Behavior and Attitudes under Crisis Conditions: Selected Issues and Findings

摘要

This research examines the nature and extent of changes in behavior and attitudes which are triggered by the actual and potential occurrence of crisis. Patterned behavior and attitudes, as manifest in daily routine and prevailing attitudes, are disrupted by conditions of crisis not only in response to hazard but in anticipation of potentially hazardous situations. These shifts reflect a human response to conditions of crisis that may be either adaptive or maladaptive. Adaptive behavior and attitude changes are those that help to minimize, or at least decrease, the threat or insult, if the threat cannot be minimized or decreased, and maladaptive attitude and behavior changes do not, even though they may be so intended. The research design primarily consists of the examination of available research on conjunction with crises. This examination seeks three lofty goals. First, the aim is to inventory the state of scientific information and knowledge concerning attitudes and behaviors in times of crisis, which necessarily compares such attitudes and behaviors to those associated with non-crisis conditions. Second, this research seeks a synthesis of information and knowledge in a conceptual framework whereby one can anticipate, beyond the scope of the empirical evidence, the nature and magnitude of such changes among the body politic. And finally, to identify policy implications as they pertain to emergency planning and preparedness.