Gro Mjeldheim Sandal

University of Bergen | UiB · Department of Psychosocial Science

To successfully complete a Polar expedition individuals and teams must respond resiliently to the environmental, psychological, and social demands they face. In this study we examined profiles of resilient function in seven people from three expeditions in the High Arctic. Using a structured daily diary, participants reported on experiences of phys...

Background Often, refugees are susceptible to mental health problems due to adversities experienced before, during, and after the flight. Through a cross-sectional study, the present study examines the relationship between different aspects of integration and psychological distress among Afghans living in Norway. Methods The participants were recr...

Background Afghan refugees and asylum seekers constitute one of the largest groups that live in camp settings in Greece. While they experience psychological distress, they are facing significant barriers in accessing appropriate mental health care. Explanatory Models (EMs) provide a context-sensitive framework for understanding the differences betw...

During future long-duration space exploration missions, humans will be exposed to combinations of extreme physical, psychological, and interpersonal demands. These demands create risks for the safety, performance, health, and well-being of both individuals and crew. The communication latency in deep space means that explorers will increasingly have...

Psychological distress is linked to unhealthy eating behaviors such as emotional eating and consumption of high-sugar food and drinks. Cross-sectional studies from early in the COVID-19 pandemic showed a high occurrence of worries and psychological distress, and this was associated with emotional eating. Few larger studies have examined how this co...

Objective This two-wave longitudinal study aimed at increasing knowledge about levels of parental stressors and rewards among mothers and fathers of children aged 1–18 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway. Background The COVID-19 pandemic and infection-control measures have caused changes to family life. Managing homeschooling...

In this study, we aimed to examine health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic among a general sample of young people in Norway aged 11–19 years. More specifically, we examine: (1) Change over 2 time-points in five health-related quality of life dimensions, (2) Whether sociodemographic- and COVID-19-related factors contributed to ch...

Background A concern for the COVID-19 measures and the potential long-term consequences the measures may have on physical inactivity and gaming among youth. Objectives Examine the stability and change in internet and offline gaming and the association with physical inactivity among adolescents in Norway during the pandemic. Methods A total of 294...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic may have multifarious adverse effects on the mental health of some youth. To our knowledge, no study has followed young people beyond the first 6 months of the pandemic outbreak. The aim of this study was to examine 1) Change in internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems over two time-points with...

Background The current situation in Afghanistan makes it likely that we are facing a new wave of Afghan refugees, warranting more knowledge about how to deal with mental health problems among them. This study aims to gain more knowledge on Explanatory Models (EM) of depression and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) among Afghan refugees resettl...

Despite a seemingly higher need, refugees in Europe tend to underuse mental health (MH) services. To better understand this underuse, it is important to understand refugees' willingness and ability to seek help from their general practitioner (GP) when experiencing MH problems. We employed a combined vignette and survey design to explore how the GP...

Objectives Refugees in comparison with non-refugee patients may face higher unmet mental healthcare needs. The mechanisms underlying these disparities are still poorly understood. The general practitioner (GP) plays a vital role in refugees’ mental health (MH), managing complaints within primary care and acting as gatekeeper to specialist services....

Objective: The aim of this two wave longitudinal study was to increase the knowledge on levels of parental stress and rewards among mothers and fathers of children aged 1-18 years, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and infection control measures have caused changes to family life. Caring for children...

This study aims to explore what worries youth were having during the seventh to ninth week of the COVID-19 lockdown. Our findings build on the responses to an open-ended survey question from 1314 youths. The worries covered three main themes: 'That my mom dies, then I am left all alone': worries related to COVID-19 virus infection; 'To me, this is...

Background: Groups in society that are under-represented in the workforce encounter various barriers in the job-seeking process. Some of these barriers are found on the employer's side of the table. Objective: This study investigates supervisors' and employees' assessments of job seekers with different forms of disabilities, health issues, or wi...

Aims The aim of this study was to examine how the Norwegian general adult population was affected by non-pharmaceutical interventions during the first six weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown. We assessed quarantine, symptoms, social distancing, home office/school, work status, social contact and health-care contact through digital access and knowledge....

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have multifarious adverse effects on the mental health for some youth. To our knowledge, no study has followed young people beyond the first six months of the pandemic outbreak. The aim of this study was to examine 1) Change in internalizing, externalizing, and total mental health problems over two time-points...

During future long duration space exploration missions, humans will be exposed to combinations of extreme physical, psychological and interpersonal demands. These demands create risks for safety, performance, health, and wellbeing of both individuals and crew. The communication latency in deep space means that explorers will increasingly have to op...

Objective This study investigates how Syrian refugees explain and prefer to seek help for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Methods We conducted five semi-structured focus group interviews based on a vignette-technique with Syrian refugees (n =21 men, n =10 women). The vignettes describe a fictional person suffering...

Aims: To examine perceived consequences for everyday life, learning outcomes, family relations, sleep problems and worries for infection, for friends and their future, among youth aged 12–19 years during weeks 7 to 9 of the COVID-19 lockdown in Norway. We examine variations by age, gender, socioeconomic status and country of birth. Methods: Youth w...

Aim: The study aims to examine groups at risk for psychological distress in connection with the COVID-19 outbreak, and the role of trust in the healthcare system as a possible moderator. Methods: Data were collected from a large sample of the Norwegian population (n = 4008) through the Norwegian Citizen Panel (NCP). A linear regression was conduc...

The aim of this study is to introduce a domain-specific instrument, the Cross-Cultural Depression Coping Inventory (CCD-CI), to assess ways in which people from different cultures prefer to cope with depression. Part 1 of this paper describes the development of CCD-CI. A combined etic and emic approach in generating items was used. Principal compon...

Background: Immigrants are more likely than the majority population to have unmet needs for public mental health services. This study aims to understand potential ethnic differences in preferred help-seeking sources for depression in Norway, and how such preferences relate to acculturation orientation. Methods: A convenience sample of immigrants...

Refugees suffer from higher rates of certain mental health problems than non-refugee migrants and the native population of their host country. General practitioners (GPs) in Norway and many other European countries are the first contact person for settled refugees in need of non-emergency medical support. This includes psychiatric support, although...

This chapter reviews the current “state of the art” and considers new countermeasures for preventing or reducing the likelihood of psychological problems and supporting psychological resilience among crewmembers during long-duration space missions. Here emphasis will be put on effective astronaut selection, crew composition, training, and support o...

Missions in isolated, confined and extreme (ICE) environments often require small heterogenous crews to live and work in close proximity for long periods of time. Identifying the personal characteristics that makes someone suitable for this type of deployment and might explain how they communicate and cooperate with others is crucial for mission su...

Expedition teams operating in Polar environments are exposed to a range of environmental, psychological and social challenges. How a person responds to these demands has implications for their physical and psychological health. In the present study, we examined relations between the daily events encountered, coping strategies used and markers of ph...

Background : Immigrants are more likely than the majority population to have unmet needs for public mental health services. This study aims to understand potential ethnic differences in preferred help-seeking sources for depression in Norway, and how such preferences relate to acculturation orientation. Methods: A survey was administered to immigra...

Background: Immigrants are more likely than the majority population to have unmet needs for public mental health services. This study aims to understand potential ethnic differences in preferred help-seeking sources for depression in Norway, and how such preferences relate to acculturation orientation. Methods: A convenience sample of immigrants fr...

As a major life-challenging event, being confined in an isolated environment with a small group for an extended period may make individuals re-evaluate their personal values. The present study aimed to understand the changes in personal values among Chinese crew members (n = 4) participating in a 180-day isolation and confinement experiment. The wh...

Researchers studying the psychology of space travel have long been interested in the phases of change that could occur in human performance and health during prolonged missions beyond Earth’s orbit. If patterns of mood change and performance during spaceflight could be reliably predicted, mission planners could introduce additional training and cou...

Human activity in Antarctica has increased sharply in recent years. In particular during the winter months, people are exposed to long periods of isolation and confinement and an extreme physical environment that poses risks to health, well-being and performance. The present study aimed to gain a better understanding of processes contributing to ps...

Personnel operating in extreme environmental conditions are exposed to a variety of stressors. Whether a person adjusts to the conditions and is able to cope has implications for their psychological health. In previous extreme environment work, temporal changes in stress, coping and emotion have been reported. Building on previous studies, we used...

This chapter focuses on individual and team characteristics associated with psychological resilience during space missions. An initial discussion describes the types of mission factors (e.g., environmental stressors such as microgravity and radiation and habitability stressors such as confined space as well as privacy and work-related factors). Two...

This study aims to understand factors predicting destination-loyalty intention in international education. A sample of 378 long-term (n=195) and short-term (n=183) international students participated in the study carried out in 2014 through an on-line survey at the University of Bergen, Norway. Using a series of hierarchical regression analyses, th...

This study aims to understand factors predicting destination-loyalty intention in international education. A sample of 378 long-term (n=195) and short-term (n=183) international students participated in the study carried out in 2014 through an on-line survey at the University of Bergen, Norway. Using a series of hierarchical regression analyses, th...

Aims: Many medical doctors work outside their countries of origin. Consequently, language barriers and cultural differences may result in miscommunication and tension in the workplace, leading to poor performance and quality of treatment and affecting patient safety. However, there is little information about how foreign doctors and their colleagu...

29 Land-based extreme environments (e.g. polar expeditions, Antarctic research stations, confinement chambers) 30 have often been used as analog settings for spaceflight. These settings share similarities with the conditions 31 experienced during space missions, including confinement, isolation and limited possibilities for evacuation. To 32 determ...

Purpose We investigated how job applicants’ personalities influence perceptions of the structural and social procedural justice of group selection interviews (i.e., a group of several applicants being evaluated simultaneously). We especially addressed trait interactions between neuroticism and extraversion (the affective plane) and extraversion and...

What are the factors that predict international students' destination-loyalty intention? This is the main question this paper addresses, using an online survey among 396 (short-term, N = 182) and (long-term, N = 214) international students at a Norwegian university. Structural equation model-AMOS was conducted to examine relationships among persona...

Objective: Refugees are at high risk of experiencing mental health problems due to trauma in their pasts and to acculturation stress as they settle in a new country. To develop efficient health services that meet the needs of refugees from different regions, an understanding is required of how they make sense of and prefer to cope with mental healt...

Results from previous studies suggest that stressful environmental conditions such as those faced on expedition may result in psychological growth. Building on previous research, the present cross-sectional study examined the role of personality and perceived stress in relation to post- expedition growth. Eighty-three participants who had completed...

Land-based extreme environments (e.g. polar expeditions, Antarctic research stations, confinement chambers) have often been used as analogue settings for spaceflight. These settings share similarities with conditions experienced during space missions, including confinement, isolation and limited possibilities for evacuation. To understand the utili...

In 2007, Kanas and colleagues emphasised the value of astronauts undergoing survival training in order to foster group cohesion for future space missions. Extreme contexts such as mountain-climbing, polar-overwintering and desert-expeditions were identified as settings in which survival training could occur. Despite survival activities being identi...

Research and practice in the field of acculturation psychology is continually on the rise. Featuring contributions from over fifty leading experts in the field, this handbook compiles and systemizes the current state of the art by exploring the broad international scope of acculturation. The collection introduces readers to the concepts and issues;...

This study examines three psychological phenomena (perceived discrimination, orientation to mainstream culture and life satisfaction) in explaining destination loyalty of international students. A sample of 489, short-term (n = 174) and long-term (n = 315) international students completed an online survey. Results from structural equation model-AMO...

Objectives: The aim of the present research was to examine expedition characteristics and personal factors underpinning post-return growth following different types of expedition experience. Design: A mixed method design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to address the objectives of the study. Initially a multi-s...

This study examined the influence of personal values on employees’ perceptions of organizational justice. Specifically, we tested whether anxiety-based values explain greater variance in perceived organizational justice compared to anxiety-free values. Employees of a health organization (N = 224) in Norway completed the Organizational Justice Scale...

Background: There is little knowledge available about how it feels for an international medical graduate arriving in Norway. We have investigated how the initial period as an employee of the Norwegian health services is perceived. Material and method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 international medical graduates who had foreign...

Long-duration space missions present psychological challenges in terms of maintenance of motivation and team cohesion This study aimed to examine alterations in personal values, defined as broad motivational goals, among crew members (n=6) participating in a 520 days simulated mission to Mars, and further to explore the implications of value divers...

Intended self-presentation in job interviews was examined among university students in 10 countries (N = 3,509). The aim was to assess cross-cultural differences in the endorsement of self-presentation tactics, and whether such differences could be explained by cultural values and socioeconomic variables. The Cultural Impression Management Scale–Ap...

This study investigated the time-courses and the relationships between coping, defense mechanisms, emotions and depression considered as key factors in adaptation to ICE (Isolated and Confined Extreme) environments. During the space simulation, the Mars-105 experiment, positive emotion decreased significantly and significant positive correlations w...

This chapter considers countermeasures for preventing or reducing the likelihood of psychological problems among crew members during long-duration space missions with focus on effective astronaut selection, crew composition, training, and support of multicultural crews on long-duration missions. Historic differences among national space agencies in...

Objectif Une expérience a été menée pour étudier le lien entre les traits de personnalité multiculturelle et les préférences des managers lorsqu’ils choisissent d’embaucher des candidats natifs (nés en Norvège) plutôt que des candidats d’origine étrangère. Nous avons émis l’hypothèse que ce lien était conditionné par les préjugés. Méthodes Un cand...

This study examines how non-Western immigrants' acculturation strategies are related to managers' hiring rankings. It examines whether hiring managers differ in personality trait inferences depending on whether the candidate is a Turkish immigrant or a native Norwegian. Managers (N = 436) evaluated three job applicants in terms of personality and h...

Employing an experimental design, we investigated how Norwegian managers’ (N = 78) evaluations and intended hiring decisions varied with job applicants’ ethnic background (immigrant vs. native Norwegian mainstreamer) and the degree to which the candidates’ self-presentation fitted Norwegian cultural norms (level of cultural fit). The participants v...

This study examined the impact of immigrant job applicants’ private domain acculturation preferences on managers’ evaluations of person-organization (P-O) fit and hiring decisions. We employed an experimental design and presented Norwegian managers (N = 74) with video-clips of three job applicants. One of the applicants’ (target) ethnicity (Norwegi...

On a mission to Mars the crew will experience high autonomy and interdependence. “Groupthink,” known as a tendency to strive for consensus at the cost of considering alternative courses of action, represents a potential safety hazard. This chapter addresses two aspects of “groupthink”: the extent to which confined crew members perceive increasing c...

The objective of this chapter is twofold: (a) to review the current knowledge of cultural, psychological, psychiatric, cognitive, interpersonal, and organizational issues that are relevant to the behavior and performance of astronaut crews and ground support personnel and (b) to make recommendations for future human space missions, including both t...

Sandal, G. M. Bye, H. H. & Pallesen, S. (2012). Personality trait inferences of Turkish immigrant and neutral targets: An experimental study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 528–533. The study investigated whether personality traits attributed to immigrant targets differ from personality inferences made for a neutral target, and whether trai...

To identify individual, situational and lifestyle variables related to shift work tolerance among nurses who have worked night shifts for less than 1 year and nurses who have worked night shift for more than 6 years, all engaged in rotating shift work. Working shifts is related to negative health consequences. Factors related to shift work toleranc...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between personality factors (hardiness, morningness, flexibility, and languidity) and longitudinal changes on different measures of shift work tolerance (fatigue, sleepiness, anxiety and depression) over one year among nurses working rotating shifts. A total of 642 female Norwegian nu...

An overview of the physical, psychological, social, and coping aspects of living and working in polar regions is presented, assessing findings from both expedition teams and work groups. A personal narrative describing the experiences of a polar expeditioner is interspersed in relevant sections to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges of...

This study assessed personal values and positive growth experiences, possible changes in these factors, and interpersonal functioning in a two-man expedition team that successfully reached the North Pole in 55 days without outside support. Personality measures were administered before expedition, weekly rating forms were completed on the ice, and s...

On a mission to Mars the crew will experience high autonomy and inter-dependence. “Groupthink”, known as a tendency to strive for consensus at the cost of considering alternative courses of action, represents a potential safety hazard. This paper addresses two aspects of “groupthink”: the extent to which confined crewmembers perceive increasing con...

Shift work tolerance is a term describing the ability to adapt to shift work without adverse consequences. In this paper we systematically review literature published investigating the relation between individual differences such as age, gender, personality, morningness/eveningness as well as biological variables and different measures of shift wor...

This chapter introduces the main topics of research that have benefited so far from the space environment (reduced gravity, ambient radiation, vacuum, etc.), and provides an outlook for future research development. By convention, it is split into two fields: physical sciences/engineering and life sciences. Physical science and engineering studies c...

An exclusive focus on individual or family coping strategies may be inadequate for people whose major point of concern may be collective healing on a more communal level. To our knowledge, the current study is the first to make use of ethnographic fieldwork methods to investigate this type of coping as a process in a natural setting over time. Part...

This study examined the impact of personal values on intended self-presentation during job interviews among German, Ghanaian, Norwegian, and Turkish students (total N= 1,474). We also sought to explain cultural differences in self-presentation among these groups. The Cultural Impression Management Scale for applicants (CIM-A) and the Portrait Value...

Transformational leadership is postulated to take different shapes in various cultural contexts. The aim of this study was to investigate transformational leadership in Norway. Two research questions were addressed. First, the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinates' and superiors' ratings of satisfaction, effectiveness, a...

On missions to Mars, the long flight duration, distances and social isolation of crew members will lead to a high level of crew autonomy. One important question is whether crews during such missions are vulnerable to "groupthink", known as a tendency to yield to the desire for consensus or unanimity at the cost of considering alternative courses of...

Today's space operations involve co-working of people with different ethnical, professional and organisational backgrounds. The aim of this study was to examine the implications of cultural diversity for efficient collaboration within the European Space Agency (ESA), and between ESA employees and representatives from other agencies. ESA employees f...

This paper discusses how space safety is influenced by the ability of teams to work and communicate effectively together. A multi-national team of six authors provides different perspectives on human systems, from both research and operational points of view. When operations involve teams whose members cross organizational and cultural boundaries a...