1 Running Head: The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness 2 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 pla ...

1. 1
Running Head: The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness
The Psychology of Disaster Preparedness
2
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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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
RUNNING HEAD: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPY 1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2
Annotated Bibliography for Final Paper
Laurie Schaalma
PSY610: Applied Social Psychology
Instructor: Romona Banks
April 3, 2017

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