Bethel Psy­chol­ogy De­part­ment Dis­cusses Psy­cho­log­i­cal Well­be­ing Dur­ing Pan­demic

MISHAWAKA – COVID-19 is at the fore­front of pub­lic at­ten­tion prompt­ing sev­eral dif­fer­ent re­sponses. Bethel’s own psy­chol­ogy de­part­ment weighs in on the psy­cho­log­i­cal im­pact of the sit­u­a­tion. 

As a re­sult of the coro­n­avirus, there has been quite a wide range of neg­a­tive re­sponses. Hoard­ing, ag­gres­sion, and un­re­lent­ing panic are among the most com­mon and the most widely pub­li­cized. See­ing these be­hav­iors in the news all the time prompts the ques­tion: what causes peo­ple to be­have in this way? Luck­ily, Bethel’s Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­ogy, Dr. Spivey, and As­sis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­ogy, Dr. Beamer-Rhode, hap­pen to be ex­perts in the field of what makes peo­ple tick and were happy to of­fer their in­sights. 

One im­por­tant thing to re­mem­ber about the en­tire sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing COVID-19 is that, while the virus is new, the pub­lic’s re­ac­tion is not nearly as novel. It is the fact that the coro­n­avirus has not been en­coun­tered pre­vi­ously that puts it above known threats like the flu which kills thou­sands every year. 

“Yeah, these re­sponses are pretty com­mon, not just for COVID-19, but for any dif­fi­cult stres­sor,” said Spivey. “If the stres­sor was un­pre­dictable… fear of the un­known… no con­trol over the stres­sor… all of this ap­plies to COVID-19.” 

If there was any part of the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion that was atyp­i­cal, it would be the mad dash to stores. Dr. Beamer-Rhode at­trib­utes this knee-jerk re­ac­tion to the re­sult of fear on the hu­man psy­che. 

“I think some of the more self­ish, pan­icked ‘hoard­ing’ be­hav­iors of COVID-19 is a bit unique,” Beamer-Rhode said. “Peo­ple don’t make their best de­ci­sions when op­er­at­ing in a state of fear.” 

Both pro­fes­sors pointed to ear­lier oc­cur­rences of panic that prompted sim­i­lar be­hav­iors, though both ad­mit that very few re­sulted in re­sponses this se­vere. 

“There has not been any­thing this se­vere na­tion­ally for awhile,” Spivey said. “Maybe the re­ces­sion in 2008, cer­tainly 9/​11.” 

“There was a ter­ri­ble global Flu Pan­demic a lit­tle over 100 years ago," Beamer-Rhode said. “The dif­fer­ence was that most peo­ple only pur­chased what they needed and the mass short­ages were not as sig­nif­i­cant of a prob­lem.” 

Turn­ing to what can be done to pre­vent the spread of the virus, the im­por­tance of self-care can­not be un­der­stated. Keep­ing emo­tions un­der con­trol is al­most as im­por­tant as hy­giene. Main­tain­ing daily rou­tines, stay­ing ac­tive, and nu­tri­tional up­keep are all in­cred­i­bly ben­e­fi­cial to men­tal and phys­i­cal health. Both Dr. Spivey and Dr. Beamer-Rhode ad­vise en­gag­ing in calm­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and ob­tain­ing as much in­for­ma­tion as pos­si­ble in or­der to make in­formed de­ci­sions. Prob­a­bly the most im­por­tant thing to do in these dif­fi­cult times, how­ever, is to keep hope up by hav­ing a pos­i­tive men­tal at­ti­tude. 

“Things won’t al­ways be like this,” said Beamer-Rhode. “Do your best to fo­cus on re­main­ing hope­ful for the re­turn of cof­fee shop dates, trips to the li­brary, go­ing to a movie with friends, and yes, even a ‘helm run’ or a jump in the ponds.”