The Independent and Interdependent Self-affirmations in  Action: Understanding their dynamics in India during COVID-19

Abstract

The study explored the role of two dissimilar familial and religious practices in distinctly shaping independent and interdependent self-affirmations in two value systems surfaced to protect self-integrity and self-worth challenged by the threats of COVID-19. A qualitative method was employed which recruited a heterogeneous sample of 19 participants (10 joint and 9 nuclear families) who reported the consequences of COVID-19 and the roles of familial and religious values in facing the pandemic threats through a semi-structured interview. Five themes were generated: the perceived strong threat of COVID-19, positive roles of joint familial values and the religious values, dissimilar roles of individualistic and collectivistic values as well as traditional and modern religious values. Threats were expressed in the experiences of anxiety, uncertainty and mood fluctuations. Interdependence, affiliation and support were joint familial values whereas worshipping, divine interpretation and spiritual practices denoted traditional religious values. Independence, scientific interpretations and personal focus were individualistic family values. Focus on explicit attributes denoted modern while divine interpretation, will of God and dependency on God reflected traditional religious values. Coexistence of independent and interdependent self-affirmations originating from two distinct familial and religious value systems was observed possibly due to the current transitions in the Indian society.

A Review of COVID-19 and Employment Implications: Evidence from Human Resource Management

“…Evidence of how self-affirmation interventions have improved the work-family balance in contemporary Covid-19 literature include: Li et al (2020) concluding after an experiment that "Self-affirmation is easy to accomplish since it does not require professional guidance or a distinct environment and occupies little time, it would be a convenient strategy for the public to cope with psychological stress during the outbreak" (p.886). This strand is consistent with the attendant Covid-centric literature on the importance of self-affirmation in alleviating work-family issues resulting from the pandemic (Pandey, Tiwari, & Rai, 2020;Dunning & Pownall, 2020;Black, 2020).…”