+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Name:**    | ##### *Fire-Related Human Behavior*                   |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Course     | This course examines human aspects of the fire        |
| De           | problem, including research and analysis of the       |
| scription:** | problem and related issues in residential properties, |
|              | wildland fires, assisted living/group home            |
|              | situations, commercial/industrial settings, and       |
|              | multiuse highrise buildings.                          |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **O          | **Unit 1: Fire-Related Aspects of Human Behavior**    |
| bjectives:** |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Compare fire death rates in the United States     |
|              |     with rates in other industrialized nations.       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify fire-related factors that differ among   |
|              |     the United States and other industrialized        |
|              |     nations.                                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the populations, structures, and         |
|              |     communities at high fire risk.                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Increase student interest in all aspects of       |
|              |     fire-related human behavior.                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 2: Research                                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Identify techniques that appeal to emotion        |
|              |     instead of reason.                                |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Differentiate between the experimental and        |
|              |     correlational methods.                            |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the factors that affect the outcome of   |
|              |     an experiment.                                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the factors that affect the results of   |
|              |     correlational analysis.                           |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the different types of correlational     |
|              |     analysis.                                         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | 1.  Differentiate between valid and invalid research  |
|              |     conclusions.                                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 3: Systems Models                                |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Explain, with specific examples, how the          |
|              |     performance of people depends on the              |
|              |     characteristics of buildings and fire protection  |
|              |     features.                                         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain, with specific examples, how the          |
|              |     performance of buildings and associated fire      |
|              |     protection features depends on the behaviors of   |
|              |     the people who design and occupy the buildings.   |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Name two characteristics of hard systems          |
|              |     approaches that can deceive naive users.          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the two ways in which hard and soft      |
|              |     systems approaches differ, and how these          |
|              |     differences make the various types of models more |
|              |     useful or less useful for different types of      |
|              |     problems.                                         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   List the two ways that hard systems models help   |
|              |     us examine the acceptability of egress routes     |
|              |     from buildings.                                   |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain the faulty assumption that reduces the    |
|              |     validity of the lane model of evacuation capacity |
|              |     and the characteristics of human movement that    |
|              |     make this assumption incorrect.                   |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   List two sources of assumptions used in the       |
|              |     current method for calculating exit capacities in |
|              |     the model codes.                                  |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain why a simple linear model of exit         |
|              |     capacities is less valid than the effective width |
|              |     model and state how researchers discovered its    |
|              |     inaccuracy.                                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the source of the effective width model. |
|              |     Describe an important limitation to the accuracy  |
|              |     of the effective width model.                     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   List two computer models that use information     |
|              |     about building occupants to help predict overall  |
|              |     systems (building) performance during fires.      |
|              |     Describe one important way in which these two     |
|              |     models differ.                                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Explain the logical basis for goal decomposition, |
|              |     and list three goal-based systems approaches that |
|              |     use this technique.                               |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **O          | Unit 4: Residential Fire in a Single-Family Dwelling  |
| bjectives:** |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Describe how at least two factors increase fire   |
|              |     risks for people who live in low-income           |
|              |     neighborhoods.                                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain how the **hindsight** **bias** affects    |
|              |     how people assign blame for disastrous fires.     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Correctly answer whether the following statement  |
|              |     is true: \"Young children think much the same way |
|              |     as adults; they just don\'t have as much          |
|              |     knowledge.\" Explain how differences in cognitive |
|              |     abilities affect how children learn about fire    |
|              |     safety and provide one example.                   |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe how the concept of **action schema** can |
|              |     help explain why children can behave irrationally |
|              |     in fires.                                         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe three differences in the way that men    |
|              |     and women tend to respond to fire emergencies.    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain why people seem complacent in their       |
|              |     acceptance of **remote** **risks***.* Provide at  |
|              |     least one fire safety example.                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   List three factors that tend to increase the      |
|              |     likelihood that firefighters will experience      |
|              |     **posttraumatic stress** reactions.               |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the **representativeness bias** and      |
|              |     provide one fire safety example.                  |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the **availability bias** and provide    |
|              |     one fire safety example.                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Explain why passing an ordinance or publicizing a |
|              |     hazard often is insufficient to elicit much of a  |
|              |     response from the public. Describe the best way   |
|              |     to overcome these obstacles in low-income         |
|              |     neighborhoods.                                    |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 5: Wildland/Rural Fire                           |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Identify the three phases of human response to a  |
|              |     fire and the three environmental factors that     |
|              |     influence information processing during each      |
|              |     stage.                                            |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the three types of **judgment            |
|              |     heuristics** that affect risk perception.         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain how an individual or group could use a    |
|              |     **rational decision-making model** when a         |
|              |     significant fire threat confronts it.             |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain how **bounded rationality** affects human |
|              |     judgment and decisionmaking.                      |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain **posttraumatic stress** (PTS) and how    |
|              |     debriefing serves as an intervention to deal with |
|              |     PTS.                                              |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Describe the differences between **acute stress,  |
|              |     delayed** **stress,** and **cumulative stress**   |
|              |     that a firefighter would exhibit as a result of a |
|              |     critical incident.                                |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 6: Board-and-Care Home Fire                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Provide examples that show how roles influence    |
|              |     people\'s views of fire safety. Provide at least  |
|              |     one example of role conflict relevant to fire     |
|              |     safety.                                           |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Explain why policies intended to prevent fires    |
|              |     sometimes can increase risk. Explain how a policy |
|              |     that prohibits residents from smoking and a law   |
|              |     that requires sprinklers in existing businesses   |
|              |     can fit this pattern.                             |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Provide an example in which emergency procedures  |
|              |     that are suitable in one setting are              |
|              |     inappropriate in another.                         |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **O          | Unit 6: Board-and-Care Home Fire (cont\'d)            |
| bjectives:** |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Provide an example of how people tend to use      |
|              |     familiar routes of egress during fire             |
|              |     emergencies.                                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Describe how the characteristics of the people in |
|              |     various types of board-and-care homes make it     |
|              |     difficult to apply the same requirements to all   |
|              |     such facilities. List two examples each of        |
|              |     cognitive, sensory, and physical disabilities.    |
|              |     Describe how each could impede someone\'s ability |
|              |     to survive a fire incident.                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Explain the term mental model, and provide an     |
|              |     example of how an inadequate mental model can     |
|              |     lead to unacceptable levels of risk from fire.    |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Describe how the roles of various stakeholders    |
|              |     affect the positions that they take regarding the |
|              |     content and need for fire safety requirements.    |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   List at least two factors that affect how the     |
|              |     public views the acceptability of risk.           |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   List at least two obstacles that can interfere    |
|              |     with a fire department\'s efforts to lobby for a  |
|              |     residential sprinkler ordinance. Describe how     |
|              |     these can be overcome.                            |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 7: Commercial/Industrial Fire                    |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Identify the four attributes and characteristics  |
|              |     of group behavior and explain why the actions     |
|              |     portrayed in the scenario are consistent with the |
|              |     four attributes and characteristics.              |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain how physical setting characteristics      |
|              |     influence human response in the scenario          |
|              |     provided.                                         |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Identify the motivations that prompt people to    |
|              |     start fires.                                      |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe how fire affects communities, including  |
|              |     the impact on community business.                 |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain why code enforcers sometimes are hesitant |
|              |     to use their judgment in enforcing fire codes     |
|              |     flexibly, including recent innovations in codes   |
|              |     that help enforcers administer the National Fire  |
|              |     Protection Association (NFPA) 101^®^ standard     |
|              |     *Life Safety Code*, flexibly.                     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the three economic factors that must be  |
|              |     present before property owners find it            |
|              |     economically acceptable to comply with codes.     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the reasons why regulatory authorities   |
|              |     can induce compliance for economic reasons even   |
|              |     when compliance is unacceptable economically.     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe an approach that enforcers can use to    |
|              |     encourage compliance with codes even when         |
|              |     compliance is not in the best economic interest   |
|              |     of property owners.                               |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Name the two things that must happen before       |
|              |     people will take appropriate action in response   |
|              |     to hearing an alarm signal.                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | Unit 8: Multi-Use Occupancy (Highrise) Fire           |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Describe at least two ways in which multiple      |
|              |     occupancies in a large building can interact to   |
|              |     create problems related to human behavior.        |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Explain diffusion of responsibility and describe  |
|              |     the classic social psychology experiment that     |
|              |     used a simulated fire emergency to test the       |
|              |     theory.                                           |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **O          | Unit 8: Multi-Use Occupancy (Highrise) Fire (cont\'d) |
| bjectives:** |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
|              | -   Explain why people seem to persist at a task even |
|              |     when there are signs that an emergency might      |
|              |     exist.                                            |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   List two reasons why people are not good at       |
|              |     decisions that involve \"gambles.\"               |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Define the terms latent error and active error.   |
|              |     List some fire safety examples of each, and list  |
|              |     two examples of roles in which people are likely  |
|              |     to make these types of errors.                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Correctly answer the question, \"Are people       |
|              |     likely to panic during a fire emergency?\"        |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the effect of role behavior on how       |
|              |     people behave during fires and give one example.  |
|              |     Explain what emergent leadership means and give   |
|              |     one fire safety example.                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Correctly rank the effectiveness of floor plans,  |
|              |     signs, and verbal instructions in helping people  |
|              |     find their way around buildings. Explain why      |
|              |     these approaches fall into this order of          |
|              |     effectiveness.                                    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain why false and nuisance alarms and         |
|              |     surprise fire drills can reduce the likelihood    |
|              |     that people will respond to a fire alarm signal   |
|              |     that indicates a real fire.                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the effects of various levels of stress  |
|              |     on human performance.                             |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe the two basic approaches that have been  |
|              |     developed to calculate egress travel times.       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Explain what the term convergence clusters means. |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Correctly answer the question, \"Is there         |
|              |     evidence that shows that people easily awaken to  |
|              |     the smell of smoke?\"                             |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Discuss the problems associated with protecting   |
|              |     people with disabilities during fire emergencies. |
|              |     Explain why it can be difficult to identify such  |
|              |     people and why they may not want to be            |
|              |     identified.                                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | -   Describe at least two human behavioral issues     |
|              |     associated with the use of elevators to evacuate  |
|              |     people from large buildings.                      |
|              |                                                       |
|              | ```{=html}                                            |
|              | <!-- -->                                              |
|              | ```                                                   |
|              | -   Explain why verbal alarm messages evoke faster    |
|              |     responses from building occupants than            |
|              |     traditional nonverbal alarm signals. Explain why  |
|              |     the content and timing of the messages must be    |
|              |     planned carefully.                                |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Required   | *Fire-Related Human Behavior Course Guide*, National  |
| Texts:**     | Fire Academy                                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | *Death Rate Trends: An International Perspective*, U. |
|              | S. Fire Administration                                |
|              |                                                       |
|              | *Socio-economics Factors and the Incidence of Fire*,  |
|              | U. S. Fire Administration                             |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Supporting | **U. S. Fire Administration**                         |
| References/\ |                                                       |
| Research for | [Publications]{.underline}:                           |
| Faculty and  | <http://www.u                                         |
| Students**   | sfa.fema.gov/applications/publications/pubs_main.cfm> |
|              |                                                       |
|              | See Fire Protection, Fire Administration, Fire        |
|              | Service Operations, Wildfire                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | [Applied Research]{.underline}:                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <htt                                                  |
|              | p://www.usfa.fema.gov/dhtml/inside-usfa/research.cfm> |
|              |                                                       |
|              | [Research Reports]{.underline}:                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http                                                 |
|              | ://www.usfa.fema.gov/dhtml/inside-usfa/r_reports.cfm> |
|              |                                                       |
|              | [Technical Reports]{.underline}:                      |
|              | <http://www.                                          |
|              | usfa.fema.gov/applications/publications/techreps.cfm> |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Supporting | [Topical Fire Research Series]{.underline}:           |
| References/\ |                                                       |
| Research for | <http://www.usfa.fema.gov/dhtml/inside-usfa/tfrs.cfm> |
| Faculty and  |                                                       |
| Students**   | [Learning Resource Center]{.underline}:               |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://www.usfa.fema.gov/dhtml/inside-usfa/lrc.cfm>  |
|              |                                                       |
|              | **National Institute for Standards and Technology**   |
|              |                                                       |
|              | [                                                     |
|              | http://www.fire.nist.gov](http://www.fire.nist.gov/): |
|              | Fire Tests/Data, Software/Models, Publications,       |
|              | FIREDOC (under Publications)                          |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire93/art090.html>    |
|              |                                                       |
|              | **References**                                        |
|              |                                                       |
|              | [Society of Fire Protection Engineers]{.underline}:   |
|              | <http://www.pentoncmg.com/sfpe/index.html>            |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://www.peopleandfire.com/>                       |
|              |                                                       |
|              | **Current Events/News**                               |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://www.firehouse.com/>                           |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://www.fireengineering.com/>                     |
|              |                                                       |
|              | <http://www.withthecommand.com/>                      |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **A          | Students will be evaluated for mastery of learning    |
| ssessment:** | objectives by methods of evaluation to be determined  |
|              | by the instructor.                                    |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **NFPA       | None.                                                 |
| Standards    |                                                       |
| Addressed:** |                                                       |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Chief Fire | [www.cfainet.org](http://www.cfainet.org/)            |
| Officer      |                                                       |
| Designation  | This course provides partial fulfillment of CFOD:     |
| Competencies |                                                       |
| Addressed:** | Competency #11 Life Safety                            |
|              |                                                       |
|              | Competency #13 Public Education and Community         |
|              | Relations                                             |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| **Point of   | Edward Kaplan, United States Fire Administration\     |
| Contact:**   | (301) 447-1127, <ed.kaplan@fema.gov>                  |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+