From anxiety to action—Experience of threat, emotional states, reactance, and action preferences in the early days of COVID-19 self-isolation in Germany and Austria

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted everyday life virtually everywhere in the world, enabling real-life research on threat-and-defense processes. In a survey conducted within the first days of implementing social distancing measures in Austria and Germany, we aimed to explore the pathways from threat perception to preferences of defense strategies. We found that anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance were specifically elicited by motivational (vs. epistemic) discrepancies. In a second step, we tested the mediating effect of anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance on preferences regarding personal-social and concrete-abstract defenses. Experiencing anxiety was related to interest in security-related actions, and approach-affect was related to both personal projects and social media use. Participants experiencing reactance were more inclined to pursue personal projects (personal-abstract) and less interested in security-related (personal-concrete) actions. They also showed marginally lower system justification (social-abstract). Additionally, we examined the relationship of loneliness with defense strategies, showing that loneliness was associated with lower system justification and security behaviors. The results suggest that individuals deal with threat in their own ways, mostly depending on affective state and motivational orientation: Anxiety was related to security, approach-state to action (both social and personal), reactance to derogation of the system and disregard for security, while loneliness was associated with inaction.

Antecedents of Individuals’ Concerns Regarding Hospital Hygiene and Surgery Postponement During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional, Web-Based Survey Study

“…We are also the first to investigate anticipated behaviors that relate to people’s decisions to postpone their surgery or advise a person close to them against surgery during the pandemic. Our findings are in line with those of a German-Austrian survey [ 30 ], which found that anxiety was positively related to security actions. Our results suggest that state anxiety is the most influential factor of anticipated health-related behaviors and concerns about safety or hygiene.…”

Mitigating isolation: The use of rapid antigen testing to reduce the impact of self-isolation periods

“…As such, when considering social interventions, it is important that one balances the short-term cost in productivity against the longer-term gains acquired through reduced transmission. We strive to avoid total economic shut down, but need to appreciate the detrimental effect on mental and physical well-being caused by extended periods of self-isolation (2, 3).…”

Kebutuhan pasien COVID-19 selama isolasi mandiri: Literature Review

“…Penggunaan obat-obatan pencegahan yang terkait dengan COVID-19 Nasir et al, (2020) Pengobatan sendiri terjadi karena pemberitaan di media, internet, dan kepanikan tentang kelangkaan obat Makowska et al, (2020) Perilaku terkait pengobatan sendiri telah meningkat selama penguncian karena COVID-19 Druică et al, (2021) Pengobatan sendiri dipengaruhi oleh kebiasaan dan gejala yang sama dengan orang lain Sadio et al, (2021) Prevalensi pengobatan sendiri meningkat sebagai upaya pencegahan COVID-19 Zhu et al, (2021) Peresepan antibiotik spektrum luas meningkat selama pandemi COVID- 19 Heydargoy, (2020) Pengobatan sendiri dan penggunaan antibiotik dapat menyebabkan krisis resistensi terhadap antibiotik Quispe-cañari et al, (2020) Mayoritas responden melakukan pengobatan sendiri untuk mengobati gejala pernapasan seperti flu Kebutuhan psikologis Herat, (2020) Isolasi mandiri secara paksa menyebabkan masalah kesehatan mental Terry et al, (2020) Gangguan mood akibat pembatasan COVID-19 berisiko psikopatologi Fancourt et al, (2021) Tingkat depresi dan kecemasan tertinggi terjadi pada tahap awal pembatasan wilayah COVID-19. Xiao et al, (2020) Kecemasan dikaitkan dengan stres dan penurunan kualitas tidur Ubara et al, (2020) Efek isolasi mandiri akibat COVID-19 relatif berkurang setelah satu tahun Reiss et al, (2020) Individu menghadapi ancaman selama isolasi mandiri Attal et al, (2020) Stres mental dapat disebabkan oleh kurangnya kepercayaan diri atau sumber perawatan diri Chan et al, (2020) Selama pandemi COVID-19, ada ketergantungan yang besar pada penyedia layanan kesehatan informal di rumah Glintborg et al, (2021) Kecemasan meningkat pada pasien yang memiliki kondisi komorbiditas atau komorbiditas Makowska et al, (2020) Kondisi keuangan masa depan membuat masyarakat khawatir dengan kesehatannya Ferreira et al, (2021) Individu yang dikarantina di rumah melaporkan kecemasan sebagai konsekuensi sosial dan ekonomi dari pandemi COVID-19 Song et al, (2021) Informasi yang berlebihan menyebabkan kesedihan, kecemasan, dan disonansi kognitif Hanif et al, (2021) Sering terpapar media sosial memiliki hubungan yang signifikan dengan kecemasan akibat informasi Sallie et al, (2020) Orang yang stres selama periode isolasi diri lebih cenderung menyalahgunakan alkohol. I.…”

“…Banyak orang yang merasa cemas selama pandemi COVID-19 karena berbagai alasan. Penanganan epidemi yang buruk membuat merasa terancam (Reiss et al, 2020), terutama jika kurang percaya diri atau bahkan tidak dapat menangani hal ini (Attal et al, 2020;Chan et al, 2020). Masalah bertambah parah ketika penderita tersebut memiliki penyakit penyerta (Glintborg et al, 2021), memiliki masalah keuangan (Makowska et al, 2020), dukungan sosial yang rendah (Ferreira et al, 2021), dan terlalu banyak mengakses informasi yang salah (Song et al, 2021).…”