Scenario Three: The Psychology of Disaster PreparednessIn 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. YouPSY610: Applied Social PsychologyScenarios for Intervention Proposalmust 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.pdfGantt, P., & Gantt, R. (2012). Disaster psychology: Dispelling the myths of panic. Professional Safety, 42-49.

Invervention Proposal

In Week Three, you created a literature review around the scenario that you selected in Week One. For the Week Six assignment, you will create an intervention proposal that contains a professional recommendation for the chosen case study. The Intervention Proposal should incorporate any feedback that the instructor provided in the Week Four Literature Review or Week Two Annotated Bibliography assignments.

In a 10- to 12-page paper (not including the title page or references page) the student will: 

• Briefly restate the problem from the chosen case study.
• Compose a thesis statement that contains the student’s professional recommendation. The thesis statement should be located near the end of the second paragraph of the report.
• Explain the relevant theories and empirical studies that have led to the student’s professional recommendation. The explanation must include evaluations of seven to eight, peer-reviewed articles from the Annotated Bibliography that was created in Week Two. At least one of these articles must be about a specific empirical study. In addition, the explanation must:
  • Evaluate each article (comparing and contrasting them with the other articles) and answer the following questions:
    • What was the researchers’ research question?
    • What was their hypothesis?
    • How many participants did they have?
    • Was the research design method appropriate for that particular hypothesis? Was it valid?
    • Did their findings support the hypothesis?
    • What are the implications?
    • What are the limitations?
  • Discuss the opposing sides to the student’s recommendation and explain:
    • Why it is relevant.
    • Why it should be considered.
    • Why it should be discounted for this recommendation.
  • Discuss any limitations or gaps in existing research.
• Restate the professional recommendation in one to two concluding paragraphs.

The paper must include a title page and references page, and it must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Organization tip: It is best to start with the least related and most broad article and move toward the most relevant. It can be helpful to think of the organization for this report as a funnel: The articles evaluated should get more and more specific and narrow in breadth throughout the report.

Language Note: This report is being written for an audience that is not familiar with the theories and material that are discussed. This means that the paper needs to be accessible to all individuals. All technical terms, acronyms, and theories should be explained and jargon should be avoided.

The Intervention Proposal

• Must be 10 to 12 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at seven to eight peer-reviewed sources that were all written within the past ten years, in addition to any seminal works that should be included.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.