Literature Review- Psychology Paper

Scenario For Final Paper: The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness

In September 2003 a Category Two hurricane made landfall in a town that was ill prepared for such a natural disaster. The hurricane claimed over 100 lives and caused approximately $1.4 billion in damages. This large American city had not experienced a natural disaster of this proportion for more than 100 years. Therefore, none of the current citizens had any personal knowledge of exactly what preparations might be in order to survive such an event. In the wake of the storm prosocial (helping) behaviors to aid hurricane victims were at an all-time high. Unfortunately, many lives were lost as a direct result of the lack of pre-disaster preparedness on the part of the citizens residing in the affected city.

Local and federal emergency management agencies have researched extensively what went wrong with their disaster response plans. Findings show that they were adequately prepared to respond to a disaster once it happened but that they were seriously lacking in preparing citizens to take seriously the possibility that disaster could strike at any time. In fact, in the days leading up to the approaching storm, many warnings were issued to the public to take precautions up to and including evacuation. However, public perception appeared to be that the media and local leaders were exaggerating the level of imminent danger. A recent national survey shows that even in light of this disaster and the widespread publicity it received, Americans are no more prepared for this type of catastrophe than they were in 2003 (FEMA, 2006).

These results are worrisome to federal and local authorities, and to disaster preparedness teams who attempt to warn the public of impending danger. The frustration lies in the fact that tactical plans for responding are well implemented, practiced, and executed successfully when disaster strikes. However, persuading the public to take seriously their personal responsibility has been a massive failure. Officials now realize that they need the advice of an applied social psychology expert to help them implement social marketing to raise public awareness of the need for disaster preparedness.

FEMA has retained you, an applied social psychology expert, to provide a scholarly analysis of the scientific, peer-reviewed literature on the factors related to attitude and behavior change such as risk perception, persuasion theories, persuasion techniques, motivation, and self-efficacy. You

PSY610: Applied Social Psychology Scenarios for Intervention Proposal must also render a professional opinion regarding your conclusion as to what FEMA officials can do to elicit greater public trust and participation in pre-disaster preparation particularly in towns where natural disasters are not likely to occur. Your opinion should be based on the scientific, peer-reviewed social psychology research that you reviewed. The following peer-reviewed journal articles are a good place to start to familiarize yourself with the social psychology of disaster preparedness.

Citizen Corps (2006). Citizen corps personal behavior change model for disaster preparedness. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved from https://www.citizencorps.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/ready/citizen_prep_review_issue_4.pdf

Gantt, P., & Gantt, R. (2012). Disaster psychology: Dispelling the myths of panic. Professional Safety, 42-49