Keeping distance biggest Covid challenge
Indians will struggle to adjust with unfamiliar behaviour, warn psychologists
Maintaining physical distance will be one of the greatest public health challenges in the Covid-19 era as people will have to unlearn past behaviours and adapt to new ones, psychologists warned.
The biggest fear is that while these factors and others may drive people to ignore physical distancing, it is the ‘learned helplessness’ that might prove fatal to the effort.
“As people see continuing cases of the disease — despite the lockdown, despite the calls for adoption of safe habits — the reinforcement of the thought that their actions can have little influence on the outcome can result in learned helplessness. If this happens, people may not be very willing to give up past habits,” Dr Anupama, head of the psychology department at Osmania University, said.
On the other hand, there is the question of putting others ahead of oneself as physical distancing is an absolutely critical component of controlling the spread of Covid-19. The problem is all about messaging, telling people that they should stay away from others to keep everyone safe.
Anything else, such as messaging that the person next to them might be dangerous to their health, would be disruptive.
According to Dr Diana
Monteiro, when it comes to the idea of protecting others, it requires a different level of psychological awareness that personal safety lies in the safety of all those around an individual.
“People are worried about resource crunch. That is why we see them clambering over one another. The thinking goes something like this: ‘I see what I want or need and I will get it before anyone else because I am not sure how long it will be available’,” she said.
People steer themselves towards self-preservation and any caution about staying safe is likely not be received in the proper context.
“What is needed is full transparency in these times, which appears not to be the case,” she said.
Dr Anupama said people feel insecure following missing out on their social lives. The close family bonds, expression of affection and love and being physically close to others is part of our social culture. “So when someone suddenly says stay away from others, it is very hard to understand. Social bonding the way we as a society are used to, results in positive effects, feeling good about oneself. Being asked to give this up is a very hard thing to do,” she explained.
Another aspect, she said, was public understanding of disease treatment. When anyone falls sick, they go to a doctor, hospital get treated and medicines. “Even when someone catches the flu, we do not follow distancing methods at home. Our concept of regaining health is very linear. This also makes it hard to understand why physical distancing is important in Covid-19 era,” she said.