Final Paper- Psychology

The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness 7

Literature Review for Week 3

Laurie Schaalma

PSY 610 Applied Social Psychology

Instructor: Romona Banks

April 13, 2017

Disaster preparedness is a process that is carried out by parties to make sure that they are ready for any disaster that comes their way. The process is done to come up with a plan that will be followed to minimize the effects of a disaster that may be experienced by the organizations or by the individuals (Harper & Frailing, 2010). However, it has been found out that disaster preparedness is always affected by adaptive psychology that is experienced by the people who are involved in developing the plans (Mishra & Suar, 2007). As such, the aim of this literature review will be to offer 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.

The purpose of this literature will be to assess on some of the factors that are related to attitude and behavior change during disaster preparedness and recovery process. The literature will look at some key factors like risk perception, persuasion theories, persuasion techniques, self-efficacy and motivation.

Risk perception is the way in which different individuals perceive different risks that may happen to them and make their decisions based on their perceptions. The perception that an individual has concerning a given disaster affects the decisions that he or she takes towards preparing for the disaster (Harper & Frailing, 2010). Perception affects personal preparedness, what individuals are concerned about protecting, the likelihood of a disaster to happen and what the individuals expect to rely on during the disaster (Mishra, Mazumdar, & Suar, 2010). It has also been found out that disaster preparedness decision-making is always linked to risk perception as it determines the level of individual preparedness, what they have done to prepare for disasters and their personal ability to recover after facing a disaster (Mishra & Suar, 2007).

The persuasion techniques that are used by those in authority to persuade individuals to take the right steps during disaster preparedness contributes significantly towards the decisions that an individual takes during disaster preparedness. The disaster techniques employed determines how often information is passed through the entire chain of command and reach the population effectively and appropriately (Harper & Frailing, 2010). The persuasion techniques used determines how often meetings are convened, disaster drills, rehearsals and simulations are carried as well as determining the training techniques to be employed in preparing the individuals involved about the disasters that might affect them (Mishra & Suar, 2007).

Persuasion techniques have been found to play an important role in the process of making different individuals to develop the best plans that might be utilized during disaster recovery as well as adopting the right strategy that will be applied during the disaster recovery process (Mishra, Mazumdar, & Suar, 2010). Adopting the right disaster recovery plan is also dependent on the persuasion techniques that are employed by the involved parties towards the parties that are most likely to be affected by a given disaster. As such, it is very clear that persuasion techniques play one of the most important roles in affecting the decisions that individuals take towards disaster preparedness in each region.

Self-efficacy is defined as the belief of an individual’s ability to succeed situations or to accomplish a given task. An individual’s self-efficacy gives one the ability to play a key role in how they make their goals, carry out their tasks and handle the challenges that they face (Harper & Frailing, 2010). Self-efficacy is important in disaster preparedness in that, the ability of an individual to make his or her own plan that could be used in disaster preparedness can have a significant effect on the techniques that are used in preparing for a disaster (Mishra, Mazumdar, & Suar, 2010). The ability of an individual to carry out different tasks as well as their ability to deal with the challenges that they face determines the type of disaster preparedness plan that is developed by an individual.

One of the most important factors that determine how individuals prepare for a disaster is the kind of motivation that they get from different parties that are involved in the process of disaster preparedness (Mishra & Suar, 2007). In this, it is important to note that telling people how to prepare for a disaster is not always appropriate to motivate them to take the right actions. It is always important to assist these individuals to have a clear understanding on why it is necessarily important to prepare for a given disaster that may face them soon (Harper & Frailing, 2010). One of the best ways through which motivation affects the way in which people prepare for disaster is by talking about the risks that their families face while sharing the benefits of why being prepared is important to their lives. It has also been found out the process of having individuals to engage survivors and let them narrate their stories to the people who should prepare plays a big role in motivating them to prepare adequately and effectively (Mishra, Mazumdar, & Suar, 2010). The process of motivation cannot be done without knowing what motivates individual to engage in certain practices thus making it easy to develop strategies that will motivate the individuals effectively.

The studies that were carried out have given an implication that adaptive psychology surely plays a key role in the way through which individuals act towards the process of disaster preparedness (Harper & Frailing, 2010). These studies have also indicated that the way through which individuals react to the process of disaster preparedness is always linked to the way through which they perceive the whole process as well as their perception towards the disasters that they face. As such, it is important to know what people believe in as well as where they stand in the process of preparing for a given disaster (Mishra, Mazumdar, & Suar, 2010). The studies have thus made it very clear that individuals tend to perceive disasters differently and this affects the way in which they prepare towards a given disaster that they are likely to face in their near future.

To conclude, it is very important to note that psychology plays a very important role in determining the kind of preparedness plan that an individual or a company adopts during the disaster preparedness process. The literature provided in this paper has given a highlight of how some psychological aspects tend to affect the process of disaster preparedness in each situation and how the effects of the factors discussed can generally be improved for effectiveness. Researches that have been carried out have indicated that there exists a linkage between adaptive psychology and a big number of disaster preparedness decisions that are made are always influenced by some of these important psychological factors and the effect is always positive and sometimes negative meaning that there could be no difference in the application of the factors.

References

Harper, D. W., & Frailing, K. (2010). Crime and criminal justice in disaster. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Mishra, S., Mazumdar, S., & Suar, D. (2010). Place attachment and flood preparedness. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(2), 187-197. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.11.005

Mishra, S., & Suar, D. (2007). Do Lessons People Learn Determine Disaster Cognition and Preparedness? Psychology & Developing Societies, 19(2), 143-159. doi:10.1177/097133360701900201