Effects of older adults' social identification on psychological flourishing and exercise program adherence.

BACKGROUND: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many exercise programs moved online. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which older adults' social identification with other exercise program members contributed to their psychological flourishing and exercise program adherence. METHODS: The study represented a secondary analysis of data derived from the Seniors COVID-19 Pandemic and Exercise (SCOPE) Trial, in which older adults were randomized to a waitlist control condition or one of two online (personal v group) exercise programs. Only data from participants in the trial intervention conditions (N = 162; Mage = 73.52 years; SD = 5.61) were utilized in this secondary analysis. We assessed psychological flourishing and social identification at baseline and every two weeks, as well as program adherence over each 2-week block, for 12 weeks. RESULTS: Based on stepwise multilevel modeling the results revealed that older adults' social identification with others in their respective exercise program had a direct effect on psychological flourishing (ΔR2Unique Marginal = 0.063, p < .001) and program adherence (ΔR2Unique Marginal = 0.014, p = .03). CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight the value of bolstering older adults' social identification with others in an online exercise program to support adherence and well-being.

Belonging, Wellbeing and Stress with Online Learning during Covid-19

Sense of belonging, perceived stress and wellbeing are reported factors that influence students' university experience and learning. The COVID-19 pandemic and shift to online emergency remote teaching were likely to exacerbate these affective dimensions of student experience. This article employed a quantitative survey research design to determine how students' sense of belonging, perceived stress and wellbeing were influenced during the pandemic. An online questionnaire was administered to 537 South African students at one residential university. Data analysis was performed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that platform pedagogy was a significant predictor of belonging, perceived stress, and wellbeing, while lecturers' pedagogical competence was not. Lived learning experience of online learning was a significant predictor of perceived stress, and communication was a significant predictor of belonging. The importance of the learning environment in student belonging and wellbeing is key to student success and this study provides insights for developing targeted interventions.

Parochial Altruism and Political Ideology

Parochial altruism refers to the propensity to direct prosocial behavior toward members of one's own ingroup to a greater extent than toward those outside one's group. Both theory and empirical research suggest that parochialism may be linked to political ideology, with conservatives more likely than liberals to exhibit ingroup bias in altruistic behavior. The present study, conducted in the United States and Italy, tested this relationship in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, assessing willingness to contribute money to charities at different levels of inclusiveness—local versus national versus international. Results indicated that conservatives contributed less money overall and were more likely to limit their contribution to the local charity while liberals were significantly more likely to contribute to national and international charities, exhibiting less parochialism. Conservatives and liberals also differed in social identification and trust, with conservatives higher in social identity and trust at the local and national levels and liberals higher in global social identity and trust in global others. Differences in global social identity partially accounted for the effects of political ideology on donations.

Do we need a strong captain to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic? Social identification, conspiracy theory beliefs, and the wish for a strong leader.

Introduction: In times of great uncertainty and hardship, calls for a strong leader tend to arise. The present study delved into this issue by examining possible sociopsychological antecedents of the wish for a strong leader during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: We examined the role of social identification, belief in conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, and trust in various relevant social actors in a sample of 350 Italian citizens. Results: Structural equation modeling analyses showed that identification with Italians was related to a lower wish for a strong leader through the mediation of trust. Identification with Europeans had a direct and negative association with the wish for a strong leader. Finally, greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs was related to a greater wish for a strong leader, directly and through diminished trust. Discussion: These findings suggest that belief in conspiracy theories might drive individuals to depart from democratic principles, whereas relying on meaningful social identities can effectively contrast possible authoritarian turns brought about by a global societal crisis, such as the coronavirus outbreak.

Risk and psychological return: a moderating role of COVID-19 risk perception in the impact of team identification on vitality after sport spectatorship in Tokyo

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of sport fans' team identification on their emotional experiences (i.e. vitality and game satisfaction) using two-wave data in a specific sport event during the declaration of the emergency statement in Japan. The study also aims to test the moderating effects of risk perceptions about COVID-19 and the game outcome on the relationship between team identification and vitality/game satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The present research was conducted in the context of a sport event in Tokyo (the Japanese Rugby Top League 2020–2021 Season Playoff Tournament Final) during the declaration of the emergency statement period in Japan. The data were collected through a two-wave design (before and after the game) from the spectators of the event. Findings: Team identification significantly predicted higher vitality after the game but not game satisfaction. Additionally, the moderation test found that sport fans with high social risk perception about the COVID-19 showed a positive relationship between team identification and vitality but not for the fans with low social risk perception. Practical implications: The present results suggest that sport events can be advertised for sport fans as a tool to increase physical and psychological energy in their daily lives during the pandemic. Originality/value: The present study demonstrated that team identification predicted greater vitality after the spectatorship during the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, higher social risk perception was a significant catalyst to improve vitality after the game. © 2022, Keita Kinoshita and Hirotaka Matsuoka.

Distance project-based learning during lockdown and learner's motivation

During the first lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, project-based learning (PBL) had to be implemented remotely. To gain knowledge on this learning context, we monitored motivation (in Self-Determination Theory framework), flow, social identification and self-rated performance during a 10-day project conducted with 281 engineering students. Final grades were also collected as objective performance indicators. Results show that intrinsic and identified motivation, flow, self-rated performance and group identification increased throughout the project, which suggests that remote PBL stimulated students' needs for autonomy and competence without hindering their need for relatedness. Furthermore, the analysis of significant predictors of teams' and individuals' performance draw avenues for improving PBL and stimulating intrinsic and identified motivation, for the subject and for the project, at the right time along the program. © Holder: Andréa Boisadan, Céline Viazzi, Christophe Bourgognon, Bernard Blandin & Stéphanie Buisine.

So Far, So Close: Identification with Proximal and Distal Groups as a Resource in Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic.

A robust body of research has highlighted the fundamental role of social identifications in dealing with emergencies and in predicting commitment behaviors. We report the results of two studies carried out in Italy to assess whether the subjective sense of belonging to meaningful proximal and distal social groups affected people's ability to cope with the pandemic crisis. Study 1 (N = 846) shows that different identifications with proximal (i.e., family and friends) and distal social groups (i.e., nation, European, and humankind) may act as buffers for individuals by reducing negative emotions and negative expectations about the future after COVID-19 and by increasing people's intentions to adhere to containment measures and to be involved in prosocial actions. Study 2 (N = 350) highlights the role of European identification in predicting propensities for using the tracing app and getting vaccinated. These results confirm the benefits of various types of identification (proximal vs. distant) in helping individuals deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the role of social identification and social and political trust on well-being and distress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants (n = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed.

Facial Mask Impact on Human Age and Gender Classification

The human face contains important information enabling the social identification of the owner about the age and gender. In technical systems, the face contains a number of important information that enables the identification of a person. The COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to cover the face with a mask and thus hide a significant part of information content in the face, important for social or technical purposes. The paper analyses how covering the face with a mask makes it difficult to identify a person in terms of age and gender determination. Analyzes with the employment of state of the art models based on deep neural networks are performed. Their effectiveness is investigated in the context of the limited information available, as with the case of the face covered with a mask. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Risk and psychological return: a moderating role of COVID-19 risk perception in the impact of team identification on vitality after sport spectatorship in Tokyo

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of sport fans' team identification on their emotional experiences (i.e. vitality and game satisfaction) using two-wave data in a specific sport event during the declaration of the emergency statement in Japan. The study also aims to test the moderating effects of risk perceptions about COVID-19 and the game outcome on the relationship between team identification and vitality/game satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The present research was conducted in the context of a sport event in Tokyo (the Japanese Rugby Top League 2020–2021 Season Playoff Tournament Final) during the declaration of the emergency statement period in Japan. The data were collected through a two-wave design (before and after the game) from the spectators of the event. Findings: Team identification significantly predicted higher vitality after the game but not game satisfaction. Additionally, the moderation test found that sport fans with high social risk perception about the COVID-19 showed a positive relationship between team identification and vitality but not for the fans with low social risk perception. Practical implications: The present results suggest that sport events can be advertised for sport fans as a tool to increase physical and psychological energy in their daily lives during the pandemic. Originality/value: The present study demonstrated that team identification predicted greater vitality after the spectatorship during the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, higher social risk perception was a significant catalyst to improve vitality after the game. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The link between family identification, loneliness, and symptom severity in people with eating disorders

Families play an important role in eating disorder (ED) recovery, and it has been suggested that they can ameliorate the loneliness associated with EDs. However, the psychological mechanisms through which this occurs have yet to be systematically explored. Utilising the Social Identity Approach to Health, we explore whether identification with one's family group positively predicts health in people with self-reported EDs due to its potential to reduce feelings of loneliness. We investigate this in two online questionnaire studies (N = 82;N = 234), one conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic and the second conducted in its early stages. In both studies, mediation analyses demonstrated that family identification was associated with fewer and less severe self-reported ED symptoms, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced self-reported ED-related impact and anxiety. In both studies, these benefits were suggestive of a protective role of family identification against loneliness. Our findings provide a framework for understanding in general why families can be considered an important social recovery resource and should be included in the treatment of adult EDs. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

How Identification With the Social Environment and With the Government Guide the Use of the Official COVID-19 Contact Tracing App: Three Quantitative Survey Studies.

BACKGROUND: Official contact tracing apps have been implemented and recommended for use across nations to track and contain the spread of COVID-19. Such apps can be effective if people are willing to use them. Accordingly, many attempts are being made to motivate citizens to make use of the officially recommended apps. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to contribute to an understanding of the preconditions under which people are willing to use a COVID-19 contact tracing app (ie, their use intentions and use). To go beyond personal motives in favor of app use, it is important to take people's social relationships into account, under the hypothesis that the more people identify with the beneficiaries of app use (ie, people living close by in their social environment) and with the source recommending the app (ie, members of the government), the more likely they will be to accept the officially recommended contact tracing app. METHODS: Before, right after, and 5 months after the official contact tracing app was launched in Germany, a total of 1044 people participated in three separate surveys. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses, examining the same model in all studies at these critical points in time. RESULTS: Across the three surveys, both identification with the beneficiaries (people living in their social environment) and with the source recommending the app (members of the government) predicted greater intention to use and use (installation) of the official contact tracing app. Trust in the source (members of the government) served as a mediator. Other types of identification (with people in Germany or people around the world) did not explain the observed results. The findings were highly consistent across the three surveys. CONCLUSIONS: Attempts to motivate people to use new health technology (or potentially new measures more generally) not only for their personal benefit but also for collective benefits should take the social context into account (ie, the social groups people belong to and identify with). The more important the beneficiaries and the sources of such measures are to people's sense of the self, the more willing they will likely be to adhere to and support such measures.

Research on psychological stress and mental health of medical staff in COVID-19 prevention and control.

BACKGROUND: The characteristics of COVID-19, such as the long incubation period, the fast transmission speed, the high demand for treatment, and the lack of prior treatment experience, have brought tremendous psychological stress to the medical staff involved in the epidemic prevention and control, seriously affecting the mental health of medical staff. Therefore, this paper conducts a discussion on the psychological stress and mental health of medical staff. METHODS: (1)Interview 28 medical staff fighting against COVID-19 from Wuhan Central Hospital and Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine. They have worked as doctors in mental health departments, surgery departments and emergency departments, nurses and management staffs; (2)Based on interviews and literature, the questionnaire survey is conducted among 528 medical personnel from all over the country who have participated in the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan; (3)Use the structural equation modeling to explore the influence mechanism of medical staff's psychological stress and mental health in the prevention and control of COVID-19. Results: The epidemic severity in hospital and the work intensity are the important psychological stressors for the front-line medical staff. Self-risk perception has a mediating effect on the severity of epidemic in hospitals and mental health of medical staff. Social identification has no moderating effect between the self-risk perception and the mental health.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall: Sociopolitical Predictors of Physical Distancing and Hand Hygiene During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Most health models emphasize individual factors in predicting health behavior. However, in the context of COVID-19 where the immediate response to stopping the spread of the virus requires collective efforts and change, other sociopolitical factors need to be considered. Prior research points to health behaviors being impacted by neighborhood and national social relations, social identification, confidence in government and political orientation. This research, though, is generally piecemeal (or specific), tends to be cross-sectional, and is usually not oriented to pandemics. These issues are addressed in the current research. A two-wave study with a representative sample of Australians (N Wave 1 = 3028) gathered during COVID-19 examined sociopolitical factors at the local and national level as predictors of health behaviors one month later. Four models were tested. These encapsulated geographic levels (local or national) and two health behaviors (hand hygiene or physical distance). In the three of the four models, social identification was a significant predictor of health behavior, while controlling for sociodemographic and individual-level measures. There were more mixed results for social relations and confidence in government. There is evidence that to better promote health behaviors sociopolitical factors need to be more prominent in public policy and health behavior models.

Negative Emotion Arousal and Altruism Promoting of Online Public Stigmatization on COVID-19 Pandemic.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has had a profound impact on society. Stigma is a common phenomenon in the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases. In the crisis caused by the pandemic, widespread public stigma has influenced social groups. This study explores the negative emotions arousal effect from online public stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on social cooperation. We constructed a model based on the literature and tested it on a sample of 313 participants from the group being stigmatized. The results demonstrate: (1) relevance and stigma perception promote negative emotions, including anxiety, anger, and grief; (2) the arousal of anger and grief leads to a rise in the altruistic tendency within the stigmatized group; and (3) stigmatization-induced negative emotions have a complete mediating effect between perceived relevance and altruistic tendency, as well as perceived stigma and altruistic tendency. For a country and nation, external stigma will promote the group becoming more united and mutual help. One wish to pass the buck but end up helping others unintentionally. We should not simply blame others, including countries, regions, and groups under the outbreak of COVID-19, and everyone should be cautious with the words and actions in the Internet public sphere.