Pandemic anxiety, conspiracy beliefs and selected patterns of psychological adaptation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/onis2022.94.110Keywords:
pandemic anxiety, conspiracy beliefs, patterns of psychological adaptation, COVID-19, pandemicAbstract
Aim. Excessive pandemic anxiety can contribute to individually and socially irrational behaviour. The aim of the study was to search for relationships between pandemic anxiety, conspiracy beliefs and patterns of psychological adaptation that may be related to the level of anxiety: Depressive, Suspicious, Auto-aggressive, Eccentric and Orderly.
Method and materials. The study was conducted on a group of 211 people with self-report questionnaires in the form of an electronic file. The correlation procedure was used, and the following research tools were used: A ‘What are you like?’ questionnaire (JJJ) to study adult patterns of psychological adaptation, an Opinion Questionnaire to examine the level of conspiracy beliefs, and the Current Well-being Scale (SAS) to measure pandemic anxiety.
Results. Pandemic anxiety positively correlates with selected patterns of psychological adaptation: Eccentric, Suspicious, Depressive, Auto-aggressive and Orderly. The strength of some relationships varies with the age and sex of the subjects. Pandemic anxiety also significantly correlates with conspiracy beliefs. The Kruskal-Wallis test for 4 subgroups composed of gender and the level of Conspiracy beliefs showed significant differences in the level of pandemic anxiety. The pairwise test showed that significant differentiation applies only to men with higher and lower levels of conspiracy beliefs.
Conclusions. Pandemic anxiety positively correlates with all the adaptation patterns included in the study. Increased results of Depressive, Auto-aggressive, Suspicious and Eccentric adaptation are associated with a higher level of pandemic anxiety, especially in younger respondents (up to 28 years of age). The Orderly adaptation is associated with pandemic anxiety mainly in older respondents (over 28 years of age). Pandemic anxiety correlates significantly with conspiracy beliefs in men, but not in women, suggesting that women are less susceptible to conspiracy interpretations of the pandemic.
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