Behavioral Science and Homeland Security
The Honorable Patrick Kennedy
United States House of Representatives
407 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Representative Kennedy,
I am writing on behalf of the Association for Psychological Science to express our support for HR 2370, the "National Resilience Development Act of 2003." The psychological consequences of terrorism, as well as the benefits of applying psychological science to the problems they bring, cannot be overlooked.
It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that the psychological consequences of terrorist attacks are likely to be widespread and long lasting. The attacks in New York and Washington D.C. are known to have caused stress and anxiety in Americans of all ages, ethnicities, and geographical locations. By enabling State authorities to better understand and ameliorate human emotional, behavioral, and cognitive responses to terrorism as well as other disasters, your legislation takes the important step of recognizing the impact psychology can have in such instances. Your legislation can also enable us to understand better how attitudes and beliefs about terrorism affect consumer confidence, population mobility, and decisions about children, job behaviors, and attitudes towards immigrants, religion, political institutions and leaders.
There is a wealth of research to draw from on the subjects of fear, resilience, and responses to terror and trauma. Evidence based studies on the response to 9/11 attacks have taught us that there are factors to deal with beyond the degree of exposure or loss from the trauma that need to be dealt with. For example, early disengagement ("e.g. giving up, engaging in denial") from scientifically validated coping efforts such as behavioral therapy was found to be a forerunner of ongoing distress symptoms. At the same time, those who engaged in "active" coping in the immediate aftermath of the attacks were associated with lower levels of stress. In response to the 9/11 attacks, the Social Psychology program of the National Science Foundation awarded six small grants for exploratory research, so that we could learn more about the reaction of the nation and how to better cope with the disaster. Grants were awarded to explore such areas as how individuals react to collective loss, whether self-enhancers are more likely to be resilient and cope better in the face of trauma, and the factors that protect individuals from developing negative psychological consequences associated with on going stress of a serious nature. This research can be of great assistance to our nation.
APS is pleased to support you and your Congressional colleagues in your efforts to further prepare this country in the unfortunate event of another terrorist strike. We are confident that psychological science has much to contribute to these efforts, and are glad to assist your office in any way possible.
Sincerely,
Alan G. Kraut
Executive Director