Mass Panic and Social Attachment

Anthony R. Mawson is Professor of Preventive Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He has held teaching, research and administrative posts at universities, hospitals, managed care organizations and in private consulting firm

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Current theories of panic. Part I Theories of Affiliative Behavior: Theories of affiliation; the theory of Walters and Parke; Protection from predators: Bowlby's theory. Part II Toward a Theory of Social Attachment: Arousal and stimulation-seeking: overview; Cognitive maps and susceptibility to influence; Affiliation as stimulation-seeking: a theory of attachment formation; Stimulation-seeking and group dynamics. Part III Panic: Panic as stimulation-seeking; Aggression; The social context of panic; Panic flight as affiliative behaviour; Review of current theories of panic; Havens of safety; Panic as stimulation-avoidance. Part IV: Further Considerations: Two systems of arousal; Towards a neurophysiological theory of emotional behaviour; Summary and conclusions; Understanding mass panic and other collective responses to disaster: update; Appendix: stimulation-seeking and the organization of behavior; Bibliography; Index.