scholarly journals “I Teach, Therefore I Am”: The Serial Relationship between Perceived Vulnerability to Disease, Fear of COVID-19, Teacher Identification and Teacher Satisfaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 13243
Author(s):  
Anita Padmanabhanunni ◽  
Tyrone Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Protective Factor ◽  
Teacher Satisfaction ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Professional Identification ◽  
Conventional Teaching ◽  
South African School ◽  
Teaching Satisfaction ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

In early 2020, school closures were implemented globally to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Africa, emergency remote teaching was not sustainable, and conventional teaching resumed in the context of the second and third waves of the pandemic, heightening fear and anxiety about infection among teachers. The pandemic necessitated shifts in the scope of a teacher’s job, potentially impacting their professional identity and job satisfaction. This study investigated the interrelationship between teaching identification, teaching satisfaction, fear of COVID-19 and perceived vulnerability to disease among a sample of South African school teachers (n = 355). A serial mediation analysis supported the hypotheses that teaching identification mediated both the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and teacher satisfaction and the association between perceived vulnerability to disease, fear of COVID-19 and teacher satisfaction. The findings suggest that teacher identification is a potential protective factor, and strengthening professional identification can potentially assist teachers as they negotiate the uncertainty and stress associated with the current pandemic.

scholarly journals A dataset for the perceived vulnerability to disease scale in Japan before the spread of COVID-19

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 334
Author(s):  
Yuki Yamada ◽  
Haoqin Xu ◽  
Kyoshiro Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Baseline Data ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
Psychological Studies

The COVID-19 outbreak is a worldwide medical and epidemiological catastrophe, and the number of psychological studies concerning COVID-19 is growing daily. Such studies need baseline data from before the COVID-19 outbreak for comparison, but such datasets have not yet been accumulated and shared. Here, we provide a dataset on the perceived vulnerability to disease scale for 1382 Japanese participants obtained through an online survey conducted in 2018 that will be useful for comparison with current or post-COVID-19 perceived vulnerability to disease data.

scholarly journals A Bayesian approach to reveal the key role of mask wearing in modulating projected interpersonal distance during the first COVID-19 outbreak

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255598
Author(s):  
Matteo P. Lisi ◽  
Marina Scattolin ◽  
Martina Fusaro ◽  
Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Keyword(s):  
Situational Factors ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Interpersonal Distance ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Perceived Severity ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Dispositional Factors ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
Moral Attitudes

Humans typically create and maintain social bonds through interactions that occur at close social distances. The interpersonal distance of at least 1 m recommended as a relevant measure for COVID-19 contagion containment requires a significant change in everyday behavior. In a web-based experimental study conducted during the first pandemic wave (mid-April 2020), we asked 242 participants to regulate their preferred distance towards confederates who did or did not wear protective masks and gloves and whose COVID-19 test results were positive, negative, or unknown. Information concerning dispositional factors (perceived vulnerability to disease, moral attitudes, and prosocial tendencies) and situational factors (perceived severity of the situation in the country, frequency of physical and virtual social contacts, and attitudes toward quarantine) that may modulate compliance with safety prescriptions was also acquired. A Bayesian analysis approach was adopted. Individual differences did not modulate interpersonal distance. We found strong evidence in favor of a reduction of interpersonal distance towards individuals wearing protective equipment and who tested negative to COVID-19. Importantly, shorter interpersonal distances were maintained towards confederates wearing protective gear, even when their COVID-19 test result was unknown or positive. This protective equipment-related regulation of interpersonal distance may reflect an underestimation of perceived vulnerability to infection; this perception must be discouraged when pursuing individual and collective health-safety measures.

UNPUBLISHED, REJECTED MANUSCRIPT NOT TO BE RESUBMITTED: Infection and ideology- Perceived vulnerability to disease predicts political conservatism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A Vitriol
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Behavioral Immune System ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
Political Right

Recent research on the behavioral immune system suggests that perceived vulnerability to disease is associated with greater ingroup preference, conformity, and support for established cultural practices. However, little of this research has looked at the implications of perceived vulnerability to disease for an orientation linked to many of the above outcomes: ideology. In two studies, we test the hypothesis that perceived vulnerability to disease should be associated with greater political conservatism. In Study 1, we find a relationship between perceived vulnerability to disease and increases in conservatism over time. In Study 2, we use data from the World Values Survey to demonstrate that perceived vulnerability to disease predicts a stronger preference for the political right in a large sample of respondents from a wide variety of nations. Together, these results suggest that the consequences of the behavioral immune system may extend to abstract identifications like ideology.

Effects of Disease Threat and Attitude Similarity on Willingness to Help: The Mediating Role of Disgust

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110434
Author(s):  
Murray Millar ◽  
R. Shane Westfall ◽  
Andrea Fink-Armold
Keyword(s):  
Target Person ◽  
Attitude Similarity ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Willingness To Help ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease ◽  
University Undergraduates

The current research tested the hypothesis that an increase in perceived disease vulnerability would create more feelings of disgust and a reduced willingness to help persons with dissimilar attitudes. To test these hypotheses, two studies were performed. In the first study, 173 university undergraduates indicated their willingness to help a target person who held similar or dissimilar attitudes. Then the participants’ feelings of disgust about helping, and perceived vulnerability to disease were measured. In the second study, 127 university undergraduates read materials designed to make a disease threat or a non-disease threat salient then indicated their willingness to help a target person with similar or dissimilar attitudes. As predicted a concern about disease and attitude similarity interacted to influence willingness to help and this effect was mediated by feelings of disgust.

scholarly journals Predicting fear and perceived health during the COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning: A cross-national longitudinal study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247997
Author(s):  
Stephanie Josephine Eder ◽  
David Steyrl ◽  
Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk ◽  
Michał Pieniak ◽  
Judit Martínez Molina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability ◽  
Viral Spread ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Perceived Vulnerability To Disease

During medical pandemics, protective behaviors need to be motivated by effective communication, where finding predictors of fear and perceived health is of critical importance. The varying trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries afford the opportunity to assess the unique influence of ‘macro-level’ environmental factors and ‘micro-level’ psychological variables on both fear and perceived health. Here, we investigate predictors of fear and perceived health using machine learning as lockdown restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were introduced in Austria, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic. Over a seven-week period, 533 participants completed weekly self-report surveys which measured the target variables subjective fear of the virus and perceived health, in addition to potential predictive variables related to psychological factors, social factors, perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), and economic circumstances. Viral spread, mortality and governmental responses were further included in the analysis as potential environmental predictors. Results revealed that our models could accurately predict fear of the virus (accounting for approximately 23% of the variance) using predictive factors such as worrying about shortages in food supplies and perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), where interestingly, environmental factors such as spread of the virus and governmental restrictions did not contribute to this prediction. Furthermore, our results revealed that perceived health could be predicted using PVD, physical exercise, attachment anxiety and age as input features, albeit with smaller effect sizes. Taken together, our results emphasize the importance of ‘micro-level’ psychological factors, as opposed to ‘macro-level’ environmental factors, when predicting fear and perceived health, and offer a starting point for more extensive research on the influences of pathogen threat and governmental restrictions on the psychology of fear and health.

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