Living Well in Times of Threat: The Importance of Adjustment Processes to Explain Functional Adaptation to Uncertain Security in Expatriates Deployed in the Sudan





Faculty/Professorship: Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment  
Author(s): Leder, Johannes  
Title of the Journal: Risk analysis : an international journal
ISSN: 1539-6924
Publisher Information: Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell
Year of publication: 2018
Issue: First published: 12 November 2018
Pages: 20 ; Online-Ressource
Language(s): English
DOI: 10.1111/risa.13233
Abstract: 
The present study investigated expatriate humanitarian aid workers’ perceptions and responses to uncertain security while deployed in the Sudan. Interviews conducte in Khartoum (n = 7) and Darfur (n = 17) focused on risk perception, concern for personal security, and strategies used to function well in an insecure environment. Despite a high perceived general risk, as well as broad knowledge and experience with security incidents, participants often expressed low concern. General adjustment processes were drawn on to explain this finding, while different constellations of processes resulted in different patterns of adjustment. Functional adjustment, resulting in adequate risk perception, protective behavior, protection, and low concern, was characterized by a constellation of complementary activation of accommodation and assimilation processes.
Keywords: Accommodation, adjustment, expatriates, risk perception, security incidents
Peer Reviewed: Ja
International Distribution: Ja
Type: Article
URI: https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/44807
Year of publication: 14. November 2018