scholarly journals Temporal Distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter Writing with Future Self can Mitigate Negative Affect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Chishima ◽  
I-Ting Huai-Ching Liu ◽  
Anne E Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well-being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter-writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post-COVID-19 future selves. Participants were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter-to-future), send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter-from-future), or a control condition. Participants in both letter-writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter-writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Temporal Distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter Writing with Future Self can Mitigate Negative Affect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Chishima ◽  
I-Ting Huai-Ching Liu ◽  
Anne E Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well-being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter-writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post-COVID-19 future selves. Participants were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter-to-future), send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter-from-future), or a control condition. Participants in both letter-writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter-writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Changes in values and well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0255491
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bojanowska ◽  
Łukasz D. Kaczmarek ◽  
Maciej Koscielniak ◽  
Beata Urbańska
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Affect Intensity ◽  
Critical Events ◽  
The World

COVID-19 caused a global change in the lifestyles of people around the world. It provided a unique opportunity to examine how external circumstances impact two crucial aspects of functioning relating to "who I am" (values) and "how I feel" (well-being). Participants (N = 215) reported their values and subjective and eudaimonic well-being, nine months before the first lockdown in Poland and two weeks and four weeks into the first lockdown. We observed increased valuing of self-direction, security, conformity, humility, caring, and universalism and a decrease in valuing hedonism. Individuals experienced decreased subjective and eudaimonic well-being, with women responding with stronger negative affect intensity relative to men. Finally, we identified that individuals who were more open to change before the COVID-19 pandemic responded with higher eudaimonic well-being two weeks into lockdown relative to their less open to change peers. This study is unique in that it shows that well-being and individually held values are flexible and adaptive systems that react to external circumstances such as global critical events.

scholarly journals Flow in the Time of COVID-19: Findings from China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Sweeny ◽  
Kyla Rankin ◽  
Xiaorong Cheng ◽  
Lulu Hou ◽  
Fangfang Long ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Coping Resources ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

In February 2020, the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was raging in Wuhan, China and quickly spreading to the rest of the world. This period was fraught with uncertainty for those in the affected areas. The present investigation examined the role of two potential coping resources during this stressful period of uncertainty: flow and mindfulness. Participants in Wuhan and other major cities affected by COVID-19 (N = 5115) completed an online survey assessing experiences of flow, mindfulness, and well-being. Longer quarantine was associated with poorer well-being; flow and mindfulness predicted better well-being on some measures. However, flow—but not mindfulness—moderated the link between quarantine length and well-being, such that people who experienced high levels flow showed little or no association between quarantine length and poorer well-being. These findings suggest that engaging in flow-inducing activities may be a particularly effective way to protect against the deleterious effects of a period of quarantine.

Values and well-being change amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bojanowska ◽  
Lukasz D. Kaczmarek ◽  
Maciej Kościelniak ◽  
Beata Urbańska
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Events ◽  
Specific Difference ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Openness To Change ◽  
The World

COVID-19 caused a global change in the lifestyles of people around the world. It provided a unique opportunity to examine how external circumstances impact two crucial aspects of functioning relating to “who I am” (values) and “how I feel” (well-being). Participants (N = 150) reported their values, subjective and eduaimonic well-being nine months before lockdown in Poland, two weeks and four weeks into lockdown. We observed significant changes in values: an increase in self-direction, achievement, security, conformity, humility, benevolence and universalism, and a decrease in hedonism. All well-being indices showed a decrease in well-being with one specific difference between men and women: women experienced a more significant increase of negative affect compared to men. Finally, we showed that Openness to change values predict lower negative affect and higher eudaimonic well-being two weeks into lockdown. This study is unique in that it shows, that well-being and individually held values are flexible and adaptive systems that react to external circumstances, such as global critical events.

scholarly journals NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) SHOCK AND REVERBERATIONS IN PAKISTAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
ATHER MAQSOOD AHMED ◽  
IRFAN ALI
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Financial Deepening ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The One ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Impact

Nearly a century after the Spanish flu of 1918, the world is confronting reverberations of the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, labeled as COVID-19. As time passes, there has been a serious loss of life and well-being all across the world. According to the latest data issued by the Johns Hopkins University, more than 185 million people have been infected and slightly over 4 million people have already lost their lives. With some respite during the July–October 2020 period, the world economy is once again plunging down as a result of subsequent waves of the pandemic. According to the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world GDP has already suffered a loss in the range of US$8–12 trillion due to disruptions in economic activities. Even though Pakistan is among those countries where a relatively mild health-related impact was recorded during the first wave, the situation is fast deteriorating on the health and economic fronts with the severity of the latest wave. The objective of this study is to capture the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare system and the economy of Pakistan. In particular, an attempt has been made to understand how this new normal situation has encouraged e-commerce (online) commercial and trade activities, on the one hand, and inculcated the concept of work from home among the corporate and public sector employees, on the other. The initial evidence confirms that despite a limited support from the formal banking and financial sector due to insufficient financial deepening, the commerce and trade sector has recorded a substantial growth in its online transactions. Moreover, in view of the contagion hazard, a large number of corporate entities and most of the education sector employees have been allowed to work from home thereby challenging the orthodoxy about shirking and mistrust.

scholarly journals Mental Distress Among Medical Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syeda Rubaba Azim
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Support Service ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Medical Undergraduates ◽  
Student Support Service

Depression, anxiety, and stress affect the mental health of an individual. Previous studies have shown high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students throughout the world. Medical students are future doctors, but mental distress among them has negative effects on their output, which ultimately affects patient care and quality of life. This chapter will discuss various reasons of mental distress among medical students and proposed solutions for the well-being of medical undergraduates like providing proper student support service and more opportunities for extracurricular activities.

“I Must Honestly Confess That I Am Afraid of You”

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-384
Author(s):  
Ishaya Anthony ◽  
Dion A. Forster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Open Letter ◽  
The South ◽  
Prophetic Preaching ◽  
The World

Abstract Fear is a global phenomenon that impacts individuals, institutions, and nations. Fear is associated with the experience of some form of threat, for example, the fear of a specific enemy. The increase in socio-political uprisings in many contexts around the world is contributing towards an environment of violence, insecurity, and fear. Such situations, challenge preachers to preach in ways that the Christian tradition characterises as “prophetic preaching”. This article argues that, in instances of institutionally induced fear, letter writing could serve as a powerful and effective means of public theological engagement. The authors employ an advocacy research paradigm to critically engage Allan Aubrey Boesak’s open letter to Alwyn Louis Schlebusch entitled, “A Letter to the South African Minister of Justice.” This letter was written in 1979 as South Africa was entering one of the darkest periods of the apartheid state’s brutality against its citizens. This article discusses the socio-ecclesiastical motivation(s) that underpin Boesak’s courageous and public proclamation of Christian theological truth, in a “prophetic mode”, in spite of the fear that characterised South Africa during that period of its history. Furthermore, we argue that this letter can be characterised as a form of public theological engagement. This paper offers a novel perspective on letter writing, amid threat and fear, as a form or prophetic preaching public theological engagement.

Dialecticism and the Future Self in Cultural Contexts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Yubo Hou ◽  
Tracy Gould
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Cultural Foundations ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Self ◽  
Past Experiences

Dialectical thinking reflects both a view of the world and a view of oneself as fluid and changing. This chapter discusses the role of dialectical thinking in people’s prediction of changes in their future selves. Focus is on the future self-concept, namely, the conceptual representation of the self in the future, and the episodic future self, namely, the anticipation of specific future personal events. It is proposed that dialectical thinking, as a form of cultural knowledge, may guide people in their perception of their future selves relative to their present and past selves and in their construction of plausible future events from past experiences. The chapter further discusses the relation of dialectical thinking and the future self to psychological well-being. Throughout the discussion, original data from a cross-cultural project with mainland Chinese and European American college students are presented, to illustrate the psychological and cultural foundations of the future self.

scholarly journals Enhancing resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A thematic analysis and evaluation of the warr;or21 program

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Jeff Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Program Analysis ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has negatively impacted the world in a variety of ways. Thousands have died, many more have fallen ill, and it continues to have a disastrous impact on the global economy. The virus has also significantly impacted people’s well-being and their mental health, where the effects are expected to continue long after businesses begin to re-open. Promoting resilience and positive mental health coping strategies are, therefore, vital to assisting people as this pandemic continues and long after a sense of “normalcy” returns. This paper, a program analysis of warr;or21, a resilience program, utilizes qualitative research methods to share the insights of participants who completed the program during the COVID-19 pandemic. The warr;or21 program was designed initially to enhance resilience in law enforcement and other first responders and has since been adapted for the general public. The data reveals that, from the perspective of the participants, warr;or21 has helped many of them cope and manage positively, specifically amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the warr;or21 program has the potential to help enhance people’s resilience and mental health during future adverse events as well as to be used proactively to further develop a person’s overall mental health and resilience.

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