COPING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT: GREAT PLAINS FARMERS AND THE SUDDEN STORM

ABSTRACT

A trend toward increasing use in geographical research of methods and concepts developed and tested in other social sciences seems likely to provide new insights into the effects of weather and climate on human behavior. Psychological reactions of a sample of Great Plains wheat farmers to the threat of a sudden storm are examined by means of a variant of the Thematic Appereception Test. The pictured situation is assessed as an unpredictable environmental press potentially in opposition to the inner need to achieve. The primary reaction to the threat is the moblization of one's own resources towards rational, task-oriented action. However, uncertainty remains and this is reflected in a subsidiary theme in which attempts to alleviate anxiety are made by the essentially religious appeal to transcendental powers to lessen or stay the environmental threat. It is suggested that the TAT could prove useful for measuring many aspects of the man-environment relationships including that of regional personality.