Session 12  Readings:Chapter 13 This chapter deals with environmental disasters and discusses how we attempt to deal with them. One of the biggest problems is the definition of "disaster". Many theorists have distinguished between natural agents and "human made "agents and these disasters have been labeled natural disasters and technological catastrophes respectively. Your book goes into some detail about these definitional problems. Several criteria for these definitions are described. One's definition of a disaster depends upon one's perception of it. One definition of disaster is "any event that stresses a society, a portion of that society, or even an individual family beyond the normal limits of daily living. Disasters can be classified in a number of ways. One theorist who has done a lot of work with trying to understand the nature of disasters is Quarantelli. He has listed several characteristics of disasters that can be seen in Table 13-1 in your book. Your book also presents the human impact of disasters and catastrophes . You may recall from the chapter on stress, terms such as strains, coping responses, and moderators of stress. Many researchers have studied the impact of environmental disasters on physiological and psychological factors and these are briefly described. Some of this has been done obtaining clinical descriptions from survivors of disasters. Individual differences as moderators of the response to disasters have also been studied. Finally, the extent of impact by environmental disasters has also been studied. These studies have been termed as epidemiological.  As with research in other areas of environmental psychology, research with natural disasters is also very difficult to do. Your book discusses some of these problems. The effects of technological catastrophes are also described. The main difference between natural disasters and technological catastrophes is that each is perceived differently. Technological disasters are perceived as a threat to our feelings of personal control. They have also been associated with a number of psychological problems such as anxiety, depression and several stress-related symptoms. Essays 1. The authors make a distinction between natural disasters and technological catastrophes and show they differ on a number of different characteristics. What are these characteristics and how do these two types of events differ with respect to them. Activities Do the time-out exercise on page 358 in your book. Summarize your answers in a page or less. This assignment is due by April 12th. Ask someone you know if they have experienced a disaster such as a tornado, flood or hurricane or a technological catastrophe such as a house fire. With the problems created by El Nino you may be able to identify a number or people for this. What was their immediate and long-term response to this event? Briefly share their responses with each other on the discussion board. This assignment is due by April 12th.