As human beings require learning experiences in order to restructure their knowledge and their way of interacting with reality, behold, COVID-19 has placed into our lives an unusual, unexpected experience, common to us all. At the same time, it is hence an object of analysis and learning in the field of healthcare. Each of us these days has our own view of the problem, seen from our vocational bias and view of reality. In my case, allow me to approach the matter as a healthcare, medical-biological and behavioral emergency.

            It is obvious that COVID-19 has all the components of a healthcare and medical-biological emergency, just as the WHO has declared. The configuration, functionality and structure of this fast-spreading biological entity is not yet clearly understood. We have not had knowledge of its primary care through conventional pharmacological means of prevention (vaccines), nor its secondary or tertiary care (pharmacological treatment, ventilators, etc.). Consequently, the disease is now pandemic, and growing by geometric progression.

            However, I would like to look more closely at the behavioral components of a health emergency. Unlike other diseases, where the individual can do much less to control their development (e.g. certain classic diseases), in this case it has become evident that the psychosocial or behavioral aspect is central to its development and proliferation. At the individual level, for instance, the variable of self-regulation has been identified in the research as decisive to one’s personal self-care and social habits, as well as to compliance with healthcare prescriptions. Thus, in the face of this crisis, individuals may manifest regulatory (adequate) behavior, nonregulatory behavior (doing nothing), or dysregulatory behavior (doing the opposite of what is recommended). In addition, coping strategies have proven to be essential for managing states of anxiety or fear in an unknown situation, leading the individual to an eventual state of engagement, as compared to burnout. These types of variables are particular to each person, but they can be induced externally, from the context.

            Consequently, the environmental design or psychosocial context may also be regulatory, nonregulatory or dysregulatory. The first, external regulatory type, encourages or predisposes individuals to self-regulate (appropriate messages and rules, social modeling, external monitoring, etc.), and is more predictive of the disease spreading along a flattened mesokurtic curve, over a longer period of time, giving the healthcare system the possibility to respond and not collapse under the weight of the crisis. The second, nonregulatory type, does nothing and allows persons to self-regulate at will. Mathematical models that predict the spread of the epidemic warn of the disease spreading along a platykurtic curve, leading to the exhaustion and collapse of the healthcare system. However, there is even the possibility of a dysregulatory external context. Such a context encourages people to do just the opposite of what they ought to do. In this case, the epidemiological consequences are lethal, prompting a “biological bomb” of propagation and contagion.

            To evaluate and intervene in such behavioral variables (psychoeducational and psychosocial) is the business of Psychology as a behavioral science. It is time to recognize that many health-related issues have both a medical-biological component and a psychosocial component (behavioral, personal and contextual). We must learn that Medicine, Biology and Psychology should work together on epidemiological and health-related issues, from an integrated, bio-psychosocial model.

Dr. Jesús de la Fuente, Full Professor of Developmental & Educational Psychology, Director of the Master’s degree in General Health Psychology, Vice-Dean of Research, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra. Member, Educational Psychology Division, General Council of Psychology, Spain.

Funding: R&D Project PGC2018-094672-B-I00 (Ministry of Science and Education, Spain), UAL18 SEJ-DO31-A-FEDER (University of Almería, Spain), and the European Social Fund

-------------------------------------------

Current events are forcing us to make broad behavioral adjustments in the organization of our personal life, family life and academic life for the weeks ahead. In order to make these adjustments smoothly, we need to keep in mind different behavioral principles and strategies:

1. In the subjects you teach, maintain a regulatory approach that gives your students a perception of control and continuity:

• Keep your usual hours of contact with the students, using appropriate technology. Direct online classes allow you to continue with the subject and lessen anxiety in the students.

• Make every adjustment you can so that all participants perceive normality and a sense of control. It is best to keep up the regular pace of the subject, while making adjustments that the situation requires. It is not a good time to make big, unexpected changes.

• If needed, adjust your assessment activities and system during this period. Make students aware that the new situation means new behavioral challenges, including the chance for them to practice online teamwork from home.

2. Apply external regulation, to help students in their learning process:

• If you have not already done so, this is a good time to convert all learning resources to online formats and encourage students to learn autonomously from home.

• Plan regular, general messages and aids for your students, so they feel that the teaching-learning process continues with some normality.

• Offer personalized online tutoring for students who need it. It is especially important to keep direct contact with the student representative in each class, in order to be informed of any possible problems or help that the students are needing.

• Regularly reevaluate whether students need adjustments to the material, assignments, etc.

• Pay attention to your students’ emotional state and expectations. Convey calm and assurance with your own behavior. Your students see themselves reflected in you and your demeanor when interacting with them. Become a mentor that supports the process, also on an emotional level.

• Circadian rhythms and personal habits go far in helping to maintain a sequence of action, to self-regulate and to not lose motivation.

• Give yourself daily doses of positive emotions and rewarding experiences while sheltering at home. It’s very important to keep a positive emotional outlook. Distress (diffuse negative emotionality and discouragement) can be triggered by abrupt changes in one’s daily rhythm, or by a sense of uncertainty and loss of behavioral control.

• Every day, plan objectives, schedules and actions, being flexible but also systematic.

• Exercise control over your own behavior. Force yourself to continue working and also to stop and take leisure time (a substitute for outside activities). Tell yourself that you are doing the right thing. Use different relaxation techniques to decrease any anxiety.

• It is not a good time to take on serious, complex issues in your life situation, because this may cause even greater stress and loss of situational control.  If it is truly necessary, make small, gradual adjustments.

• Take advantage to catch up on pending matters, whether personal, family-related or academic tasks. This is a gift of time.

• Evaluate your behavior at the end of the day and redefine your objectives (family-related, personal and academic) for the next few days.

----------------------------------------------