right crewmembers for space missions. One topic of interest is applicants’ personality. We can think of personality as ‘what people are like’ and it gives us a good indication of how individuals will respond and work together in stressful, challenging and difficult situations. Alongside other researchers, Kanas and Manzey highlight that differences in personality may result in interpersonal tensions, which could jeopardize missions and crew safety. Therefore, it is clear that selecting the right type of people for working in space is incredibly important.
So, how do we identify people with the “right stuff”?
Based on their work with US Air Force Military Aircraft Command pilots, Thomas Chidester and colleagues identified three personality clusters (“right stuff”, “wrong stuff” and “no stuff”) that differentiated individuals in terms of receptivity to training and performance. Those identified as having the “right stuff” were characterised as being high in positive instrumentality (goal-seeking and achievement), positive expressivity (sensitivity and concern) and low in verbal aggressiveness (negativity). In later work, David Musson, Gro Sandal and Robert Helmreich examined the same personality factors in applicants invited to the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) as part of three successive astronaut selection processes. Consistent with the work of Chidester, the same personality clusters were identified, and those invited for testing at JSC were all considered to possess the “right stuff”. In their work with astronauts, Musson and colleagues also found that those individuals who possessed right stuff profiles tended to be more agreeable, conscientious and low in neuroticism. Taken together, the aforementioned studies suggest that those individuals who are highly motivated to learn and achieve, are able to work with other people across a range of tasks, demonstrate low levels of aggressiveness and are not easily anxious, are good candidates for astronaut selection.
It is important to note that there are many steps and dimensions to the astronaut selection process — psychological screening is only one of those steps and tends to take place at an early stage. Evidence suggests that having a personality reflective of the “right stuff” makes it more likely that individuals will get through to the later rounds of selection — what happens from there is based on a variety of other tests, experiences, observations and screening processes.
Perhaps though, before asking what you need to do to become an astronaut, the first question should be “do I have the right stuff”?
Of course, training to become an astronaut takes place over a number of years and the ESA quite rightly point out that it is never to early to start planning for your future. If you want to know a bit more about astronaut selection you can watch a video from the Head of Human Resources at the ESA here:
Dr Nathan Smith is a lecturer in Sport Psychology. Nathan is currently conducting research on psychology in extreme environments and is collaborating with Professor Gro Sandal on a number of extreme environment projects. Specifically connected to the present article, Nathan is in the process of writing up a study examining the personal values of individuals in different types of extreme setting, including military personnel, space simulation participants, Antarctic over-winterers and mountaineers. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions Nathan.smith@northampton.ac.uk
