Gaining deeper insight into the psychological challenges of human spaceflight: The role of motivational dynamics

Past research in space psychology has produced a plethora of interesting findings with regard to the psychological stressors and benefits associated with human spaceflight. To help synthesize these rather scattered findings and to advance our theorizing about critical psychological phenomena and processes within the rapidly growing field of space psychology, the aim of this contribution is to approach them from the perspective of Self-Determination Theory (SDT; 1 Ryan & Deci, 2000 [1]), a broad theory on human motivation and development. Specifically, we argue that the postulation of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness within SDT allows for (1) a deeper understanding of reported psychological phenomena in current spaceflights and (2) the development of measures to alleviate the negative psychological stressors as well as to enhance the benefits associated with spaceflight.