Eric Gunderson

Who is Eric Gunderson?

Ellsworth K. Eric Gunderson, Ph.D. is a psychologist who has studied human adaptation to living and working under the conditions associated with isolation and confinement. He is an important contributor to the field of Antarctic psychology.

While serving as the director of the United States Navy’s research program at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego in the 1960s, Gunderson developed a research program to study human adaptation in polar environments. One of the main objectives of the research was to develop criteria for the selection of Antarctic personnel. The studies were also concerned with the development of performance criteria and other psychological data related to the stresses of living and working in the extreme, isolated Antarctic environment. Gunderson’s studies evaluated more than one thousand personnel, including naval and civilian subjects, who had wintered-over in the Antarctic. Gunderson and his colleagues retrieved data from site visits, personality assessments, peer reviews, and biographical information. Gunderson’s research revealed living for several months in the extreme field conditions of the Antarctic can lead to moderate psychological dysfunction in some subjects.