Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

4
Prologue
Deepwater Disaster
One of the greatest environmental 
accidents in history began with a 
fi re and explosion on an oil rig in 
the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven men 
were killed immediately, and 
dozens were injured. But the 
aftermath will extend for 
decades. 
When the Deepwater 
Horizon oil rig blew up in the 
spring of 2010, tens of thousands 
of barrels of oil escaped from pipes 
that had been drilled deep into the ocean fl oor. Scientists debated 
for days about how to stop the uncontrolled fl ow of oil. After a 
number of failed attempts to stop the oil, engineers fi nally placed 
a containment cap over the cascading oil, and relief wells were 
drilled that eventually stopped the gushing oil. 
But the damage had been done. Large expanses of water 
were covered with oil, and there were plumes of oil underneath 
the seas. Beaches and fragile marshlands along the coast were 
ruined, and animals, coated with oil, died above and below the 
waters. Tens of thousands of people lost their livelihoods. It will 
be decades before life returns to normal.

Looking
Ahead

Although the oil spill in the Gulf originated as an environmental 
accident, it also gave rise to a host of important psychological 
issues. Consider, for example, these questions:
• What biological reactions did the workers experience as they 
responded to the initial explosion on the rig?
• How did scientists and engineers devise solutions to stop 
the gushing oil?
• 
What would be the long-term eff ects of the health of individ-
uals whose livelihoods were wiped out?
• How did the anger and frustration that people experienced 
as they watched the disaster unfold aff ect their behavior?
• How did the families of those killed in the disaster react and 
cope with their grief?
• What explains why many people came to the Gulf region to 
help save oil-soaked animals and clean up the beaches?
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