Congratulations to Eva for successfully defending her masters thesis on April 13th! Eva is part of the Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience RIG and the Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine Research RIG. We are so proud of you! Read below for more information on her masters thesis.
Title: Examining the role of psychological distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has been profoundly taxing over the last two years. Psychological distancing is an adaptive emotion regulation strategy where one takes an objective, distant perspective, and is uniquely suited to addressing COVID-19 related stress. The first aim examined emotion regulation strategy use and how they are associated with pandemic related stress across individual differences. Study 1 found that psychological distancing is predictive of lower overall COVID-19 related stress. The second aim examined causal relationships between psychological distancing use and COVID-19 related stress. In Study 2, I implemented a remote emotion regulation training intervention that showed no significant group differences in training effects. The third aim examined how individual differences in perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 may moderate emotion regulation success in reducing stress. Exploratory Analysis 1 found that baseline fear of COVID-19 moderated the relationship between emotion regulation use and COVID-19 related stress. The fourth aim examined how multiple strategy use is associated with adaptive responses to COVID-19 related stress. Exploratory Analysis 2 found that engaging in a high number of strategies reduced the impact of psychological distancing on COVID-19 related stress. The studies discussed here shed light into generalizability of psychological distancing as an adaptive tool during COVID-19.
