Place Affect Interventions During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 health and economic crisis has also brought a rise in people being unable to cope with their existing medical conditions and other issues such as domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol among others. Suicidal tendencies have been on the rise. Feelings of isolation causing emotional distress in place-confined settings have put additional pressure on the healthcare systems demanding that we find additional and complementary means of support for those in need. This is important not only in the current pandemic but also in the post-pandemic world. The goal is to collectively contribute and address the recurring calls for actions to maintain global well-being and public health. An important discussion to bring on the table is the need to promote interventions for people to cope with the pandemic and to adjust to the post-pandemic world. Promoting affective attitudes toward place can foster well-being outcomes. This has important benefits and is of relevance to governments, policymakers, and healthcare professionals in delivering better healthcare equipping people with coping mechanisms both throughout the pandemic and in the long run. However, the key challenge is how to foster these place affect attitudes meeting the changing demands in the post-pandemic world. It is in the middle of a crisis that the conversation needs to start about how to strategically plan for the recovery.

Social Bonding and Public Trust/Distrust in COVID-19 Vaccines

“…The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is now being called the pandemic of the unvaccinated, mainly due to the Delta variant [10]. In Europe, although several countries have initiated the establishment of more restrictive conditions to stop the virus, the Delta variant is in full expansion [11]. The World Health Organization recognizes that vaccine hesitancy remains one of the most significant health threats [12].…”

“…More efforts are being invested in studying vaccination intent as many anticipate that an effective roll-out of the vaccine will end the pandemic [14]. This short paper helps to understand the inherent disposition for social bonding at a time of crisis [11,15]. It proposes social bonding in a crisis situation can determine trust/distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines.…”

“…It is human nature to bond with others. People tend to rely further on their social relations in a time of crisis [15], which has important implications in determining human behavior [11]. Social bonding finds support in place attachment theory [16], focussing on the mother-infant bond, which further expands to accommodate other societal relationships in environmental settings.…”

“…Scholars, medical doctors, and behavioral psychologists continue to emphasize the detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on mental health [47,50,51]. There is an urgent call to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, promote vaccine uptake [12,34,52], and propose solutions to address the consequences of the global health pandemic on people's mental health and quality of life [11,29,53]. This short paper discusses the role of social bonds and people's trust/distrust and word of mouth communication in COVID-19 vaccination behavior.…”

Responses to Offense at Work and the Impact of Hierarchical Status: The Fault of the Leader, Causal Attributions, and Social Support During the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis

“…As Ramkissoon (2021a) shows, a redeployment of work tasks and a re-establishment of the employee program is likely to reduce the impact on organizations and employees. On the other hand, we give credit to the claim that "people suffering mental distress as a consequence of being laid off are likely to cultivate more negative place affect (p. 4).…”