Lifestyle Model in Regions with Extreme Environmental and Climate Conditions

Abstract

The article introduces an analysis of human psychology in extreme conditions. On the one hand, scientific interest to extremology, i.e., the effect of extreme factors on people, is growing. On the other side, this analysis revealed a lack of empirical data on cognitive dynamics before, during, and after an extreme situation, as well as after spending a long time in extreme environmental and climate conditions. The research objective was to study the lifestyle of people (n = 66) who live in regions with extreme environmental and climate conditions. The theoretical analysis and the empirical data made it possible to construct a lifestyle model. Its structure consisted of core, peripheral, and background semantic layers. The core structure included balanced temporal continuum, practical activity, personal activity, and basic lifestyle. The temporal locus became disrupted if the core lifestyle structures were out of balance. Fatalism and fixation on the past led to negative reassessment of one’s life, which could be compensated by activating one’s inner resources and endowing semantic layers with a positive context.

Keywords

• lifestyle
• worldview
• temporal perspective
• extreme situation
• extreme environmental and climatic conditions
• a life scenario