Public Crises and Personal Threat

This book is for anyone who wants to understand more about how people think, feel, and behave in public crises. It aims to provide insight into the help people need in crises. The book shows how psychology, and in particular social psychology, can be applied to an area of great, and increasing, societal importance. With an emphasis on the practical, this book explains how people react to different sorts of crises, whether they be economic, environmental, health or war, and how we can better support the public, our families, and ourselves in future crises. The book interrogates how public crises are individualised, thought about, emotionally felt, and also mistrusted, all with a view to helping us understand some of the most difficult times we endure. Ideal for applied psychology students, public planning authorities and those specialising in crisis management this book will help us all to better understand the time we live in. Dame Glynis M. Breakwell is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath in the Department of Psychology and has Visiting Professorships at Imperial College, London and the University of Surrey. Daniel B. Wright is Professor of Educational Assessment, in the Department of Educational Psychology and Higher Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.