The Ripple vs. the Eye: Understanding True Psychological Distress in Disasters
Psych 🧠 - 395/500
Reader,
This research paper examines the "Psychological Typhoon Eye" (PTE) effect, a phenomenon where individuals living in the epicenter of a natural disaster or emergency report lower levels of psychological distress compared to those living further away.
What is it?
This seems counterintuitive, as one might expect those closest to the devastation to experience the most distress.
The study attempted to replicate the PTE effect following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Petrinja, Croatia, and explore the potential mediating role of coping self-efficacy.
Major Findings:
No PTE effect observed: Contrary to expectations, the study did not find evidence for the PTE effect after the Petrinja earthquake. Instead, those living in the most heavily damaged areas reported the highest levels of psychological distress, exhibiting a "ripple effect" where distress decreased with distance from the epicenter.
Earthquake-specific coping efficacy mediates the ripple effect: The study found that higher distress levels in the hardest-hit areas were mediated by lower earthquake-specific coping self-efficacy – the belief in one's ability to cope with earthquake-related challenges. General coping self-efficacy did not mediate the effect.
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What do I need to know:
This research adds to the growing literature on psychological responses to natural disasters and raises important questions about the robustness and generalizability of the PTE effect.
It suggests that the ripple effect might be the more typical response, highlighting the need for targeted psychological support and further research using more rigorous methodologies.
Source:
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/m9qnc_v2