scholarly journals Measuring Realistic and Symbolic Threats of COVID-19 and Their Unique Impacts on Well-Being and Adherence to Public Health Behaviors

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062093163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J. Kachanoff ◽  
Yochanan E. Bigman ◽  
Kyra Kapsaskis ◽  
Kurt Gray
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Identity Studies ◽  
Social Disconnection ◽  
Civic Institutions ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

COVID-19 threatens lives, livelihoods, and civic institutions. Although restrictive public health behaviors such as social distancing help manage its impact, these behaviors can further sever our connections to people and institutions that affirm our identities. Three studies ( N = 1,195) validated a brief 10-item COVID-19 Threat Scale that assesses (1) realistic threats to physical or financial safety and (2) symbolic threats to one’s sociocultural identity. Studies reveal that both realistic and symbolic threats predict higher distress and lower well-being and demonstrate convergent validity with other measures of threat sensitivity. Importantly, the two kinds of threats diverge in their relationship to restrictive public health behaviors: Realistic threat predicted greater self-reported adherence, whereas symbolic threat predicted less self-reported adherence to social disconnection behaviors. Symbolic threat also predicted using creative ways to affirm identity even in isolation. Our findings highlight how social psychological theory can be leveraged to understand and predict people’s behavior in pandemics.

scholarly journals Measuring Realistic and Symbolic Threats of COVID-19 and their Unique Impacts on Wellbeing and Adherence to Public Health Behaviors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Kachanoff ◽  
Yochanan Bigman ◽  
Kyra Kapsaskis ◽  
Kurt Gray
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Identity Studies ◽  
Social Disconnection ◽  
Civic Institutions ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

COVID-19 threatens lives, livelihoods, and civic institutions. Although restrictive public health behaviors such as social distancing help manage its impact, these behaviors can further sever our connections to people and institutions that affirm our identities. Three studies (N=1,195) validated a brief 10-item COVID-19 threat scale that assesses 1) realistic threats to physical or financial safety, and 2) symbolic threats to one’s sociocultural identity. Studies reveal that both realistic and symbolic threat predict higher distress and lower wellbeing, and demonstrate convergent validity with other measures of threat sensitivity. Importantly, the two kinds of threat diverge in their relationship to restrictive public health behaviors: Realistic threat predicted greater self-reported adherence, whereas symbolic threat predicted less self-reported adherence to social-disconnection behaviors. Symbolic threat also predicted using creative ways to affirm identity even in isolation. Our findings highlight how social psychological theory can be leveraged to understand and predict people’s behavior in pandemics.

Towards a Theory of Dementia Care: Personhood and Well-being

1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (03) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Kitwood ◽  
Kathleen Bredin
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Dementia Care ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

ABSTRACTSome foundations are laid for a social-psychological theory of dementia care. Central to this is a conceptualisation of personhood, in which both subjectivity and intersubjectivity are fully recognised. Evidence is brought forward concerning relative well-being even in those who are, from a cognitive standpoint, severely demented. In the light of this it is argued that the key psychological task in dementia care is that of keeping the sufferer's personhood in being. This requires us to see personhood in social rather than individual terms.

Social Psychological Theory: View From Germany

1981 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 611-612
Author(s):  
Stephen G. West ◽  
Anne Maass
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Psychological Theory ◽  
Theory View

scholarly journals So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162096965
Author(s):  
Elliot T. Berkman ◽  
Sylas M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
Health Domains ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people’s everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm. We refer to the lack of relevance, accessibility, and applicability of psychological theory to the rest of society as the practicality crisis. The practicality crisis harms the field in its ability to attract the next generation of scholars and maintain viability at the national level. We describe practical theory and illustrate its use in the field of self-regulation. Psychological theory is historically and scientifically well positioned to become useful should scholars in the field decide to value practicality. We offer a set of incentives to encourage the return of social psychology to the Lewinian vision of a useful science that speaks to pressing social issues.

Tinder: A Game with Gendered Rules and Consequences

2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110194
Author(s):  
Dana Berkowitz ◽  
Justine Tinkler ◽  
Alana Peck ◽  
Lynnette Coto
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Sexual Scripts ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
College Age ◽  
Patterns Of Interaction ◽  
Social Psychological Theory

The popularity of Mobile Dating Applications has increased in recent years, with Tinder transforming the dating landscape for college students. Drawing upon 249 peer-facilitated interviews with college-age men and women, we explore how this population uses Tinder. Informed by social-psychological theory and research on impression management and stereotyping, we show how Tinder’s marketing strategy and game-like platform appeal to college students’ desires to reduce uncertainty and risk in forming romantic and intimate connections. However, by upending existing interaction norms, the Tinder environment creates new forms of ambiguity, which, in turn, incentivizes conformity to traditional heterogender norms and encourages racist and classist swiping behavior. Our study advances the literature on inequality and intimate marketplaces by generating insight about how contemporary dating and sexual scripts are constructed, accomplished, and negotiated when new technologies disrupt established patterns of interaction.

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