The heroic self under stress: Prospective effects on anxious mood in Israeli adults exposed to missile attacks

How does social support relate to emotional availability for learning during COVID-19? A multi-group structural equation model of university students from the U.S. and Israel

Given the social and emotional tolls of the COVID-19 pandemic on college and university students, many students have become academically disengaged during the pandemic. Although some colleges and universities have the capacity to promote social support for their students, research has yet to comprehensively demonstrate the relationship between social support and academic engagement. To fill this gap, we leverage survey results from four universities across the United States and Israel. Through multi-group structural equation modelling, we explore (a) how perceived social support relates to being emotionally unavailable for learning, (b) how this relationship is partially explained through coping and COVID-19 concerns, and (c) how these relationships can differ across countries. We find that students who perceived higher levels of social support had lower rates of being emotionally unavailable for learning. Part of this relationship occurred through greater rates of coping and, subsequently, fewer concerns about the pandemic. We also noticed significant differences in these relationships between countries. We conclude with a discussion of study implications for higher education policies and practices.

Tracking perceived stress, anxiety, and depression in daily life: a double-downward spiral process

Introduction

Previous studies using retrospective questionnaires have suggested a complex relationship between perceived stress and related negative emotions and emphasized their importance in mental health. However, how daily perceived stress, anxiety, and depression interact dynamically in a natural context remains largely unexplored.

Methods

This study conducted a longitudinal survey that applied experience sampling methodology to data from 141 Chinese college students (58% women, mean age = 20.1 ± 1.63 years).

Results

The hierarchical linear models confirmed that daily perceived stress and negative emotions (i.e., perceived depression and anxiety) could reciprocally reinforce one another with the characteristic dynamics of a cognitive-emotional downward spiral. Additionally, anxiety and depression could further circularly aggravate each other imminently. These two intertwined downward-spiral processes constitute a double-downward-spiral model.

Discussion

The findings contribute to a better understanding of the interactive mechanisms underlying perceived stress and its related negative emotions in everyday life and highlight the significance of early emotion regulation and stress relief in healthy people.

Anxiety in the face of the first wave of the spread of COVID-19 in Israel: Psychosocial determinants of a "Panic-to-complacency-continuum"

BACKGROUND AND METHODS

Based on an established ongoing prospective-longitudinal study examining anxiety in response to COVID-19, a representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults were recruited online. A baseline assessment was employed two days prior to the first spread of COVID-19, followed by six weekly assessments. Three classes of general anxiety and virus-specific anxiety were identified: (1) "Panic" (a very high and stable anxiety throughout the spread), (2) "Complacency" (a very low and stable anxiety throughout the spread), and (3) "Threat-Sensitivity" (a linear increase, plateauing at the 5th wave). For general-anxiety only, a fourth, "Balanced," class was identified, exhibiting a stable, middle-level of anxiety. We tested theory-based, baseline, social-cognitive predictors of these classes: self-criticism, perceived social support, and perceptions/attitudes towards the Israeli Ministry of Health. We also controlled for trait anxiety. Multinomial regression analyses in the context of General Mixture Modeling were utilized.

RESULTS

Baseline virus-specific anxiety linearly predicted emerging virus-specific anxiety classes. Virus-specific panic has higher trait anxiety than the other two classes. The general anxiety panic class was over-represented by women and exhibited higher baseline general anxiety and self-criticism than all other classes, and higher baseline virus-specific anxiety along with lower perceived support and less positive perceptions of the ministry of health than two of the three other classes.

CONCLUSIONS

Preexisting anxiety shapes subsequent anxious responses to the spread of COVID-19. The general-anxiety panic class may be markedly demoralized, requiring targeted public-health interventions.

Changes in General and Virus-Specific Anxiety During the Spread of COVID-19 in Israel: A 7-Wave Longitudinal Study

We compared three hypothetical trajectories of change in both general and COVID-19-specific anxiety during the 1^st wave of the spread in the state of Israel: panic (very high anxiety, either from the outset or rapidly increasing), complacency (stable and low anxiety), and threat-sensitive (a moderate, linear increase compatible with the increase in threat). A representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults was recruited online. A baseline assessment commenced two days prior to the identification of the first case, followed by six weekly assessments. Latent Mixture Modeling analyses revealed the presence of the three trajectories: (1) "threat-sensitivity" (29% and 66%, for general and virus-specific anxiety, respectively), (2) Panic (12% and 25%), and (3) Complacency (29% and 9%). Only for general anxiety, a fourth class representing a stable mid-level anxiety was identified ("balanced": 30%). For general anxiety, females and the initially anxious - both generally and specifically from the spread of the virus - were more likely to belong to the panic class. Men and older participants were more likely to belong to the complacency class. Findings indicate a marked heterogeneity in anxiety responses to the first wave of the spread of COVID-19, including a large group evincing a "balanced" response.

Integrative Psychotherapy With Physicians In the Trenches: Convergence of Cognitive, Existential, and Psychodynamic Processes

In this article, I present insights gleaned from over a decade of working in therapy with physicians in the trenches who practice at general hospitals located in an area afflicted by the community and political violence, and recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychotherapy with these physicians requires an integrative psychotherapeutic approach that heeds their changing needs. Espousing cognitive-existential psychodynamics (CEP), a theory-based psychotherapeutic perspective developed for complex cases, I show how cognitive, existential, and psychodynamic processes strongly converge during the treatment of physicians in the trenches. Such convergence is manifested in issues of mental representations (of death, medicine, and the hospital) and choice/meaning.

Nostalgia and Heroism: Theoretical Convergence of Memory, Motivation, and Function

This article seeks to develop theoretical convergences between the science of nostalgia and the science of heroism. We take four approaches in forging a conceptual relationship between these two phenomena. First, we examine the definitions of nostalgia and heroism from scholars, laypeople, and across cultures, noting how the history of defining the two phenomena has shaped current conceptualizations. Second, we demonstrate how nostalgic experiences consist of reminiscences about our own personal heroism and about cultural role models and heroes. A review of heroism research, moreover, shows also that our recall of our heroes and of heroism is tinged with nostalgia. Third, we make linkages between heroism and nostalgia research focusing on functions, inspiration, sociality, and motivation. Nostalgia researchers have illuminated the functions of nostalgia implicating the self, existential concerns, goal pursuit, and sociality. Our review shows that heroism researchers invoke similar categories of hero functionality. Finally, we propose three areas of future research that can profit from the merging of nostalgia and heroism science, involving the mechanisms by which (a) heroism can fuel nostalgia, (b) nostalgia can promote heroic action, and (c) wisdom results from nostalgic reverie.

The Metamorphosis of the Hero: Principles, Processes, and Purpose

This article examines the phenomenon of heroic metamorphosis: what it is, how it unfolds, and why it is important. First, we describe six types of transformation of the hero: mental, moral, emotional, spiritual, physical, and motivational. We then argue that these metamorphoses serve five functions: they foster developmental growth, promote healing, cultivate social unity, advance society, and deepen cosmic understanding. Internal and external sources of transformation are discussed, with emphasis on the importance of mentorship in producing metamorphic growth. Next we describe the three arcs of heroic transformation: egocentricity to sociocentricity, dependence to autonomy, and stagnation to growth. We then discuss three activities that promote heroic metamorphosis as well as those that hinder it. Implications for research on human growth and development are discussed.

Being Conscious of One's Own Heroism: An Empirical Approach to Analyzing the Leadership Potential of Future CEOs

From the disciplinary field of the science of heroism, there is a need to deepen the processes that this science comprises, and at the same time, to test methods of inquiry to account for the variety of processes associated with this science. Linked to this sensitivity, the objective of this contribution is to jointly analyze, in a sample of future CEOs, what they imagine about heroism, their psychological types, and their values orientation. The sample consisted of 45 students (21 men and 24 women) between 22 and 47 years old (M = 26.69, SD = 4.47), who were part of a master’s program oriented toward training future CEOs to be leaders. The analytical instruments were the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a story that each participant developed about him/herself as the main hero or heroine, and a questionnaire on personal values. In the psychological types observed, the functions of thinking and sensing predominated, with intuition and feeling residing at a lower level of consciousness. With regard to the stories, the majority of the sample offered tales in which the hero/heroine was confronted with a mystery to solve (or mission to fulfill), faced difficulties, and, finally, achieved harmony between the personal and the collective. Regarding the values, significant associations are observed between the gender, the characteristics of the psychological types, and the content of the story about their own hero / heroine. In sum, the research carried out offers an empirical approach to the study of the subjective elements of heroism, combining quantitative and qualitative aspects in an educational setting, and broadening the perspectives on the science of heroism.