Isolation In The Martian

Humans of all ages can suffer from loneliness due to isolation at some point or another in one’s lives whether it’s intentional or unintentional. In the movie The Martian, while on a space mission Mark Watney is mistakenly abandoned after a spontaneous storm wreaks havoc across Mars. Although the odds of him losing his mental health because he was deserted on a desolate planet were incredibly high, Watney is able to stay sane by creating video diaries that document every little thing he does. This helps him keep his sanity to a certain degree but he will still need to receive psychological help upon his return to earth. In almost every other similar situation, the odds would have much harsher and permanent without human interaction. There are …show more content…
Criminals are being kept in solitary confinement as punishment for their crimes but the psychological effects alone are enough to make officials begin to reconsider this style of punishment. Felons are being locked away from any type of social interaction for eithers days or years on end depending on their crime and prior level of sanity. Another factor that contributed to their level of confinement was based on the facility that they were assigned to. In a recent study funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), conducted by three researchers Philip Bulman, Marie Garcia, and Jolene Heron, and they created several different hypotheses were conducted to test and prove the psychological effects of solitary confinement. The study consisted of “inmates and staff [completing] standardized tests at three-month intervals over the course of the one-year study. To participate in the study, inmates had to read and write at a proficient level because the assessments were done using standardized self-administered pencil and paper materials; no clinical psychologist interviewed the inmates. The researchers used 14 tests measuring states such as anxiety, depression and psychosis to collect data. Clinical staff completed the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; correctional staff completed the Prison Behavior Rating Scale; and prisoners completed 12 self-report instruments such as the Beck Hopelessness Scale” (10). The results from the study showed various conclusions including the fact that “None of the hypotheses were borne out by the results of the study. In fact, the results showed initial improvements in psychological wellbeing in all three groups of inmates. Most of the improvement occurred between the first and second testing periods followed by relative stability. Overall, the researchers found that