Coping and Health Instances of anxiety, depression, and the like can be found in extreme environments, including outer space [12]. Nonetheless, few statistics suggest that spaceflight or spaceflight-analogous environments yield higher rates of mental illness than do everyday environments. One recent review found a low incidence of psychopathology in Antarctica with some national expeditions reporting no problems at all [32], Furthermore, U.S. Navy researchers have found that submariners have remarkably low rates of mental illness and score exceptionally well on standardized tests of psychiatric functioning [33,34], As a group, submariners seem mentally healthier than people ashore. Studies of participants in Operation Deepfreeze suggest that under some conditions, at least, isolation and confinement may have long term beneficial effects on health. This research involved U.S. naval personnel who volunteered and qualified for wintering-over in Antarctica. As a result of changes in orders, some of these men actually wintered-over whereas others did not. Follow-up over a period of years revealed that men in the winter-over group experienced fewer illnesses and hospitalizations than did those who had been reassigned to easier duties [35-37]. The rate of total hospitalizations for the winter-over group was 21% less than the rate for the control group. There were significantly (p<.05) lower rates of hospitalization for neoplasms; endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases; and diseases of the musculoskeletal system; and marginally lower (pc.10) rates for mental disorders and injuries. Why might we find better health in spaceflight-like than in everyday environments? One possibility, and one that probably accounts for the Operation Deepfreeze data, is that people develop coping skills, psychological or behavioral strategies that either block or negate adverse effects or else turn them into something positive. In the course of wintering-over, people develop new ways of dealing with stress that carry forward to the rest of their lives and account for their subsequent good health [37]. Suedfeld points out that one reason adventurers fare so well is that they are not average, run-of-the-mill people [30,31], Speaking of his cohort of 32 astronauts, Walter Cunningham observed: If a general observation can be made of thirty-two candidates from various backgrounds, I would say that we were, with rare exceptions, excellent in health, good-to-excellent in physical condition, and well above average in intelligence. We shared a strong feeling of self-identity, confidence, and awareness of where we were going and how we would get there.... Whatever any of us lacked, it wasn't motivation...[38, p. 20]. Intrinsic Motivation, Self-Actualization, and Peak Experiences Much of human behavior is motivated by extrinsic rewards, that is, satisfactions that follow or come after an activity. Becoming an astronaut to earn popular acclaim or advance one's career would exemplify this. Third force psychologists emphasize
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