Software To Provide Astronaut Counseling

Currently, whenever an astronaut needs to talk to someone, a counselor is only a radio call away. Unfortunately, for voyages further out, this contact time starts to increase quite a bit, so researchers have started to look for alternative methods of counseling. I just hope the new counseling software has the Dr. Sbaitso voice. "Instead of asking astronauts to reflect on their feelings, Mark Hegel of Dartmouth Medical School has them create lists of concrete things that are bothering them and brainstorm about practical ways to solve them. At the end of the exercise, users fill out a form used to diagnose depression. Clinical tests of this approach, which has never been tried in a multimedia self-help format, will start in a few months, using subjects recruited from the biomedical and engineering community in Boston."

Comments

Gender difference?

[Naughty Bob]

I hope female and male astronauts are separately catered for.

It is my hard-earned experience that when women begin to complain, the last thing they want is to-

create lists of concrete things that are bothering them and brainstorm about practical ways to solve them.

Generally, that is a man's solution. Women just want someone to nod, agree and sympathise.

I now await my groupthink punishment, but for those for whom this is news, and who have access to females, try it. You'll be amazed, and will be lauded as 'a great listener'.

Re:Gender difference?

[pak9rabid]

You'll be amazed, and will be lauded as 'a great listener'.

And shortly after inserted into the dreaded 'just friends' category.

Re:Gender difference?

[Rorschach1]

>Generally, that is a man's solution. Women just want someone to nod, agree and sympathise.

I'll second that. It's not universally true (I have a few female friends who aren't like this - granted, they're all lesbians) but it's something I've learned the hard way. Men discuss problems to find solutions. Women don't always want solutions, they want sympathy and understanding. Trying to solve their problems logically can make you seem insensitive, or make them think you're minimizing their problems and their emotional impact. Nod, agree, and sympathize, and only offer suggestions if they make it clear that's what they want.

Human Interaction

[rotide]

I'm pretty sure half of the benefit of counseling is to have another humans opinion, a professional one at that. Thinking I wouldn't care to talk to a robot about my issues, regardless of how far away from humans I am.

Please tell me...

[Sniper511]

... that this is a joke. Anybody else REAAAAALLLY creeped out by this...?

Not sure it's gender

[Moraelin]

I'm not sure it's gender. Admittedly, anecdote is not data, and my family of complete nerds is anything except typical. Still, I humbly present the following anecdote:

Mom is always doing what the article say and what you present as a "male" thing. She always has to come up with a solution for anything I tell her about. Let's say I say something like, "Heh, I had a 2 Euro coin in the washing machine. Money laundering for the win!" That just prompts her to show off that she knows better than me what I should have done before chucking the pants into the washing machine. Or I mention that I'm getting annoyed at paying the TV tax when I at most use that TV as a monitor for the consoles. Wouldn't you know it, she just has to go into a whole speech about how to dispose of the TV and where to take it.

To me, it feels like she's just showing off that she knows better. Shut the fuck up, I'm not looking for advice, I too just want someone to nod and listen at least once in a while. I guess I'd qualify as "female" in your view of the world. Bearded lady ftw, eh? ;)

My brother doesn't seem to appreciate it either, btw, so at least I'm not alone in being weird like that. And I gather that dad isn't all that happy about it either, just more stoic about it.

Personally I'm more inclined to think it's not as gender-related as you think. Try doing the above-described mom thing on any of your male coleagues, and see if any of them will appreciate it. I'm guessing you won't have many friends after a while, if you try to solve anything and everything they mention.

Men too usually just need someone to nod, agree and be sympathetic.

Trying to solve someone's problems is a "male" thing IMHO only in as much as males seem to think it's their duty and a penis-size thing to do it to someone else. E.g., to their spouse, leading to views like yours about male vs female things. It makes us feel all smart, and powerful and in control, if we can solve anything like that. I.e., fitting the gender-role assigned to us. It doesn't mean we like being on the _receiving_ end of it.

Yes, sometimes we'll ask for advice. But 90% of the time we just ventilate our tonsils, as a way to pass the time. We too say stuff all the time, for which we don't need or want a solution. E.g., we say stuff like, "boah, I'm so tired, we had this LUG meeting at the pub yesterday until 2 AM" (or WoW raid, or anything) and we just expect a "big party, eh?" or a "yeah, I know how that feels." _Not_ a brainstorming session about how to end pub meetings earlier and how to have the discipline to go to bed on time. And if the conversation partner does the male thing and has to start brainstorming and offering solutions to anything and everything you say, you'll dislike him/her very very fast.

So to get back on topic (or anywhere near it), I doubt that such a system would really cater for anyone at all. Males and females alike. Regardless of whether you're male or female, by the 10'th time you went to the robo-counsellor because you're bored, lonely and depressed, and get a brainstorming session on how to solve your problems... you'll hate the damned thing very very much.

Or to put it more briefly: there's a reason why nobody thought Clippy was fulfilling their need for social interaction.