Students’ Views on the Covid-19 pandemic: Attitudes, Representations, and Coping Mechanisms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.4/240Keywords:
covid-19 pandemic, representations, fear, distrust, conspiracyAbstract
The new developments in our social context, the recent pandemic outbreak, caused a series of changes in everyday practices. The student population represents a particular case, both their safety and future education were under duress during this period. However, their views over the situation have not been present in the scientific literature. The present qualitative research aimed to explore students' perceptions, attitudes, views, and representations on the Covid-19 pandemic. Three focus groups, each containing twelve participants, were organised to explore these aspects and students’ particular experiences. Focus group sessions were audio-recorded and the transcripts were analysed. The results revealed four dimensions of the students' representations: change – as a constant of the present, prospective scenarios, the pulse of the moment, and surrounding risks. The limitations and the importance of the study are discussed. The consequences of these representations are particularly important due to the influence they can have on people’s practices during the crisis and the extent of measures’ acceptance. The results offer precious insights on why some communication strategies used by the authorities had a low compliance rate, what should be done differently, and what should be considered in order to promote adaptive health behaviors during the latter phases of the pandemic.
References
Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1990). Social identification, self-categorization and social influence. European Review of Social Psychology, 1, 195–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/14792779108401862
Azlan, A. A., Hamzah, M. R., Sern, T. J., Ayub, S. H., & Mohamad, E. (2020). Public knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Malaysia. Plos one, 15(5), e0233668. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233668
Barbour, R. (2008). Doing focus groups. Sage Publications.
Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8
Calisher, C., Carroll, D., Colwell, R., Corley, R. B., Daszak, P., Drosten, C., Enjuanes, L., Farrar, J., Field, H., Golding, J., Gorbalenya, A., Haagmans, B., Hughes, J. M., Karesh, W. B., Keusch, G. T., Lam, S. K., Lubroth, J., Mackenzie, J. S., Madoff, L., Mazet, J., Palese, P., Perlman, S., Poon, L., Roizman, B., Saif, L., Subbarao, K., Turner, M. Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19. The Lancet, 395(10226), 42-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30418-9
Cruwys, T., Stevens, M., & Greenaway, K. H. (2020). A social identity perspective on COVID-19: Health risk is affected by shared group membership. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(3), 584– 593. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12391
Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., Callan, M. J., Dawtry, R. J., & Harvey, A. J. (2016). Someone is pulling the strings: Hypersensitive agency detection and belief in conspiracy theories. Thinking and Reasoning, 22(1), 57-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2015.1051586
Franks, B., Bangerter, A., & Bauer, M. (2013). Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality: an integrated account from cognitive science, social representations theory, and frame theory. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 424. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00424
Gilder, E. (2020). Towards a post-pandemic postmodern society - Is the pandemic a deconstruction of the postmodern society? Postmodern Openings, 11(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.2/153
Harper, C. A., Satchell, L. P., Fido, D., & Latzman, R. D. (2020). Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5
Herek, G. M. (2007). Confronting sexual stigma and prejudice: Theory and practice. Journal of Social Issues, 63(4), 905–925. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00544.x
Hogg, M. A., Abrams, D., & Brewer, M. B. (2017). Social identity: The role of self in group processes and intergroup relations. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20(5), 570-581. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430217690909
Huberman, A. M., & Miles, M. B. (1994). Data management and analysis methods. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (p. 428–444). Sage Publications.
Idoiaga, N., Berasategi, N., Eiguren, A., & Picaza, M. (2020). Exploring children’s social and emotional representations of the Covid-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1952. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01952
Jaspal, R., & Nerlich, B. (2020). Social representations, identity threat, and coping amid COVID-19. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(S1), S249-S251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000773
Kruger, R. A. (1994). Focus groups: a practical guide to applied research. Sage Publications.
Li, H. (2020). Communication for coproduction: Increasing information credibility to fight the coronavirus. The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6-7), 692-697. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020942104
Madriz, E. (2000). Focus groups as feminist research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 835–850). Sage Publications.
Mamzer, H. (2020). Postmodern society and COVID-19 pandemic: Old, new and scary. Society Register, 4(2), 7-18. https://doi.org/10.14746/sr.2020.4.2.01
Mian, A., & Khan, S. (2020). Coronavirus: the spread of misinformation. BMC medicine, 18(1), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01556-3
Mikušková, E. B. (2018). Conspiracy beliefs of future teachers. Current Psychology, 37(3), 692-701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9561-4
Mirbabaie, M., Bunker, D., Stieglitz, S., Marx, J., & Ehnis, C. (2020). Social media in times of crisis: Learning from Hurricane Harvey for the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic response. Journal of Information Technology, 35(3), 195-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268396220929258
Moscovici, S. (1988). Notes towards a description of social representations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18(3), 211–250. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420180303
Ornell, F., Schuch, J. B., Sordi, A. O., & Kessler, F. H. P. (2020). “Pandemic fear” and COVID-19: mental health burden and strategies. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 42(3), 232-235. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2020-0008
Páez, D., & Pérez, J. A. (2020). Social representations of COVID-19 (Representaciones sociales del COVID-19). International Journal of Social Psychology, 35(3), 600-610. https://doi.org/10.1080/02134748.2020.1783852
Payne, G., & Payne, J. (2004). Key concepts in social research. Sage Publications.
Pfattheicher, S., Nockur, L., Böhm, R., Sassenrath, C., & Petersen, M. (2020). The emotional path to action: Empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y2cg5
PlumX Metrics. (2020). Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19. The Lancet, 395(10226), e42-e43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30418-9
Roberto, K. J., Johnson, A. F., & Rauhaus, B. M. (2020). Stigmatization and prejudice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrative Theory and Praxis, 42(3), 364-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2020.1782128
Roy, D., Tripathy, S., Kar, S. K., Sharma, N., Verma, S. K., & Kaushal, V. (2020). Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51(1), 102083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102083
Savitsky, B., Findling, Y., Ereli, A., & Hendel, T. (2020). Anxiety and coping strategies among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse Education in Practice, 46(1), 102809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102809
Shen, L., Condit, C. M., & Wright, L. (2009). The psychometric property and validation of a fatalism scale. Psychology and Health, 24(5), 597-613. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870440801902535
Silverman, D. (2000). Doing qualitative research. A practical handbook. Sage Publications.
Smith, J. R., & Hogg, M. A. (2008). Social identity and attitudes. In W. Crano & R. Prislin (Eds.), Attitudes and attitude change (pp. 337-360). Psychology Press.
Swami, V., Voracek, M., Stieger, S., Tran, U. S., & Furnham, A. (2014). Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories. Cognition, 133(3), 572-585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.006
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup confl ict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Brooks/Cole.
Wagner, W., Duveen, G., Farr, R., Jovchelovitch, S., Lorenzi‐Cioldi, F., Marková, I., & Rose, D. (1999). Theory and method of social representations. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2(1), 95-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-839X.00028
Yang, H., Bin, P., & He, A. J. (2020). Opinions from the epicenter: An online survey of university students in Wuhan amidst the COVID-19 outbreak1. Journal of Chinese Governance, 5(2), 234-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2020.1745411
Zacher, H., & Rudolph, C. W. (2020). Individual differences and changes in subjective wellbeing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. American Psychologist. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000702
Zipprich, H. M., Teschner, U., Witte, O. W., Schönenberg, A., & Prell, T. (2020). Knowledge, attitudes, practices, and burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in people with Parkinson’s disease in Germany. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(6), 1643. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9061643
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Postmodern Openings Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
