The role of perceived level of threat, reactance proneness, political orientation, and coronavirus salience on health behavior intentions.

OBJECTIVE: This pre-registered study was designed to test whether reminders of death and coronavirus would have similar or different effects on health behavior intentions concerning COVID-19 (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing) and whether the type of framing of these behaviors would moderate these effects. DESIGN: The study utilized a 3 (threat: mortality salience vs. coronavirus reminder vs. control topic) x 3 (framing: autonomy-supportive vs. controlled vs. neutral) design. Measures of perceived threat of COVID-19, reactance proneness, and political orientation were included as individual differences. RESULTS: Although the interaction between threat and framing conditions was not significant, the data revealed that (1) lower perceived threat of COVID-19 was associated with lower health behavior intentions to reduce the spread of the virus; (2) after an induction to express their thoughts and feelings about COVID-19, participants with low perceived threat of COVID-19 significantly increased their health intentions; (3) perceived threat of COVID-19 moderated the relationship between reactance proneness and health intentions, such that those high in reactance proneness reported lower intentions unless they had high perceptions of threat; and (4) politically conservative participants reported lower intentions to engage in healthy behaviors, and this relationship was mediated by their lower perceived threat of COVID-19.

Predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms, COVID-related functional impairment, and burnout among medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Physicians are particularly vulnerable to mental health symptoms during global stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Such stressors can increase death anxiety, which is a vulnerability factor for psychological dysfunction. Thus, exposure to COVID-related death may play a unique role in physicians' mental health during the pandemic. This cross-sectional study collected self-reported data from 485 resident physicians and fellows. Participants reported mental health symptoms, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), burnout, and functional impairment due to the pandemic. Participants also reported death anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, cognitive accessibility of death-related thoughts (DTA), and workplace exposure to COVID-19. Death anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, DTA, and workplace COVID-19 exposure all independently predicted PTSS. Furthermore, COVID-19 anxiety and DTA interacted to predict PTSS, such that high levels of COVID-19 anxiety predicted higher PTSS, regardless of DTA level. Death anxiety and COVID-19 workplace exposure interacted to predict PTSS as well, such that death anxiety predicted PTSS only when COVID-19 exposure was high. Burnout was predicted by COVID-19 anxiety and workplace exposure, and COVID-related functional impairment was predicted by death anxiety and COVID anxiety. These findings demonstrate that death-related and COVID-related concerns, independently and in interaction with each other, play an important role in psychological distress among physicians.

Pandemic reminders as psychological threat: thinking about COVID-19 lowers coping self-Efficacy among trauma-exposed adults.

Reminders of COVID-related problems have been pervasive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Such reminders could have negative mental health impacts, especially among psychologically vulnerable people, including those with trauma-related problems. We experimentally examined the effects of pandemic reminders among trauma-exposed participants sampled from Prolific (N = 238). Participants were induced to think about health-related or social isolation-related aspects of COVID-19 or their favourite TV show and existential anxiety and coping self-efficacy (CSE) were then assessed. Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) related to a prior stressor and COVID-related functional impairment were assessed as potential moderators of reactions to pandemic reminders. Results showed that both types of pandemic reminders lowered CSE among participants with either higher PTSS or COVID-related functional impairment. Pandemic reminders did not significantly affect existential anxiety. These findings suggest that reminders of the COVID-19 pandemic may undermine the mental health of psychologically vulnerable populations.

Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger-not weaker-in its wake.

Terror Management Theory and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Terror management theory is focused on the role that awareness of death plays in diverse aspects of life. Here, we discuss the theory?s implications for understanding the widely varying ways in which people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that regardless of whether one consciously believes that the virus is a major threat to life or only a minor inconvenience, fear of death plays an important role in driving one?s attitudes and behavior related to the virus. We focus on the terror management theory distinction between proximal defenses, which are activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention and are logically related to the threat at hand, and distal defenses, which are activated when thoughts of death are on the fringes of one?s consciousness and entail the pursuit of meaning, personal value, and close relationships. We use this framework to discuss the many ways in which COVID-19 undermines psychological equanimity, the diverse ways people have responded to this threat, and the role of ineffective terror management in psychological distress and disorder that may emerge in response to the virus.