An investigation into responses to disaster using qualitative methods
1. Abstract
A thematic analysis on the six first-hand accounts of individuals’ responses to the London Bombings on July 7th 2005, conducted at the University of Warwick, to assess the types of behaviours demonstrated by different people. Themes were selected and highlighted in order to identify patterns within these extracts, looking into phrases and words which seemed to appear the most. The frequency and significance of each theme was recorded using a coding system, and the findings were analysed to understand the elicited behaviours. Patterns were found across all extracts, finding more similarities than differences; the most obvious being self-sacrificing, helpful behaviours whereby people united together in order to keep calm and get out alive. Moreover, it was also found that the ‘panicked’ behaviour which usually characterises disasters wasn’t as prominent as would be expected, where people would encourage each other to keep calm. Therefore, it was concluded that this should be a factor considered when disaster response planning takes place, ensuring emergency services use this cooperative behaviour to their advantage
2. Introduction
As we are living in a digital age, we almost instantly hear about disastrous events occurring in the news, ranging from hurricanes to coordinated terrorist attacks. However, it can be argued that the frequency of such events has led people to become desensitised to the consequences and its effect on the wellbeing of the victims (Jenkins, 1985). One might contemplate how they would respond in such a situation, giving examples of what they believe they would do based on their character, however, you can never know what thought patterns or behaviours you’d exhibit until experiencing it first-hand. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research on first-hand eye-witness accounts of their experiences to gain a better understanding of what exactly goes through people’s minds, and to help emergency services understand what needs to be done in a situation as such. In this investigation, a number of eye-witness accounts will be analysed, from who experienced the London bombings in 2005, which took place on the London Underground network; features such as their emotional response, train of thought, physical sensation and consequent actions will be examined in such extracts in order to explore how different people respond in a range of ways to the same disaster.
As disasters such as the London Underground bombings don’t occur as frequently, it is difficult to prepare for such an event, and hence limits the extent to which emergency services can develop a system which can be universally applied to all situations. It seems that such disasters are usually characterised by panicked and fearful behaviour, where personal survival becomes the main priority (Cocking, Drury & Reicher, 2009). Therefore, the research aims of this study are to investigate whether this perception of ‘mass panic’ exists in disastrous events, or the idea that people will put themselves in danger to ensure the safety of others is in fact commonplace (Clarke, 2002).
3. Method
3.1 Subjects
Written, first-hand accounts from 6 survivors of the London Bombings on July 7th 2005 were gathered from a number of online sources. As the identities of these individuals is confidential, through the use of initials rather than names, the demographic being examined remains unknown.
3.2. Coding
A theme (code) is identified as something which recurs in a set text, and is considered to be interesting or meaningful to the analyst (Braun & Clark, 2006). A bottom-up approach was used whereby themes were allowed to emerge from the text, rather than using existing theories to analyse the data. A set of ten codes were gathered, each identifying a significant feature of the subjects’ experiences; i.e. whether the subjects mentioned any injuries or sensations. Moreover, subthemes were established, providing guidance for what the analyst should consider to be part of each general theme.
3.3 Procedure
The six short accounts of the London bombings were compiled together in a single document, and then were read through twice in order to get an idea of what the similarities or differences were between each account. The accounts were then read a third time, this time formulating a range of themes which could be seen to be occurring frequently across all texts, as well as within individual accounts also. Moreover, subthemes were established, in order to coherently explain what would be included in them: i.e. a subtheme for ‘physical environment’ would be ‘darkness’ or ‘smokiness/dustiness’. Once enough themes were collated, a colour coordination system was used, making it possible to highlight phrases or words that seemed to fit in with that theme. Next, the accounts were read two more times, highlighting all the key phrases which demonstrated each theme in the text, ensuring nothing was left out. During this checking process, the themes were also reviewed to ensure that the extracts included form a clear pattern.
4. Results
4.1 Findings
Overall, the themes that seemed to be the most prominent were ‘physical environment’ and ‘leaders – figures of bravery’. For example, phrases that seemed to appear the most were ‘darkness’, ‘smoke’ and ‘calm’, usually in the context of describing the immediate reaction to the explosion. Moreover, although many people would mention that there were figures of bravery, many individuals also described their own acts of bravery. For example, J.S. mentioned that they ‘would like to praise Mark and Emma for being so level-headed’, demonstrating the bravery and altruism shown by fellow passengers. However, E.K. also said ‘to my fellow passengers around me, you know: ‘Keep calm, you know, we’ll be alright, but we mustn’t go out on the track because it might be live, or it will be live’’, revealing that these individuals also took on the leadership role in order to ensure the safety of the other victims. However, there also seems to be a frequent mention of panic, where after there was initial silence, ‘there was lots of panicked screaming’ from their carriage (M.H.).
5. Discussion
5.1 Analysis of findings
Across all accounts of the London bombings, victims seemed to unite together, providing each other with support and belief that they will survive the attack. Usually, it is argued that people will act selfishly when caught in a compromising situation. However, there seems to be this ‘shared identity’ which forms when victims realise they’re all in the same boat, and therefore the only sensible response is to co-operate in order to speed up the evacuation process. Hence, the findings of this study demonstrate evidence to counter the common perception that individuals’ actions will be motivated by their own interests (Deaux, Dane & Wrightsman, 1993). However, the extent to which an insight was gained into their exact thoughts and motivations behind their actions is certainly limited, and this leads us to question whether
5.2 Implications of the research findings
The findings of this thematic analysis provide a helpful insight into how different people respond to disastrous events, like the 2005 attack. The fact that people tend to show cooperative and altruistic behaviours can be argued as particularly useful in terms of preparing for potential disasters. For example, many of the victims seemed to take a leading role in attempting to calm others down, which could help the emergency services carry out evacuations/treatments in a more efficient manner. When incidents like coordinated terror attacks occur, it is extremely difficult for emergency aid to be delivered as
quickly as needed, and therefore support from victims (as well as the public) may help limit the number of potential deaths or injuries as a consequence.
5.3 Evaluation of the use of a thematic analysis
The extent to which the methods used to research the response to disaster can certainly be questioned in terms of effectivity. One might argue that a thematic analysis was the most appropriate method in order to study this particular research topic, as it is very difficult to carry out an experiment on this; for example, it would be unethical to carry out a mock terrorist attack in order to research people’s naturalistic responses to such a disaster. Moreover, carrying out a mock terrorist attack in a laboratory setting or informing the participants of the hypothesis still raises the question of ecological validity – will they truly be able to act as they would in a real attack? Therefore, it’s clear that a thematic analysis is the most appropriate method for carrying out this research, as people’s true, natural responses were analysed. However, in order to ensure that valid conclusions are drawn, it may be appropriate to analyse the findings quantitatively in order to limit researcher bias from occurring. For example, a frequency chart could be constructed in order to count the number of times each theme occurred, providing some numerical data to support any conclusions.