scholarly journals Uncertainty makes me emotional: Uncertainty as an elicitor and modulator of emotional states

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Emma Tupitsa ◽  
Helen Dodd ◽  
Colette Hirsch

Uncertainty and emotion are an inevitable part of everyday life and play a vital role in mental health. Yet, our understanding of how uncertainty and emotion interact is limited. Here, an online survey was conducted (n = 231) to examine whether uncertainty evokes and modulates a range of negative and positive emotions. The data show that uncertainty is predominantly associated with negative emotional states such as fear/anxiety. However, uncertainty was also found to modulate a variety of other negative (i.e. sadness/upset, anger/frustration, confusion) and positive (i.e. surprise/interest and excited/enthusiastic) emotional states, depending on the valence of an anticipated outcome (i.e. negative, positive) and the sub parameter of uncertainty (i.e. risk and ambiguity). Uncertainty increased the intensity of negative emotional states and decreased the intensity of positive emotional states. These findings support prior research suggesting that uncertainty is aversive and associated with negative emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, the findings also revealed that uncertainty is involved in eliciting and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena beyond fear and anxiety. This study highlights an opportunity for further study of how uncertainty and emotion interactions are conceptualised generally and in relation to mental health.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Lina Martínez ◽  
Valeria Trofimoff ◽  
Isabella Valencia

COVID-19 pandemic is harming many social and economic spheres beyond physical health. The subjective well-being of the population (positive emotions and life satisfaction) and the prevalence of stressors affecting good mental health like worry, depression, and anxiety are increasing worldwide. This analysis presents evidence of subjective well-being and mental health in Colombia, South America, during the current crisis. The data for this analysis comes from an online survey released after one month of quarantine. In total, 941 adults participated in the study. Results show that women are more affected by their well-being and experience more often worry, depression, and anxiety than males. In particular, younger women and from the lower socioeconomic strata. Respondents identify three primary concerns because of the pandemic: i) financial consequences, ii) health (personal and loved one's health), and iii) productivity. Respondents are, on average, more concerned for the health of loved ones than their health. 49% of study participants report having an income reduction as a consequence of the pandemic, but women in all subgroups analyzed are more affected than males. In terms of productivity –working remotely-, educated people, and from 50+ age range, feels more productive working from home. Evidence from this analysis contributes to the broader research of the consequences of COVID-19 on the well-being of the population. Evidence comes from a country in the global South with high population ratings of subjective well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction before the pandemic. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Wang ◽  
Bijia Song ◽  
Yun Shao ◽  
Junchao Zhu

Background: Work-related stress among healthcare professionals poses a serious economic and healthcare burden. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of burnout as well as anxiety, depression, and stress in medical residents from different majors, and assess the effects of an online psychological intervention on the mental health status of medical residents with a high degree of burnout.Methods: We conducted an online survey that collected information on the demographics, mental health, and burnout conditions of medical residents from Shengjing Hospital. The mental health condition was assessed by the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS)−21. Further, burnout was assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Medical residents with a total MBI score between 50 and 75 were selected to receive online psychological intervention for 3 months.Results: Two-hundred and ten medical residents completed the questionnaire, of whom, 63 residents with an MBI score between 50 and 75 received the 3-month online psychological intervention. Anesthesia residents showed the highest level of depression, anxiety, and stress, and presented with a lower sense of personal accomplishment, higher emotional exhaustion, and higher depersonalization. Furthermore, pediatric residents had the second highest DASS and MBI scores following anesthesia residents. Following the online psychological intervention, negative emotional states and burnout levels were significantly lower among anesthesia and pediatric residents. There were no differences in the level of stress and sense of personal accomplishment pre- and post-online psychological intervention among the different majors.Conclusion: Our findings revealed high levels of burnout, as well as depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in medical residents, with marked differences among different majors. The online psychological intervention effectively improved emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization, and relieved the psychological problems such as anxiety and depression in medical residents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Sreeja R. Kuppam ◽  

Background This qualitative study investigated the psychological effects on 21 U.S. high school students during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Aim The study aimed to identify and assess the pandemic’s effect on the mental health of these students. Method To determine the stress and anxiety students faced during the pandemic, an online survey used five open-ended questions that focused on awareness of the pandemic surrounding the major themes of insight, stress, anxiety, social support, and adapted coping strategies. NVivo software analyzed the raw data. Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological analysis method converted the quantitative results into a visual/verbal form. Based on the analysis, the researcher identified the pandemic’s effects on students’ mental health and well-being. Results All 21 participants responded to each of the five questions. Of the participants, 72% demonstrated a negative outlook on their future. Seventy percent (70%) of the participants felt that COVID-19 hurt their social life because of safety precautions, such as social distancing. Even though schools and their faculty tried to keep students engaged and active, 64% of the participants found it challenging to be physically distanced from friends and teachers while learning from home. Of the students, 62% worried about missing out on sports and activities canceled due to the pandemic. 63.14% of the students felt the pandemic stressed them to the point that fear and anxiety overwhelmed them with many questions about the future. Conclusion This study’s results may help create programs that better meet students’ mental and social needs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Parrado-González ◽  
Victor León-Jiménez ◽  
José C. León-Jariego

Abstract Home confinement during the COVID-19 crisis causes problems in everyday life that can affect people's mental health. In this context, the purpose of this study was (1) to identify the most frequent problems experienced during the home confinement, (2) to analyse whether these problems vary according to socio-demographics; and (3) to study the influence of home confinement on mental health. One thousand five hundred sixty-nine participants living in Spain during the COVID-19 lockdown answered an online survey including questions about socio-demographics, problems of home confinement and mental health. We used factor analysis to group the home confinement problems into identifiable categories. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods for comparison between socio-demographics were used, and the influence of subsets of home confinement problems on mental health was analysed by multiple linear regression.The 16 evaluated problems were grouped into three factors: “Anger and Frustration”, “Deprivation of Social Contact”, and “Living Together Issues”. The most frequent problem was “missing somebody”, while “being afraid of going mad” was the least frequent one. Women, young people, people with less space at home, and teleworkers and non-working people during the lockdown period reported more home confinement problems. The Anger and Frustration factor was the one most related to mental health. These results highlighted the problems that people had to face during home confinement and their influence on mental health. Finally, the paper suggests designing specific strategies to cope with these problems according to participants’ socio-demographics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Y Jin Tee ◽  
Raja Intan Arifah binti Raja Reza Shah ◽  
Karuna S Thomas ◽  
Ng Siew Li ◽  
Evone Phoo Yee Mun

Resilience functions to promote psychological growth and buffer against the effects of negative events. Individual traits that promote optimal mental health beyond resilience, however, remain poorly understood. The current study addresses this gap through a positive psychology perspective. We examine how promotive traits – courage, optimism, hope, and protective traits – nostalgia, wisdom, and spirituality promote well-being and buffer against negative emotional states. We hypothesized that promotive traits will be positively related to well-being while protective traits will be negatively related to negative emotional states. Six-hundred and twenty-six (626) Malaysians responded to an online survey at the end of the country’s second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (June-September 2020). We conducted a series of regression analyses, controlling for resilience, socio-economic status, age, and perceptions towards government crisis management efforts. Results indicate that courage, optimism and hope positively predicted well-being. The strongest promotive trait contributing to well-being is hope. Results also showed that the only significant protective trait against negative emotional states is spirituality. Interestingly, nostalgia and wisdom positively predicted negative emotional states. Findings indicate that beyond resilience, courage, optimism, hope and spirituality are the strongest predictors of well-being and protect against negative emotional states amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are of theoretical relevance for resilience and positive psychology research, and practically beneficial in informing mental health interventions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Vidyadhara ◽  
A Chakravarthy ◽  
A Pramod Kumar ◽  
C Sri Harsha ◽  
R Rahul

AbstractIntroductionThe COVID-19 outbreak created a major panic among all the citizens of the country owing to its severity, contagiousness within the community, lack of specific treatment and possibility of re-infection. All these factors along with the uncertain behaviour of the virus lead to state of fear and concern all throught out the nation. The current study represents the mental health survey conducted on the students of South Indiaafter the completion of one month quarantine period of the COVID-19 outbreak.MethodologyThe present study is a cross-sectional, web-based online survey which consists of 21-item DASS questionnaire. Thiswas used to assess the emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress. Using Google Forms, the questionnaire was randomly distributed among the pharmacy students of selected colleges. Mean with standard deviation was calculated for continuous variables and the number with percentage was calculated for categorical variables.ResultsA total of 500 participants responded to the questionnaire. More than half of the responses were received from females (65%). On assessment it was found that, 26 % of respondents reported severe to extremely severe depressive symptoms; 31.5 % of respondents reported severe to extremely severe anxiety symptoms, and 19 % reported severe to extremely severe stress levels.ConclusionIn India during the outbreak of COVID-19, an alarming number of students were found to have an impact on mental health due to the outbreak and were observed to have higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The study findings shows the need of conducting more such studies and can be used to prepare appropriate psychological interventions to improvemental health among the young public during the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
Kartika Nur Fathiyah ◽  
Tria Widyastuti ◽  
Farida Agus Setiawati ◽  
Rahmatika Kurnia Romadhani ◽  
Yulia Ayriza ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic alters many aspects of everyday life that we have grown accustomed to. The enactment of various new policies to curb the spread of the disease, i.e., social distancing, work and study from home, restrictions on large-scale activities and restriction in travelling, compel each one of us to adjust. Not to mention the fear of being infected with COVID-19. These conditions led to various psychological problems such as anxiety, low hope, and negative emotions. Efforts to improve people’s mental health are urgently needed. One such step is to increase one’s understanding of self-management in facing psychological problems due to COVID-19. This study aims to improve the community’s mental health, namely the residents of Blotan hamlet during the COVID-19 pandemic through online self-management psychoeducation. To test the effectiveness of psychoeducation, this study used a one-group pre and post-test design. A total of 31 subjects participated in the activity in full. We can infer the effectivity through the anxiety score, hope, and positive emotions on the pre and post-test measurements. The results found that self-managed psychoeducation facing psychological problems during the pandemic significantly increased positive emotions (t = -2,753, df = 30, and p <.05). As for the measurement of anxiety and hope, there was no significant change due to the subject’s anxiety score and hope were already in the medium category.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. 102-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Bezborodovs ◽  
G. Thornicroft

SummaryWork plays an important part in everyday life. For people experiencing mental health problems employment may both provide a source of income, improved self-esteem and stability, and influence the course and outcomes of the disorder. Yet in many countries the work-place consistently surfaces as the context where people with mental health problems feel stigmatised and discriminated the most. This paper will review the existing evidence of stigma and discrimination in the workplace, consider the consequences of workplace stigma on the lives of people experiencing mental health problems, and discuss implications for further action.


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