The article aims to review and discuss the concepts of disaster in the Sociology and Psychology author's perspective, in order to contribute to the current discussions on the definition of the term. For this, we used a literature review including the concepts of the leading theorists on the disaster. It appears that the word disaster in Sociology covers those events delimited in time and space, causing physical damage, loss, social disruption and changes in the functioning of the daily routine, so that the demand exceeds the capacity of response within a vulnerable context. On the Psychology´s field the term allude to sudden events, with potential traumatic, delimited in time and space, being the disasters also a collective event, generating high levels of stress and with psychological consequences/reactions. We conclude that, although the concepts are important for classifying and defining boundaries it is essential to understanding a disaster within the social, political and economic context where it occurs. These are variables that allow evaluating the psychosocial dimension of its consequences, so that disasters are as much an object of scientific interest, and as a problem of social relevance.
Social Psychology; Sociology; trauma
