The COVID-19 pandemic as a special case of social isolation WF-PS-N-COV

The lecture presents the current state of knowledge of the relationship between the level of stimulation and activation and the level of human functioning from the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic and future interplanetary flights to the Moon and Mars. The classic hypothesis put forward by Donald Hebb in the book entitled "The Organization of Behavior", in which the author emphasized the aversiveness, both of excess and deficiency, of stimulation and the organism's desire to maintain its optimal level. The Hebb deprivation experiment is considered in the literature as a breakthrough moment, causing an increase in the interest of many scientific centers in experimental research on the so-called the effects of sensory deprivation, social isolation and imprisonment. However, despite many scientific studies, apart from empirically established facts, many myths and scientific legends appeared, related primarily to the ex post interpretation of the obtained results.
The return to this problem is contemporarily conditioned for two reasons; 2020/2021 pandemic and Mars colonization space projects. During the monographic lecture, students will learn about human functioning in the so-called artificial work environments that are characterized by a reduction in the stimulation input, such as, for example, operators of offshore oil rigs, submarine crews, Antarctic polar explorers, astronauts, etc. No wonder then that the effects of deprivation and isolation), analyzed from an empirical and theoretical point of view, have become the subject of research by specialists from various disciplines: psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, physiologists, etc. In this case, psychologists are mainly interested in the role of limiting external control through the information flowing from the environment, which is important in the process of regulating behavior, which is classified as extreme stress.
In the Polish literature on the subject, the issue of deprivation (isolation) has not yet found its proper place. The results of research cited in textbooks and various works are often burdened with far-reaching generalizations, creating in the minds of psychologists new "legends" about the effects of social isolation, which is confirmed by observations and research in a situation of total pandemic isolation. The effects of the "extreme isolation syndrome" will be illustrated in the lecture with the results psychological research conducted both in the conditions of laboratory experiments and in natural conditions in Antarctica and space flights.