Interpersonal feelings of personnel in polar environment

The purpose of this study was to examine interpersonal orientation at the level of feeling among personnel over a long duration of expedition in polar environment. Twenty three men and one woman from the winter team of Indian Scientific Antarctic Expedition volunteered to participate in the study. Following a repeated measures design, FIRO-F questionnaire was individually administered at baseline, beginning, middle, and final phase of expedition. Results of factorial ANOVA indicated that expressed level of feeling was significantly higher as compared to wanted level. Feelings oriented to lovability were significantly greater as compared to significance and competence. The dimension of competence and lovability compared to significance lowered scores significantly for wanted feeling as compared to expressed feeling. Also, competence compared to significance was lower, while significance compared to lovability was higher when baseline was compared to beginning, middle, and final phase of expedition.