title: Survival in extreme conditions.
abstract: This article explores the psychosocial and environmental configurations that might have been responsible for an unusual situation of survival under extreme conditions. A group of 500 civilians (mostly Americans) lived 31/2 years in a Japanese internment camp in the philippines during World War II. Although conditions were very harsh, the survival rate of this group was better than expected for a comparable group under normal conditions. Discussion of available demographic, social organizational, and cultural information leads to three hypotheses that might account for this outcome.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D010679:Philippines; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011340:Problem Solving; D012919:Social Behavior; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D013534:Survival; D014857:Warfare