Vulnerability refers to the inability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment. A window of vulnerability (WoV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are reduced, compromised or lacking[citation needed]
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Common applications [edit]
In relation to hazards and disasters, vulnerability is a concept that links the relationship that people have with their environment to social forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain and contest them. “The concept of vulnerability expresses the multi-dimensionality of disasters by focusing attention on the totality of relationships in a given social situation which constitute a condition that, in combination with environmental forces, produces a disaster”.[1]
It's also the extent to which changes could harm a system, or to which the community can be affected by the impact of a hazard or exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally: "we were in a vulnerable position".
Research [edit]
Within the body of literature related to vulnerability, major research streams include questions of methodology, such as: measuring and assessing vulnerability, including finding appropriate indicators for various aspects of vulnerability, up- and down scaling methods, and participatory methods.[2][clarification needed] Vulnerability research covers a complex, multidisciplinary field including development and poverty studies, public health, climate studies, security studies, engineering, geography, political ecology, and disaster and risk management. This research is of importance and interest for organizations trying to reduce vulnerability – especially as related to poverty and other Millennium Development Goals. Many institutions are conducting interdisciplinary research on vulnerability. A forum that brings many of the current researchers on vulnerability together is the Expert Working Group (EWG).1 Researchers are currently working to refine definitions of “vulnerability”, measurement and assessment methods, and effective communication of research to decision makers.[3]
Types of vulnerability [edit]
Social [edit]
In its broadest sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. These impacts are due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural values.[4][5]
Cognitive [edit]
A cognitive vulnerability, in cognitive psychology, is an erroneous belief, cognitive bias, or pattern of thought that is believed to predispose the individual to psychological problems.[6] It is in place before the symptoms of psychological disorders start to appear; after the individual encounters a stressful experience, the cognitive vulnerability shapes a maladaptive response that may lead to a psychological disorder.[6] In psychopathology, cognitive vulnerability is constructed from schema models, hopelessness models, and attachment theory.[7] Attentional bias is one mechanism leading to faulty cognitive bias that leads to cognitive vulnerability. Allocating a danger level to a threat depends on the urgency or intensity of the threshold. Anxiety is not associated with selective orientation.[8]
Military [edit]
In military terminology, vulnerability is a subset of survivability, the others being susceptibility and recoverability. Vulnerability is defined in various ways depending on the nation and service arm concerned, but in general it refers to the near-instantaneous effects of a weapon attack. In aviation it is defined as the inability of an aircraft to withstand the damage caused by the man-made hostile environment.[9] In some definitions, recoverability (damage control, firefighting, restoration of capability) is included in vulnerability. Some military services develop their own concept of vulnerability.[10]
See also [edit]
- Gullibility
- Vulnerability in computing
- Vulnerability index
- Vulnerability and care theory of love
- Vulnerabilities exploited by manipulators
References [edit]
- ^ Bankoff, Greg etal. (2004). Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People. London: Earth scan.
- ^ Villagran, Juan Carlos. "“Vulnerability: A conceptual and methodological review." SOURCE. No. 2/2006. Bonn, Germany.
- ^ Birkmann, Joern (editor). 2006. Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards – Towards Disaster Resilient Societies. UNU Press.
- ^ Luis Flores Ballesteros. "What determines a disaster?" 54 Pesos May. 2008:54 Pesos 11 Sep 2008. http://54pesos.org/2008/09/11/what-determines-a-disaster/
- ^ See also Daniel R. Curtis, 'Pre-industrial societies and strategies for the exploitation of resources. A theoretical framework for understanding why some settlements are resilient and some settlements are vulnerable to crisis', http://www.academia.edu/1932627/Pre-industrial_societies_and_strategies_for_the_exploitation_of_resources._A_theoretical_framework_for_understanding_why_some_settlements_are_resilient_and_some_settlements_are_vulnerable_to_crisis
- ^ a b Riskind, John H.; Black, David (2005). "Cognitive Vulnerability". In Freeman, Arthur, Felgoise, Stephanie H., et al. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. New York: Springer. pp. 122–26. ISBN 9781429411738.
- ^ Ingram, Rick (February 2003). "Origins of Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression". Cognitive Therapy and Research 27 (1): 77–88. ISSN 0147-5916.
- ^ Mathews, Andrew; MacLeod, Colin (1 April 2005). "Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Disorders". Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1 (1): 167–195. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143916.
- ^ Ball, Robert (2003). The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability Analysis and Design, 2nd Edition. AIAA Education Series. p. 603. ISBN 1-56347-582-0.
- ^ Warship Vulnerability
External links [edit]
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Look up vulnerability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- BUGTRAQ-VULNERABLE SITE TRACKER (vulnerability kinds)
- Community based vulnerability mapping in Búzi, Mozambique (GIS and Remote Sensing)
- MunichRe Foundation
- Satellite Vulnerability
- Security-Feeds.com (Keep an eye on major feeds concerning security alerts and vulnerabilities on a single page)
- Survivability/Lethality Analysis - US Army
- Top Computer Vulnerabilities
- United Nations University Institute of Environment and Human Security
- VULNERABILITY LABORATORY (Verified Vulnerability Research Project)
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