2023-11-26 22:07:25
Kilian Jornet won the ultra trail or Mont Blanc ultra-distance race in 2022, covering more than 170 kilometers and more than 10,000 meters of ascent in 19 hours 49 minutes and 30 seconds. Stéphanie Gicquel traveled 2,045 kilometers on skis in 74 days, crossing Antarctica to reach the South Pole in temperatures of up to -50 °C. Thomas Pesquet performed a spacewalk of 6 hours and 54 minutes 400 kilometers above Earth.
These extreme athletes make enormous efforts to adapt to exceptional environmental conditions and demands. Taking human beings beyond their limits has important behavioral and psychological consequences.
So, does achieving these extraordinary performances differentiate them from ordinary mortals?
Extreme environments and performances
Performing intense exercise at high altitude, in deep water, on a polar station or during space flight, or running a ultra trail They are extreme activities that stress both the body and the mind.
These environments are often characterized by hostile natural conditions: lack of oxygen, high atmospheric pressures, weightlessness, cold, heat, darkness, etc. And although physical environmental factors are the main source of stress, certain situations are also accompanied by social demands.
In polar stations or in manned space flights, people can spend several months together, and participants are exposed to other forms of “stressors”: prolonged isolation, confinement, boredom, lack of intimacy, absence of pleasures and interpersonal relationships… The list is long.
For example, Valeri Ryumin, a Russian cosmonaut, reportedly described these extreme conditions as follows:
“All the necessary conditions are in place to commit a murder if you put two men in a 5 by 6 meter cabin and leave them there for two months.”
NASA
Depending on the nature of the environment, people may suffer from different symptoms. At high altitude, for example, some individuals develop acute mountain sickness, characterized by a series of physiological, psychological, behavioral, cognitive and affective disorders due to hypoxic environmental conditions. This disease is linked to both the altitude level and the speed of ascent and varies from one individual to another.
Adapting to these multiple limitations is a challenge. Some people do it better than others, and sometimes more quickly.
How does personality influence?
Studies have shown that personality plays an important role in the process of adaptation to extreme situations.
Adaptation has been at the center of psychologist Gordon Allport’s definition of personality since the early 20th century. Since the 2000s, it has even been defined as a characteristic pattern of adaptation in the habitual way of thinking (cognition), feeling or perceiving (emotions), and behaving or reacting (conduct) that tends to remain relatively stable in different situations and over time. over time.
During a simulated ascent of Everest in a hypobaric chamber, “reserved” and “opportunistic” subjects proved to be better able to cope with the challenge of hypoxia than “open” and “aware” people.
In the field of professional diving, an evaluation of the anxiety states of sixteen divers showed that three of them presented a clinical level of anxiety during the dive. Analysis of their personalities showed that they had difficulty controlling themselves and were emotionally unstable, often with depressed and anxious moods.
Comparison of the personality of a diver who developed severe anxiety reactions, following observing a buddy in a narcosis situation, with that of a diver who did not experience any reaction showed that the former was extroverted with a risk of somatization.
Sean Steiniger/Shutterstock
In microgravity, the subjects who best adapt to the demanding conditions of parabolic flight (alternating phases of hypergravity and microgravity) are people who do not like monotony or repetitive and routine tasks. They are more dynamic and proactive in their search for sensations.
These few studies demonstrate that personality has become a relevant factor in adaptation processes in extreme environments.
The special role of emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence can be considered a personality characteristic that provides an interesting framework for evaluating individual differences in the way individuals identify, express, understand, regulate, and use their own and others’ emotions.
Extreme sports offer a particularly conducive situation for examining this personality trait. The ultra trails Mountain races such as the UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc) and the Tor des Géants are among the most difficult races in the world.
We demonstrated that athletes with high emotional intelligence scores presented higher recovery states than those with lower scores. The results confirm the positive role of emotional intelligence in coping with difficult situations, enhancing the individual’s ability to “recover” resources and improve their psychological adaptation to extreme sports. From this perspective, such a personality characteristic might have a protective role once morest stress and improve mental preparation before competition.
Various studies have suggested that certain character dispositions, such as the personality of individuals attracted to extreme situations, vary from one environment to another (for example, polar stations or space missions) and can influence adaptation processes. Identifying these characteristics might allow improving the selection and preparation of individuals to improve their adaptation.
By knowing the personality profile, the psychologist can adapt the preparation to the characteristics of the individual. For example, some people give more importance to certain sensory information when carrying out their actions. These subjects might be trained to use other sensory modalities to increase their abilities and performance.
Another example would be developing emotional intelligence in our extreme athletes to help them regulate their emotions and manage their stress in order to maintain or even improve their performance.
Most studies in extreme environments focus on adjustment disorders and attempt to identify personality characteristics to improve participant selection and training. But from Thomas Pesquet to Killian Jornet and Stéphanie Gicquel, there is no doubt that extreme athletes have extraordinary personality characteristics.
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