scholarly journals PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE REACTIONS TO COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. a3en
Author(s):  
José Aparecido da Silva ◽  
Rosemary Conceição dos Santos

This work deals with the psychological and cognitive reactions that are established in individuals experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic in four perspectives, namely: social isolation, psychological factors, personality factors and behavioral methods, established interdisciplinarily within the scope of Social and Human Sciences and Public / Collective Health. It also presents partial results obtained with the development of bibliographic research aimed at studying the impact of COVID-19 in environments of communication, journalism and / or individual and collective social education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salima Hamouche

Physical distancing is one of the non-pharmaceutical measures adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Although it appears to be effective in mitigating this spread, its implementation in workplaces may undermine employees’ mental health. In fact, torn between the fear of contagion and the need to maintain their jobs, employees must also comply with physical distancing measures in the workplace, which alter social interactions and set a predetermined frame and distance that guide employees’ behaviors within the organization while they need empathy. This situation might increase their level of stress. This paper is a narrative review that addresses the impact of physical distancing in the workplace on employees’ mental health. It presents the main factors that might moderate this impact and it recommends organizational interventions that can help to mitigate it. Physical distancing measures in workplaces are necessary and inevitable. Notwithstanding, they might undermine employees’ mental health, whence the importance to implement proper organizational actions to support employees and to facilitate their adaptation, in this unprecedented organizational change. This paper examines a relatively unexplored topic. It goes beyond examining social isolation to explore how setting a predetermined frame and distance can have an impact on employees’ mental health and recommends interventions that might help organizations to prevent mental health issues.


Author(s):  
Mariano Meseguer de Pedro ◽  
María Magdalena Fernández-Valera ◽  
Mariano García-Izquierdo ◽  
María Isabel Soler Sánchez

Background: Drawing on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and its sanitary measures on coping strategies for preserving health, it is also necessary to add exposure to certain work stressors, such as burnout. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of the confinement situation caused by COVID-19 on the levels of self-perceived health and psychological capital in a sample of workers, as well as to analyze whether exposure to burnout before social isolation would help to explain the levels of health and psychological capital. Methods: Data were collected in a longitudinal design. Time 1 surveys (December 2019) were sent to a sample of 354 Spanish workers while in Time 2 (April 2020) the employees completed 235 questionnaires. Results: Our findings indicate a significant worsening of employees’ health perception (t = −4.13; p < 0.01) and psychological capital (4.10, p < 0.01) levels during mandatory confinement in Spain. Our results also revealed that emotional exhaustion is the only burnout dimension capable of explaining the variance of health while self-efficacy does regarding psychological capital. Conclusion: We conclude a significant reduction in self-perceived health and psychological capital during COVID-19 mandatory confinement, and that burnout acts as a predictor variable in both health and psychological capital variance.


Author(s):  
María del Carmen Olmos-Gómez

The present research was carried out in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic following emergency school closures in an attempt to avoid the spread of infection. As a result, university students undertaking the final year of education degrees (teaching placements) have been obliged to deliver their teaching from home, adapting their teaching contexts to learning in virtual settings. A novel instrument was designed and validated in order to analyze the impact of learning environments and psychological factors in university students during a period of teaching placements. This took place in an adaptive context (state of confinement). Associations were determined between learning environments and psychological factors in adaptive contexts, in relation to the group to which they belonged (whether undertaking a degree in primary education, physical education and sport, early education or social education), and sex. The present study used a Delphi method, alongside a descriptive and quantitative analysis. The data demonstrate that learning environments differ according to the degree studied. The four analyzed groups revealed significant differences in relation to learning environments and psychological factors in adaptive confinement contexts. The subjects of Primary and Social Education were seen to be related with a greater possibility of being overwhelmed and reporting difficulties. Those more used to physical exercise showed more positive psychological indices. Females reported more negative responses. The conclusion reached is that the results of the present research will enable future additional multi-dimensional analysis to be conducted.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freda-Marie Hartung ◽  
Britta Renner

Humans are social animals; consequently, a lack of social ties affects individuals’ health negatively. However, the desire to belong differs between individuals, raising the question of whether individual differences in the need to belong moderate the impact of perceived social isolation on health. In the present study, 77 first-year university students rated their loneliness and health every 6 weeks for 18 weeks. Individual differences in the need to belong were found to moderate the relationship between loneliness and current health state. Specifically, lonely students with a high need to belong reported more days of illness than those with a low need to belong. In contrast, the strength of the need to belong had no effect on students who did not feel lonely. Thus, people who have a strong need to belong appear to suffer from loneliness and become ill more often, whereas people with a weak need to belong appear to stand loneliness better and are comparatively healthy. The study implies that social isolation does not impact all individuals identically; instead, the fit between the social situation and an individual’s need appears to be crucial for an individual’s functioning.


2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Sölle ◽  
Theresa Bartholomäus ◽  
Margitta Worm ◽  
Regine Klinger

Research in recent years, especially in the analgesic field, has intensively studied the placebo effect and its mechanisms. It has been shown that physical complaints can be efficiently reduced via learning and cognitive processes (conditioning and expectancies). However, despite evidence demonstrating a large variety of physiological similarities between pain and itch, the possible transfer of the analgesic placebo model to itch has not yet been widely discussed in research. This review therefore aims at highlighting potential transfers of placebo mechanisms to itch processes by demonstrating the therapeutic issues in pharmacological treatments for pruritus on a physiological basis and by discussing the impact of psychological mechanisms and psychological factors influencing itch sensations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Morteza Karimi-Nia

The status of tafsīr and Qur'anic studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran has changed significantly during recent decades. The essay provides an overview of the state of Qur'anic studies in Iran today, aiming to examine the extent of the impact of studies by Western scholars on Iranian academic circles during the last three decades and the relationship between them. As in most Islamic countries, the major bulk of academic activity in Iran in this field used to be undertaken by the traditional ʿulamāʾ; however, since the beginning of the twentieth century and the establishment of universities and other academic institutions in the Islamic world, there has been increasing diversity and development. After the Islamic Revolution, many gradual changes in the structure and approach of centres of religious learning and universities have occurred. Contemporary advancements in modern sciences and communications technologies have gradually brought the institutions engaged in the study of human sciences to confront the new context. As a result, the traditional Shīʿī centres of learning, which until 50 years ago devoted themselves exclusively to the study of Islamic law and jurisprudence, today pay attention to the teaching of foreign languages, Qur'anic sciences and exegesis, including Western studies about the Qur'an, to a certain extent, and recognise the importance of almost all of the human sciences of the West.


2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-131
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Parfin ◽  
Krystian Wdowiak ◽  
Marzena Furtak-Niczyporuk ◽  
Jolanta Herda

AbstractIntroduction. The COVID-19 is the name of an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). It was first diagnosed in December 2019 in patients in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The symptoms are dominated by features of respiratory tract infections, in some patients with a very severe course leading to respiratory failure and, in extreme cases to death. Due to the spread of the infection worldwide, the WHO declared a pandemic in March 2020.Aim. An investigation of the impact of social isolation introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic on selected aspects of life. The researchers focused on observing changes in habits related to physical activity and their connections with people’s subjective well-being and emotional state.Material and methods. The study was carried out within the international project of the group „IRG on COVID and exercise”. The research tool was a standardized questionnaire.Results. Based on the data collected and the analysis of the percentage results, it can be observed that the overwhelming majority of people taking up physical activity reported a better mood during the pandemic. However, statistical tests do not confirm these relationships due to the small sample size.Conclusions. Isolation favours physical activity. Future, in-depth studies, by enlarging the population group, are necessary to confirm the above observations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162198924
Author(s):  
Annelise A. Madison ◽  
M. Rosie Shrout ◽  
Megan E. Renna ◽  
Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine candidates are being evaluated, with the goal of conferring immunity on the highest percentage of people who receive the vaccine as possible. It is noteworthy that vaccine efficacy depends not only on the vaccine but also on characteristics of the vaccinated. Over the past 30 years, a series of studies has documented the impact of psychological factors on the immune system’s vaccine response. Robust evidence has demonstrated that stress, depression, loneliness, and poor health behaviors can impair the immune system’s response to vaccines, and this effect may be greatest in vulnerable groups such as the elderly. Psychological factors are also implicated in the prevalence and severity of vaccine-related side effects. These findings have generalized across many vaccine types and therefore may be relevant to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In this review, we discuss these psychological and behavioral risk factors for poor vaccine responses, their relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as targeted psychological and behavioral interventions to boost vaccine efficacy and reduce side effects. Recent data suggest these psychological and behavioral risk factors are highly prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, but intervention research suggests that psychological and behavioral interventions can increase vaccine efficacy.


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