Experience, Behavior, and Action in Crisis Situations: A Literature Review

Abstract

This paper presents an initial literature review of human experience, behavior, and action in crises, disasters, and threat scenarios. Crisis scenarios under the sign of partly strategic terrorism represent a dominant trend in the observation of global transformations. In the context of a generally necessary understanding concerning both physical and psychological processes during the confrontation with specific threat scenarios, both previous and future psychological and social science studies are of great importance. Regarding the acute and chronic psychological, physical, and even social consequences of specific threat scenarios, the databases PSYNDEX, PsycARTICELS, and PTSDpubs (formerly PILOTS) were accessed. Numerous publications were extracted and summarized in the following. Despite the widespread and frequently used term terrorism, this designation definition has not been uniformly generalized to date. The psychological consequences of such stressful situations are often only addressed concerning the groups of people directly affected and limited to post-traumatic stress syndromes' development. However, theories and approaches must be emphasized, dedicated to the human reaction pattern in threat scenarios, to uncover specific behavioral patterns in the confrontation with one's vulnerability. Thus, the defense of one's values and norms in the sense of the Terror Management Theory (TMT) is one of the fundamental reactions of directly and indirectly affected groups of people, which is accompanied by corresponding physiological processes and also affective states. The consideration of individual reaction patterns due to increased sensitivity concerning diverse threat scenarios also represents a thoroughly critical approach since these patterns of experience, behavior, and action can lead to an impairment of the overall social coexistence. Previous theories and approaches in the context of psychological and social science disaster research make it clear that the experience, behavior, and action both before, during, and after various threat events require more specific consideration. The distinction between persons directly and indirectly affected by particular circumstances also appears necessary and should be considered in future research approaches, focusing on critical infrastructures.