Fabio Sbattella

This article aims at highlighting the risks of an undifferentiated training inemergency psychology. It also discusses the different training and informationneeds of volunteers and emergency workers. We propose to carefully reflect onthe learning objectives in relation to the specific roles and tasks of the differentcategories of people involved in emergency. In terms of contents, we proposeto distinguish between the “understanding” needs and “explanation”needs in relation to the behaviour of the victims in an emergency. Cultivating“understanding” skills rather than "explanation" skills can encourage the developmentof appropriate attitudes in rescuers and volunteers who don’t have adeep knowledge of psychology.