Analyzing Human Behaviors in Disasters and Social Vulnerability Report

This report delves into the complex interplay between human behaviors, social vulnerability, and disaster management. It examines how individual and societal actions, shaped by factors like social institutions and personal experiences, influence disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response. The report highlights the importance of understanding why people reside in disaster-prone areas, often due to economic constraints, and the need to educate them on mitigating risks. It also challenges the misconception of widespread negative behaviors during disasters, emphasizing the collaborative spirit that often emerges. The report provides valuable insights for emergency managers, emphasizing the need to address the root causes of vulnerability and to educate the public on appropriate behaviors during and after disasters, including the consequences of actions like looting. The report uses the provided text to explain the role of human behavior in natural disasters. The report discusses the importance of education and practical training in emergency management.

Running head: DISASTERS AND SOCIAL VULNERABILITY 1
Disasters and social vulnerability
institution
Student
Date

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Lessons on Human behaviors in disasters and social vulnerability
People informally learn a lot of theories from their family members, friends, and other caregivers
and even though these theories help them understand their relationship with the natural
environment, they limit what they see and how they perceive it. They also go through formal
institutions where they learn formalized scientific theories that affect their worldviews, attitudes,
and behavior in general. These worldviews, attitudes, and behavior shaped by social institutions,
the physical environment, and history shape people’s views on disasters and social
vulnerabilities, and as well how they prepare, mitigate, and respond to hazards. One of the ways
of implementing this lesson into emergency management best practice is by examining the
susceptible people’s behaviors and how they perceive disasters and social vulnerability. This
lesson can also be implemented by educating the vulnerable people on best practices in case of
an emergency - how they can prepare, mitigate, and respond to an emergency. Through
education, they can shun some behaviors that can place them in more danger in case of an
occurrence.
In the text, it argued that some human behaviors are detrimental and they can lead to disasters.
Through their behaviors, people create changes in the environment thus placing their lives at
risk. For instance, they build in precarious places like on steep hillsides and floodplains where
they can be swept away by floods during rainy seasons. Though most of the disasters are natural
hazards, people’s behavior is also another major cause. This lesson is very essential and it can be
implemented into emergency management best practice into two major ways. First, emergency
management planners need to establish why people are staying in disaster-prone places. People
live in dangerous places under threat from natural disasters for various reasons such as low-

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income levels, and for them to be saved from the potential calamities, the planners must figure
out those reasons. Secondly, addressing the challenge and enlightening people on how their
behaviors contribute to disasters and social vulnerabilities can be an essential practice.
According to the text, catastrophes and disasters do not always bring out gross human behaviors.
It is mythical to believe that when a disaster takes place, people exhibit worst behaviors such as
looting, rioting, and perpetrating other social vices and immoralities. During the times of
disasters, people portray conflicting responsibilities but they generally team up to address the
phenomenon, say to save their lives, their children, their properties, and whatnot. This, as stated
in the text, is not a deviant behavior. Emergency managers can bring more insight and enlighten
people on how to behave when a disaster occurs. For example, they can explain to them how to
put out a fire or survive in the midst of a flooded area. Since some people engage in unbecoming
behaviors such as looting, emergency managers can enlighten them on the consequences of such
behaviors in the face of a tragedy.

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Reference
Thomas, D. S., Phillips, B. D., Lovekamp, W. E., & Fothergill, A. (2013). Social vulnerability to
disasters. CRC Press.