ABSTRACT
The present research explored the influence of thinking style and the perception of threats to health and wealth on protective actions and well-being within the framework of the first wave of COVID-19 in Spain. We expected that an (versus concrete) thinking style would be related to greater protective behaviours while maintaining a higher sense of well-being. Through an online questionnaire (N = 1,043), we explored these relationships and found that the most severe perceived threats to health and wealth and the highest degree of ion were associated with the greatest protective behaviours. Importantly, when people did not feel very threatened, those who thought ly reported more protective behaviours. Regarding well-being, when people perceived greater threats, those who had an thinking style reported greater well-being. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the present research provides support indicating that an thinking style is a protective factor against adversities because it is related to protective behaviours and increased well-being even when people perceive severe health and wealth threats. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) En este estudio se explora la influencia que ejercen el estilo de pensamiento y la percepcion de amenazas a la salud y a la riqueza en las conductas de proteccion y en el bienestar de las personas en el contexto de la primera ola de COVID-19 en Espana. Anticipabamos que un estilo de pensamiento o (frente a uno concreto) estaria relacionado con una mayor adopcion de comportamientos de proteccion y con una sensacion de bienestar mas alta. Exploramos estas relaciones mediante un cuestionario en linea (N = 1,043) y hallamos que una percepcion de mayor gravedad en las amenazas contra la salud y la riqueza y un nivel mas elevado de abstraccion estaban vinculados con mas conductas de proteccion. Un resultado relevante fue encontrar que, cuando los participantes no se sentian amenazados en exceso, quienes presentaban un pensamiento o mostraban comportamientos mas protectores. Por lo que se refiere al bienestar, cuando las personas percibian amenazas mas graves, quienes tenian un estilo de pensamiento o expresaban mayor nivel de bienestar. En el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19, nuestra investigacion corrobora la idea de que el estilo de pensamiento o es un factor de proteccion frente a la adversidad, puesto que esta relacionado con conductas de proteccion y con un mayor nivel de bienestar percibido, incluso cuando las personas perciben amenazas graves a su salud y su riqueza. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the world in significant ways just as it has opened new vistas of thought in both secular and religious circles. This article is situated within the frames of African Pentecostalism, which found itself in a gap during the lockdown in early 2020. This ‘gap’ is grounded on Nimi Wariboko’s The Pentecostal Hypothesis, which I use as a theoretical framework to interrogate how the African Pentecostal churches, which inadvertently found themselves in a ‘gap’ responded to the predictions that Africa would be the most hit by the pandemic, and how it also impacted on their teaching and praxis. The thrust of The Pentecostal Hypothesis is the creation of, and insertion into, a gap between sense and spirit, and how such a gap creates an opportunity for meaning-making: “It does not make sense, but it makes spirit.” That is, even though something may not make sense on the basis of scientific data and rational argument, there is a sense in which appealing to spiritual data, it will still be meaningful. In order to achieve this, the author adopted interpretive method, a qualitative method that helps to engage Wariboko’s socialtheological worlds of the Pentecostals within the context of COVID-19. Through this method, we analyze the responses of African Pentecostals and attempt to validate them against The Pentecostal Hypothesis. It was thus observed that many Pentecostals’ theological explications of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot pass as absolute epistemology of the pandemic as some of them assumed. Consequently, it is concluded that there is the need for a constructive engagement so that sense and spirit can be utilized for human flourishing in a pandemic or crisis situation. © 2022 Open Access/Author/s - Online @ http//: www.pharosjot.com
ABSTRACT
The present coronavirus crisis caused a major worldwide disruption which has not been experienced for decades. The lockdown-based crisis management was implemented by nearly all the countries, and studies confirming lockdown effectiveness can be found alongside the studies questioning it. In this work, we performed a narrative review of the works studying the above effectiveness, as well as the historic experience of previous pandemics and risk-benefit analysis based on the connection of health and wealth. Our aim was to learn lessons and analyze ways to improve the management of similar events in the future. The comparative analysis of different countries showed that the assumption of lockdowns' effectiveness cannot be supported by evidence-neither regarding the present COVID-19 pandemic, nor regarding the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu and other less-severe pandemics in the past. The price tag of lockdowns in terms of public health is high: by using the known connection between health and wealth, we estimate that lockdowns may claim 20 times more life years than they save. It is suggested therefore that a thorough cost-benefit analysis should be performed before imposing any lockdown for either COVID-19 or any future pandemic.