Many studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is not based only on perceived risk, but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and social motives, especially mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic gave results consistent with this proposition: compliance with social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social, especially mating, motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission.

A range of studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and various social motives such as mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social motives, especially mating motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission.

Based on their cultural orientation, people display approving/disapproving attitudes to suicide/suicidal persons that may be seen as either phenomenon excluding or person excluding. We tested whether cultural value orientations and suicidal attitudes were related to beliefs in the efficacy of excluding the phenomenon versus the person for preventing suicide. A total of 857 Turkish university students responded to a survey that include measures of cultural orientation, prevention beliefs related to phenomenon exclusion and person exclusion, and suicide related attitudes. While participants with an individualistic value orientation reported person exclusion to be more effective in preventing suicide, participants with a collectivistic orientation believed phenomenon exclusion to be more effective. Permissive attitudes to suicide were inversely related to beliefs in the effectiveness of phenomenon exclusion but positively to beliefs in the effectiveness of person exclusion for preventing suicide, but the magnitude of the relationships was low. While phenomenon exclusion was positively related to the social acceptance of and helping for a suicidal peer, the opposite was true for person exclusion prevention beliefs (The magnitude of the relationships was low to medium). Participants who attempted suicide believed less in the efficacy of phenomenon exclusion in preventing suicide than those who did not report any suicide attempts. Our findings imply that culture‐sensitive prevention efforts in contexts and individuals with an individualistic value orientation may target reducing the stigma surrounding suicidal persons, but in contexts and individuals with a collectivistic value orientation, they may target decreasing the stigma surrounding the phenomenon of suicide itself.

Specific phobia is defined as a notable and continuous fear of a certain object or a situation that particularly impairs daily life and functioning. It is also one of the most common psychological disorders. Exposure-based interventions are commonly used in the treatment of specific phobias. However, some limitations of the standard methods require the need for alternative approaches. In light of this, the use of virtual reality technology in psychotherapy has become increasingly widespread in recent years and is now integrated with exposure therapy. Virtual reality provides real-time interaction using the computer-generated three-dimensional environment via variety oftechnological tools. Applications of virtual reality in exposure therapy have proven to be an important intervention method, especially in the psychopathologies such as specific phobias. In this study, virtual reality exposure therapy for the treatment of specific phobias is systematically reviewed. Inclusion criteria were taken into account in the scanning performed in APA (PsycINFO), EBSCO, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Ulakbim ve TRDizin databses following the PRISMA method. Following that, ten randomized controlled trials, which included adult participants meeting the diagnostic criteria for specific phobia, examined the efficacy of virtual reality and exposure therapy compared to the control group, and the ones with full text could be accessed, were included in this systematic review. The included studies were evaluated in terms of sample attributes, primary measurement tools, research design, characteristics of the intervention and its efficacy. In general, the findings indicate the efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy in reducing specific phobia symptoms. Follow-up studies support the long-term maintenance of the results.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that significantly reduces the functionality of people with symptoms of this disorder and negatively affects their psychological health. Behavioral therapy is an empirically based therapy approach used in the treatment of this psychological disorder and many other psychological disorders. In this study, the articles on behavioral therapy intervention techniques used in the treatment of PTSD and the empirical basis of these techniques were compiled. The literature review in Turkish and English revealed that psychoeducation, real-life exposure, imaginary exposure, prolonged exposure, breathing exercises, relaxation training and systematic desensitization behavioral therapy intervention techniques are commonly used in the treatment of PTSD and that these techniques are effective in the treatment of the disorder.