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Section 8. Psychology
Section 8. Psychology
Potapchuk Natalia Dmitrievna, National Academy of State border service of Ukraine named after
Khmelnitsky Bogdan, Candidate of Science (PhD.) in Psychology, senior researcher, senior researcher of Research Department E-mail: [email protected]
Panic in extreme situations
Abstract: The article discusses the concept of "panic." Attention is paid to panic in extreme situations. Is specified the essence of the concept, its types and causes, shows the destructive effects of mass panic. The dynamics of the emergence of panic is investigated. Characterize the main types of extreme situations and describes the behavioral responses of people in them. The article reveals the ways and means of overcoming panic in emergency situations.
Keywords: panic, dynamics, behavioral responses, consequences, extreme situation, personality, self-preservation behavior.
Nowadays we are witnessing the growth of negative consequences of the emergencies of natural and industrial origin and destructive actions of human factors (terrorism). In turn, this provokes the emergence of a number of negative psychological consequences, including the emergence of panic among the population. The consequences of panic behaviour and panic in society can be expressed in mass depression, increased mortality and fertility decline. Hence there is a need to study the patterns of occurrence of panic behaviour among people and the ways of its prevention and suppression. The importance of the problem is caused by the ignorance among people of the ways to overcome panic and inability to control themselves in extreme situations. Indeed, practice shows that only 12-15% ofpeople know what to do in emergency situations, and the rest usually show confusion, panic, cry or fall into a stupor.
Panic phenomenon is complex for research, which is caused by the suddenness of its appearance, as well as the difficulty for a person to remain a spectator in a panic situation because any person who found himself "inside" the system of panic to some extent is exposed to it. Therefore, existing studies remain at the level ofpanic descriptions which are made after its peak. Despite the complexity of studying this problem, panic phenomenon attracts domestic and foreign experts. Among them G. Andreeva, V. Krys'ko, G. Lebon, A. Nazaretian, D. Olshansky [1; 3; 4; 8; 9]. In their studies, they were able to identify the main characteristics of the phenomenon, features of its appearance, and most importantly — the possible mechanisms of work with it.
The purpose of this article is to study the dynamics of panic arising in emergency situations and ways of overcoming it.
The theoretical analysis of scientific and psychological literature [3; 9; 11] indicates that the term panic should be understood as a type of crowd behavior that is in circumstances of behavioral uncertainty, increased emotional excitement because of uncontrolled fear. According to the opinion of the scientist V. Bekhterev [2] panic is inextricably linked with the instinct of self-preservation, which is manifested in the individual regardless of the intellectual level and is the alarm signal in a dangerous situation. The basis of panic is fear — anxiety that occurs as a result of the experience of helplessness facing real or imaginary danger, the generation of uncontrolled, unregulated behavior, sometimes with complete loss of
self-control, inability to respond to appeals, with the loss of a sense of duty and honor. It should be noted that the fear that spans the crowd in moments of real or imaginary danger has a contagious nature. A confirmation of this is the research of a scientist G. Andreeva [1], where a phenomenon of infection alongside with the suggestion and imitation is included in mechanisms of the emergence and spread of panic. According to the research of the scientist, infection can be defined as «involuntary unconscious individual predisposition to certain mental states» [1, p.97]. Numerous studies [1; 5; 7] allowed identifying the most important characteristics of panic: Panic is often spontaneous, unorganized state and behavior of people; it occurs in groups of a large number of people (in the crowd, confluence); evokes a feeling of uncontrolled fear based on real or imaginary threat and behavioral uncertainty (state of confusion, uncertainty, chaos in the actions and inadequate behavior).
Studying the phenomenon of panic a scientist V. Krys'ko [3] indicates that this phenomenon is a manifestation of the group affect of fear. He notes that the primary is the individual fear that is a prerequisite, basis for group fear. Considering this it is necessary to distinguish between individual and group panic. Despite the form of panic (individual or group), it may be different in depth, degree of panic infection of consciousness: easy (man retains almost complete composure and seriousness, while there is a slight surprise, concern, tension), medium (characterized by significant deformation of conscious assessments what is happening, lower criticality, rising fear, tendency to external influences) and complete panic (panic with the blackouts, characterized by a complete insanity and loss of conscious control of the behavior).
According to G. Andreeva, panic is a certain emotional state, which is a consequence of lack of information about some news or excess of that information « [1, p. 127]. By the definition ofA. Nazaretian, panic is a state of terror, accompanied by a sharp weakening of the voluntary self-control « [8, p. 75].
It turned out that the emergence of panic states is associated with a number of characteristics of people. The analysis of scientific literature [5; 8, 11] shows that women and children are more often exposed to panic, as well as people with low property status. While the high level of education and awareness of an individual helps slow down the development of panic states and vice versa. A
Panic in extreme situations
researcher L. Pochebut [11] notes the following prerequisites of panic: physiological causes (depression, fatigue, hunger, insomnia, stress, drug intoxication that make people physically and mentally weak and reduce their ability to assess the situation quickly and accurately), psychological prerequisites (feeling of pain, bewilderment, uncertainty, fear, horror, feelings of isolation and helplessness), social and psychological prerequisites (general tension in society, lack of group solidarity, integrity and unity of a group, the loss of confidence in leaders, lack of information, panic rumors). The researchers of mass panic unanimously emphasize that social and psychological factor is the predominant in comparison with others.
Studying the prerequisites of panic, it is necessary to consider the dynamics of its occurrence. As practice shows first incentive is needed for panic emergence, which should be pretty intense, prolonged and repeated (explosion, siren and car horn) to draw people's attention to it and cause the emotional state of fear. Individuals, who are present in this gathering of people, mostly children and women begin to respond to a shocking incentive. They become a source of fear, which is transmitted to others, a mutual induction and discharge of emotional tension through a mechanism of circular reaction. After that, people in the crowd finally degrade, lose self-control and hasty retreat starts. The climax comes at the moment of mental overstrain in humans. The turning point is accompanied by screams of those who are killed in hasty retreat or stampede. For these reasons, the crowd begins to thin out, and then calmness is restored. Summing up the above, dynamic running of a panic can be set: shocking incentive ■ sharp fear, a strong sense of surprise and shock ■ individual chaotic, absolutely random attempts to understand somehow and interpret events ■ strengthening of the intensity of fear by the psychological mechanisms of circular reaction ■ retreats end of panic.
Panic among people can be caused by different circumstances (accidents, fires, natural disasters, acts of terrorism and fighting), as a result of this a person is under stress. The situations and factors that lead to its emergence and threaten the health of human life are called extreme situations. Professor V. Androsyuk [10] claims that extreme situations can be regulated and unregulated, planned and situational, "regular" and " uncommon" and divides them into four groups: 1) caused by emergency situations (natural disaster, natural or technological disaster, war, mass acts of terrorism); 2) usual, everyday (fire, criminal attack, complete lack of time); 3) related to a potentially hazardous hobby (mountain climbing, scuba diving, high speed driving); 4) work, professional which are caused
by the performance of professional duties. Panic can also be caused by baseless rumors. According to the definition that is given in the dictionary of psychology [9] rumor is a message that comes from one or more people about some events that do not have official confirmation, orally transmitted among people from one person to another. Rumors excite public opinion, cause anti-social behavior and destroy the social ties between people, which lead to a mass panic.
Considering serious consequences ofpanic for people in extreme situations, there is a need to focus in more detail on the basic ways of overcoming it. Professor W. Androsyuk [10] emphasizes the importance in an emergency situation to differentiate between real and imaginary dangers, to make quick decisions, to evaluate people constantly and continuously, to control yourself, to identify properly your capabilities and to try to find a way out even from a hopeless situation. General rules of personal security were formulated a long time ago: to predict, if it's possible to avoid, if it's necessary to act. Overcoming panic in the crowd begins with calming some individuals. First, you should try to calm down and orient yourself in a situation that arose. First, you should find out how real this threat is and if it is possible to avoid it. After evaluating the situation you should try to find a rational way out of it. In a panic situation, a person should try to take measures that will be used for his own survival, the survival of his relatives and to make every effort to save the maximum possible number of people. One of these measures could be an attempt to get out on their own of nervous crowd, it should be remembered that the most important is to stay on your feet and move diagonally across the crowd, thus approaching the exit.
During the scientific and theoretical analysis of psychological literature, it was found that panic can be understood as a type of crowd behaviour that is in circumstances of behavioural uncertainty increased emotional excitement because of uncontrolled fear. It was found that panic has contagious character, which is able to reach large number of people and deprive them of common sense. Analysing scientific sources the author concludes that to counteract panic is extremely difficult and the most effective means of fighting panic are: the conviction, a categorical order, explanation of meaningless of danger, the use of force, the removal (isolation) of the most dangerous alarmist.
It was found out in the paper that both extreme situations (fire, fight) and the spread of groundless rumours can cause the emergence ofpanic. Investigation of the peculiarities of the development of rumours in extreme situations can be among the prospects for future research of this problem.
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