Examining Emotion Regulation in an Isolated Performance Team in Antarctica

This study examined the emotions experienced by a team of 12 military personnel during a 2-month Antarctic mountaineering expedition, the strategies these individuals used to manage these emotions, the perceived effectiveness of these strategies, and the impact of such strategies on team dynamics and performance. To address the research aims, participants completed daily diaries with standardized checklists throughout the expedition and took part in pre- and postexpedition semistructured interviews. The data showed that participants experienced a broad range of discrete emotions and reported similar frequency of use of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Surprisingly, 2 maladaptive strategies, acceptance and expressive suppression, were rated as the most effective regulation strategies despite their use being correlated with negative intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes. The results confirm the complex social nature of the emotion process and illuminate our understanding of emotional experiences in performance teams. The findings support the existence of affective linkages between team members and highlight the importance of emotional contagion and labor for intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes.