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Sing-Alongs, Mask Donations And Food Deliveries: Acts Of Kindness During The Coronavirus Crisis – WBUR
Coronavirus framed in a different light: well talk about acts of kindness popping up in communities around the country.
Jamil Zaki, professor of psychology at Stanford University. Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. Author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World." (@zakijam)
Andrea Asuaje, co-host, co-producer and reporter for Kind World, a radio series and podcast. (@aasuaje)
Exerpt from The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World" by Jamil Zaki
Excerpted from The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World" by Jamil Zaki 2019 by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher, Penguin Random House. All rights reserved.
Exerpt fromJamil Zaki's The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World" --"Thankfully, the Roddenberry hypothesisand the centuries of thought it representsis wrong. Through practice, we can grow our empathy and become kinder as a result.
"This idea might sound surprising, but in fact it is supported by decades of research. Work from many labs, including my own, suggests that empathy is less like a fixed trait and more like a skillsomething we can sharpen over time and adapt to the modern world.
"Consider our diet and exercise habits. Humans evolved in an environment where exercise was constant and sustenance was scarce. In response, we developed a taste for fat, protein, and rest. Now many of us are inundated with fast food and rarely required to exert ourselves. If we allowed our instincts to take over, we could indulge ourselves into an early grave. But many of us dont accept this; we fight to stay healthy, adjusting our diets and going to the gym because we know its the wise thing to do.
"Likewise, even if we have evolved to care only in certain ways, we can transcend those limits. In any given moment, we can turn empathy up or down like the volume knob on a stereo: learning to listen to a difficult colleague, or staying strong for a suffering relative. Over time, we can fine-tune our emotional capacities, building compassion for distant strangers, outsiders, and even other species. We can free our empathy from its evolutionary bonds."
The Washington Post: "Social distancing shouldnt mean losing human connection" "Im writing this from home. If you normally work at an office, I bet youre reading it from home. The coronavirus has shut down businesses, schools, movie theaters and festivals. Stanford, where I teach, has temporarily morphed into an online university.
"World events plant new buzz terms into our public consciousness. This time, its 'social distancing' efforts to keep people healthy by keeping them apart. Social distancing can be many things, including canceling NBA games, screening nursing home visitors and urging people to avoid public places when possible.
"All of these are vital strategies for slowing contagion. They also push against our deep instincts for togetherness, and can worsen our emotional well-being during already trying times."
Stanford News: "Instead of social distancing, practice distant socializing instead, urges Stanford psychologist" "Social distancing voluntarily limiting physical contact with other people has been vital to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. But its important that people remain connected otherwise a long-term mental and physical health crisis might follow the viral one, warns Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki.
"Here, Zaki, an associate professor of psychology in Stanfords School of Humanities and Sciences and director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Laboratory, discusses strategies to stay connected, starting with the reframing of 'social distancing' to 'physical distancing' to highlight how people can remain together even while being apart.
"Zakis research examines how empathy works and how people can learn to empathize more effectively. He recently authored The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World."
Can You Really Have Sex in the Coronavirus Era? – The National Interest
Lately, the one topic the entire world is concerned about is the novel coronavirus.
In line with that, as asex positiveneuroscience sexresearcher, I am writing this article with a couple of goals: to inform readers how sex relates to the current pandemic, and to prevent the spread of myths and misinformation in an agitated social environment.
Given the common modes of transmission of respiratory viruses, engaging in certain types of sexual activities may risk spreading the virus. However, expecting people to abstain from sex during times of isolation is unrealistic.
In the current situation, since sex is not a priority as a topic of discussion, misinformation can be easily fostered. People could unwillingly exacerbate the spread of the virus if they do not take the necessary precautions.
So, after washing our hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, lets get down to business!
Sex and COVID-19
Can the coronavirus be transmitted sexually? The answer is simple: we do not know. At the moment, there is no reliable research, official communication or scientific report from trusted authorities.
Sexual transmission is not the same as contracting the virus from your sexual partner. You can easily contract the virus from an infected sexual partner by activities like kissing just not through sexual transmission. That term is defined astransmission through sexual contact and fluids including vaginal, oral and anal sex.
Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for WHO the World Health Organization told theNew York Timesthatcoronaviruses are not typically sexually transmitted. According to theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are seven types of coronaviruses, all of which typically affect the respiratory tract in humans.
Other infectious disease expertssupport these observations. But thecoronavirusmay not be limited to the respiratory tract. There issome evidencethat it has beenfound in the feces of infected patients, although theCDC expects the risk of transmission is low.
The novel coranavirusspreads via dropletsthat are expelled when infected people exhale, cough or sneeze. Others become infected by inhaling these droplets, or touching them on a surface and then touching their face. Thus, chances of getting the virus through sexual activities with an infected person is almost certain.
Since the virus is present in respiratory secretions, it is easy to assume almost any sexual practice would lead to its transmission due to close contact. This is not the time to have that sexy social gathering.
The executive director of the American adult industry workers coalition, Michelle L. LeBlanc,called for a voluntary shutdownof all adult entertainment productions during the pandemic to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Does isolation mean no sex?
Sexual behaviour is a realm where variety is highly valued. Although it is practically impossible to ask people not to have sex, perhaps we could help by suggesting simple and small experimenting?
Since you can be infected with the virus andnot have symptoms, the only reliable way to know if you or your partner are infected is through testing. If you and your partner have no symptoms and have stayed at home, then sex likely poses no risk.
We can contribute to the control of the COVID-19 pandemic by taking a few precautions. We can also learn to thrive differently in times of sexual need. Here are a few general recommendations to keep in mind that can reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Safer sex
First and foremost, wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water before and after you do anything.
Think of it as the new foreplay in the time of isolation!
If you think you need a face mask, most likely you dont. Mask use is recommended by WHO onlyin specific cases. There is evidence that some women in Japan have worn face masks as a way to increase their attractiveness by hiding their faces when not wearing makeup. However, a study of this practice showed that for some, face masksdecrease facial attractiveness.
You can further minimize the risk of contagion by using condoms, dental dams or latex gloves. These may not be your cup of tea, but desperate times calls for fun measures.
Non-conventional intimacy
The acts associated with sexual intimacy can have as many variations and alternatives as the imagination can conceive. Instead of kissing and sexual intercourse, try erotic massage, chat rooms, spooning, mutual masturbation, watching or reading erotica, watching your partner pleasure themselves, etc.
Rimming (mouth to anus) should be out of the picture completely.
Engaging in any form of sexual intercourse involves an unnecessary risk, especially when there is stillno vaccine or medicine available to treat or prevent the disease.
Everybody knows we like what we cannot get. Refraining or abstaining from your favourite activities to minimize risk will only make them sweeter at the end, once the storm has passed.
Communication
It is essential to stay in tune with your partner, especially if you dont feel well or simply do not want to engage in any sexual activity. For the singles out there, just like some businesses are taking a toll due to the curfew, the dating pool may be hurt, too.
It is definitely not the best time to go on a Tinder date or expose yourself to unnecessary risks from new partners. If they really like you, they will wait. If you already have started engaging with people, keeping track of whom you have been with, where and when, is a good idea. There is no evidence that kissing through a mask is a safe practice.
Stay informed
The novel coronavirus is no joke, and it has already taken thousands of lives around the world andseveral livesin Canada. We all can do something to prevent the spread and keep those at risk safe.
Read reliable information. Do not panic. Stay indoors for now. Fear, rumours and misinformation spread quickly. Crucially, we need to trust the recommendations of scientists.
With appropriate efforts from our governments, scientists and our fellow humans, along with the right amount of patience, we will overcome this pandemic and hopefully will be able to go back to our regular lives. Maybe then, we can resume our more so-called dirty practices.
[Our newsletter explains whats going on with the coronavirus pandemic. Subscribe now.]
Gonzalo R. Quintana Zunino, PhD, Behavioural Neuroscience, Concordia University
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Image: Reuters.
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Can You Really Have Sex in the Coronavirus Era? - The National Interest
Immersion Neuroscience Index Reveals the Public Craves Direction From Its Elected Leaders, Not Celebrities, During a Crisis – StreetInsider.com
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Immersion Neuroscience Index Reveals the Public Craves Direction From Its Elected Leaders, Not Celebrities, During a Crisis - StreetInsider.com
Dr. Justin Frank: Trump "could see dead bodies" from coronavirus "and step over them" – Salon
Dr. Justin Frank literally wrote the book on Donald Trump's mind and behavior. In "Trump on the Couch,"Frank tracks Trump's life from childhood to adulthood and reveals a man who is mentally unfit in many ways from his intelligence, values, emotions and temperament down tothe deepest parts of the psyche to be president of the United States of America.
In the conclusion of Frank'sbook he warned that Donald Trump would represent a dire threat to the safety, security and future of America and the world. In all, the power of the presidency is too vast and the opportunities for abusing that power are too great for a personality and mind such as Donald Trump's to resist.
On both a day-to-day basis, and in crises such as the Russia and Ukraine scandals and now the coronavirus (all of which are largely self-made and self-inflicted) Donald Trump's poor mental health has only gotten worse. Unfortunately, the presidency, with its uniqueburdens and responsibilities,have not forced Trump to become a better person and to rise to the occasion. Instead, he has been caught in the undertow of a public downward spiral.
Trump's lies, delusions,greed, corruption andmalignant narcissismhave thrown theUnited States and the world into peril as this unstable president has confronted thecoronavirus pandemic in increasingly erratic fashion. It'sa crisis of science and empirical reality that he cannot simplywish away or ignore, much as he has tried.
In addition to "Trump on the Couch,"Frank is also the author of bestsellers about the previous two presidents,"Bush on the Couch" and "Obama on the Couch."He is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis.
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In this conversation, Frank told methat Donald Trump is essentially a sociopath who has no feelings of care, concernor empathy for other human beings. More frightening still, Frank raised the possibility that Trump is notcapable of feeling guilt or remorse. Not only will Trump feel no responsibility for thethousands if not millions of Americans who may die inthe coronavirus pandemic,Frank said, he is likely to blame Barack Obama and the Democrats for the carnage. Trump's followers, Frank warned, now perceive him as an infallible deity, and will obey his commands even at the risk of their own lives.
You wrote a book about the dangers represented by Donald Trump because of his mental health. You warned that he should not become president. Did you believe that Trump's behavior and the damage he is causing to the country and the world would get this bad?
Here is a quote from my book "Trump on the Couch": "Failure to intervene places the nation's people, rights and institutions at increasing risk of ending up as collateral damage in the wake of the externalization of Trump's epic internal struggle."
In other words, the struggle between building and breaking is an epic one for Trump. Trump's impulses towards breaking things has been winning and we are all going to be victims of it. The only way to deal with Trump is to remove him from office. Trump cannot be reasoned with. In many ways Trump is like a space alien, a force totally foreign to our world and human society.
I think this book predicted this, and that the only way to deal with it is stop him. You cannot reason with him. Like I said before, he's like an alien. He is a force.
During these last few days at his "briefings" on the coronavirus, and throughhis pronouncements on Twitter, Trump's behavior has further devolved. He cannot help himself. At this point, hisbehavior islike an entry from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Trump says the media itself hates him. He insists that media coverage of his response to the virus is unfair and negative. Beyond Trump's malignant narcissism and sociopathy lies paranoid thinking.
Trump escalates his attacks. A characteristic of paranoid thinking is rigidity he never gives up his paranoid worldview about whatever he fears attacked by. Thus, the press remains the enemy, and if he feels that the market is tumbling down and is losing the battle against the virus, he escalates his suspicion of questions,feeling attacked more often than not.
In his press conference on Monday, when he had free rein to ask a question himself, he first attacked the press with a question to Dr. [Deborah] Birx. He said, "We have a lot of very angry media all around this room, and they want one of these seats. Because of social distancing we are keeping them empty. Will there ever be a time when all those really angry, angry people who don't like me much to start off with and now they really don't like me will there ever be a time when those seats are full like they used to be?"It's as if he misses them, since paranoid people also need enemies for friends. The paranoid Trump needs them to feel complete, to keep his projected hatred nearby.
On Monday he also tweeted that the cure may be worse than the disease, and that social distancing can wreak havoc on our economy. Will he end social distancing because he needs the attention at his rallies?
President Trump himself is a public health risk. What I mean is that his paranoid behavior risks America's physical and emotional health. Because he is obsessed with the press being out to ruin him, he cannot accurately assess reality even the reality of his own intelligence services. He ignored the threat of coronavirus when presented with it on Jan.24. He didn't even think much about it because it didn't fit with his delusional belief system about "fake news."
There seems to be no bottom to Trump's pathological behavior.
There is no bottom. The only time you know about a bottom in human behavior is when a person reflects back on their behavior. One can say they hit rock bottom only in the past tense. One does not have the perspective in the middle of the journey. Everything that Donald Trump does is making things worse with the coronavirus. He has dismissed the reality of the virus. He was late to respond. He called it a hoax,ignored the experts anddid not order more tests for the virus.
It is very important to understand that if a person has a lifelong history of lying,the first person you lie to is yourself. The reason people lie to themselves is they do not want to face facts and reality. When a person lies like Trump does, they are attacking reality itself on an unconscious level. It even impacts how a person perceives things. For example, Trump could not perceive the dangers of the virus and therefore he is ill-equipped to respond to the pandemic. Because Donald Trump lies about reality so much, he does not have the ability to cope with it.
Donald Trump has told at least 16,000 public lies. He is a pathological liar. What happens when someone with that sickness is forced to confront reality? For example, what does a mind such as Trump's do when he actually sees thousands of people dead from the coronavirus something he very recently suggestedwas a hoax.
In my experience such a person will conjure up new lies. I've actually seen it happen in hospital settings. You can't convince a person out of a preconception if the person has been lying to themselves as extensively as Trump has. It is almost impossible. Donald Trump could see dead bodies lying in the street from the coronavirus and step over them. Trump would say to himself, "Whyare all these people lying around? How did that happen?" Trump would never think that he had anything to do with all of the deaths.
There is a part of Trump that is not even fully aware of the depth of his destructiveness. Trump recently sent out a tweet that said,"The world is at war with a hidden enemy. We will win." Unconsciously Trump is at war with an internal enemy, which is between wanting to be a builder and wanting to be a destroyer. The internal enemy is Trump's inner destructiveness.
The "hidden enemy" is also hidden from Trump himself. Other people see that Trump is the real "hidden enemy."
The hidden enemy is the president of the United Statesbecause he is the enemy of our collective well-being, of our feeling of safety, of our security, of leading the country in a time of crisis.
The coronavirus is just one of many scandals for Donald Trump. There wasRussia, Ukraine and impeachment, his numerous other scandals ofmalfeasance and corruption, etc.How do you connect the dots between these events?
One of the things that happens to every paranoid person and Trump is a very paranoid person is that the more they attack other people, the more frightened of other people they then become. So the more Trump attacks say the press, the more frightened of the press he becomes. The more he attacks Joe Biden, the more frightened of Joe Biden Trump becomes. Donald Trump is afraid of his actions coming back to hurt him.
When a person expresses hatred, and expels it, the hatred does not just dissipate. That hatred can bounce back at you. In psychoanalysis and psychiatry there is a term called the "return of the repressed." The thing that you've forgotten and gotten rid of can come back to get you.
The coronavirus is finally a reality he cannot attack and somehow alter or make go away. The coronavirus is reality coming back to get Trump. Unfortunately, the virus is hurting the rest of the American people and the world. Whatever Trump believes, he cannot stop the coronavirus with a wall.
Trump has gone from saying the coronavirus was a hoaxto claiming he was the first person to have used the term"pandemic" to describe it.How does hismind make such a huge move?
How does a mind like this convince itself? Because he really believes he's the first person to have said it's a pandemic. He really believes it.
Trump also believes he's the first person to realize that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Trump is like a child who discovers something and says, "Did you know this?" It is all new to Trump, so therefore he thinks he discovered it before anyone else.
When a person such as Donald Trump has a long history of lying to himself, he has eradicated or attacked reality. This means for Trump the coronavirus is a "hoax." It's "fake news." Such claims are how Donald Trump protects himself from reality,especially if that reality is something negative about himself that he wants to reject.
But then reality must seep in. In this case, the coronavirus is penetrating Trump's delusional reality. Now Trump goes from calling the coronavirus a hoaxto imagining himself as some type of savior who was the first person to realize the dangers posed by the virus. Now Trump tells people he will make everything all better. This is very dangerous. Trump believes he can control reality, like some type of god. In clinical terms this what is called a"manic triumph." Trump believes he is going to triumph over the danger that he created. This also explains why Trump said that he is not responsible for the coronavirus pandemic because then he is free to say it is a threat that he alone can stop.
Trump, quite predictably, is now saying thatthe Democrats and Barack Obama are really responsible for the coronavirus pandemic. Well, if the Democrats are the disease, what do you do with the disease? You eradicate the disease. Trump and his mouthpiecesare againencouraging violence against their "enemies."
Yes, it is an encouragement to violence. Ironically, it is the coronavirus which is threatening and attacking Trump when he himself is a germ-phobic person.
In your book "Trump on the Couch" you document Trump's germ phobia.How is he resolving his deep fear of germs and his reaction to the coronavirus pandemic?
A germaphobe is a person who is frightened of germs, and they see them everywhere. The germs unconsciously represent parts of the self that have split off from the whole. It is another manifestation of deeply troubled feelings and beliefs that in some way are poisonous. For Trump, those germs are his destructive impulses.
When he talks about the coronavirus pandemic, Trump does not appear to care about the harm it is causing people. He always defaults to himself and then seeks praise from the members of his court. Trump appears to be incapable of empathy or sympathy or any level of human concern for others.
When Trump is basically saying, "Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!" it reflects a lack of genuine love from his parents, either one or both of them. Such behavior is an effort to compensate oneself by loving yourself more and more and more. That is narcissismor grandiosity.Those are behaviors and feelings which are compensatory for not feeling loved. That describes Donald Trump.
He delivered the eulogy at his father's funeral. Trump said one or two sentences about his father and the rest of the speech was about himself. He does the same things today. None of Trump's behavior as president is new.
Trump has repeatedly shown that he has no internal governor on his behavior. There seems to be a total inability to act in a moral and virtuous way. Is such a life liberating? Is it terrifying? Thrilling?
It is in fact liberating, frightening and terrifying. It's all of those things for Trump. It feels momentarily liberating because, "I've triumphed over guilt. I've triumphed over any anxiety about wrongdoing." And then it's terrifying, because of the return of the repressed. "I'm going to get it back. They're going to come and get me." All that hatred is going to come back at Trump. He fears it. "Allthe enemies of the people, the press, is going to come back and get me."
It is all so terrifying. The destructiveness is terrifying because ultimately you can end up destroying something you may also love. Trump may have loved his Trump Towers, but he's destroying them, one after the other. It truly is an epic struggle in Trump's mind.
Let's assume one of the worst-case scenarios, that the coronavirus may kill more than a million people in the United States. Will Trump have some type of emotional breakdown because of this loss of life? President Lincoln was horribly guilty about all the deaths in the Civil War. Will Trump have similar feelings?
No. It is not an option. Donald Trump does not feel guilt. He is incapable of it. I have not seen Trump ever display any form of guilt for his behavior. If there were a million dead, Trump would still say that Obama did it.Trump would still say the Democrats did it.Now Trump calls the coronavirus the "Chinese Virus." Trump would say it is the Chinese who did it. Trump is never responsible for his own behavior.
Donald Trump learned from his father to never admithe is wrong. That lesson there is also to never have any guilt for one's behavior. One would think that repressing all that guilt would cause Trump or someone like that to have nightmares. But I don't think that Trump does.
Trump leads a political cult. Until very recently, he has been telling his supporters that the coronavirus is a hoax, and that they should go out and hug each other, gather in large groups, and mock the scientists and Democrats.How do we make sense of Trump's followers and the love and loyalty they feel for him?
The followers are listening to their god. One of these people was interviewed and he said if he died from the coronavirus at least he would die believing in Christ. There are many fanatics in the world. They are very disturbed and sick people. These fanatics yearnfor an all-powerful protector. Trump's followers feel safe and triumphant because of him. It is a grandiose self-destructive fantasy between Trump and his followers.
As in other cults, the members are in love with the leader. Trump's followers are very damaged people. As such, whatever Trump commands them to do they will do,even if it means getting sick and dying from the coronavirus.
That is correct. Such a level of mass fanaticism is very disturbing, and issomething that we have not seen in the United States on such a large scale. We have seen it with Jim Jones and other cults. People follow the cult leader to their doom. Of course, there was a similar type of fanaticismin Germany with Adolf Hitler. Trump's followers really needa strong leader to make them feel safe. It could be a strong father figure, a god, anyone who is powerful enough to make them feel loved and safe.
Trump's followers,like other cult members,also want someone who will accept their aggression and destructiveness as being good and normal. These people are devoted to Trump. That devotion is more important than anything else.
What's going to happennext?
The only chance the American people have is to vote Donald Trump out of office.
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Dr. Justin Frank: Trump "could see dead bodies" from coronavirus "and step over them" - Salon
Wheres God in panic mode? – Angelus News
If you want to know how it was possible that they saved 417 fewer people than they could have on the Titanic, just go to a supermarket today. People just dont listen, and when the fight or flight survival mechanism kicks in, things get crazy and you wind up with half-filled lifeboats and toilet paper aisles that look like the set decoration for a post-apocalyptic Charlton Heston movie from the 1970s, where the only thing missing is the talking monkeys.
The Titanic was also a case of every rich man for himself as more first-class male passengers survived the sinking of the worlds largest metaphor than third-class children.
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) news all bad changing for the worst on an hourly basis, the one constant in the news seems to be how thin the line is between civil behavior and mayhem. The only human behavior that seems to be making news is bad behavior, and if we arent careful, we could all lose our faith in humanity.
There are no coincidences, and the reading from last Sundays Mass from the book of Exodus shows that Moses knew all about this mentality as well. The people were beginning to grumble, they were thirsty and they started looking for the nearest oasis where they could hoard some bottled well water. Moses was at his wits end. Somehow God was not.
So, God makes water come forth from a rock and everything is great, until Moses spends more time than is comfortable up on Mt. Sinai and before you know it, theres a golden calf being danced around.
I think it is irrefutable evidence that Charles Darwin was wrong when we consider weve gone from worshiping a golden calf to bowing down before a tower of 2-ply moisturized tissue paper.
We are so quick to panic, and some of us are quick on making a buck, as two entrepreneurial brothers showcased. They drove more than a thousand miles through Kentucky and Tennessee grabbing every ounce of hand sanitizer they could find. Their final tally was more than 17,000 bottles of the stuff and they attempted to sell them on Amazon at prices that would make Ebenezer Scrooge blanch.
Fortunately, the same technology that makes it possible for greedy profiteers to sell their wares instantly and across the world also brings with it outrage, and the brothers have now decided to donate their supply of hand sanitizer. The fact that the local authorities were looking into the matter may or may not have had an influence on their newfound philanthropy.
We are in for the long haul with this medical crisis, and I am sure there will be more stories like this and stories about people fighting over cans of tuna. Things will settle down and some time in the future we will meander back into more normalcy until the next crisis.
It does make one wonder what God sees in us. Why does he exhibit such patience with us and why did he go to all the trouble to rescue us from sin, when we are so prone to take that gift for granted or throw it out altogether the minute times get tough? In short, why hasnt God lost his faith in humanity?
Close-up of the Bible verse Deuteronomy 31:6, "Do not be afraid." (Jennifer Wallace/Shutterstock)
And now, we are without the Mass. Here in Southern California, confession is still available to us, but not the Eucharist. Sadly, no one will be storming a locked church demanding entrance as if there was a pallet full of newly delivered Charmin inside.
So we may have to do a little home spiritual care. I know this is always a challenge with us Catholics, but we could actually open that Bible on the bookshelf, you know the book, the one you got for a wedding present, or a graduation present, or confirmation, with the spine that isnt creased. Now we can take advantage of another feature the Bible holds: It can be read, too.
And if we take the plunge (well have some free time on Sundays for the foreseeable future), well find there is one phrase that pops up over and over in both the Old and New Testaments.
Somebody actually counted and found Do not be afraid appears 365 times in Scripture. We obviously need constant reminding. For now, we arent going to get those reminders from attending Mass. But with a little effort and a lot of prayer, we can show God his patience in us is not misplaced.
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Wheres God in panic mode? - Angelus News
Leading Our Classes Through Times of Crisis with Engagement and PEACE – Faculty Focus
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has caused a fast and radical shift across colleges and universities to remote and online teaching models. As such, our face-to-face courses have been taken out of the physical classroom and thrust into virtual domains. While many instructors are fluent and may prefer online teaching practices, others are struggling to rapidly expand their skill sets and become fluent in technologies they have never, or perhaps only briefly, explored.
Although this transition to a remote teaching and learning format is uncomfortable for many of us, it has been inspirational to witness the collaborations that have emerged as a result of this pandemic. More specifically, in order to support these hasty efforts to move teaching online, a variety of communities of instructors have emerged to provide guidance, advice, tutorials, and other resources to help themselves and their colleagues achieve good enough-ness (teaching excellence is not the goal right now) in continuing to teach their students.
The recent emphasis on logistical resources and teaching-related information is understandable. Anecdotal accounts abound of instructors experiencing great anxiety at having been directed simply to put classes online, and these resources and information can help alleviate that anxiety and empower instructors to keep teaching. What has received less attention, however, has been discussion of how we as instructors should lead our students and inspire them in this time of emergency. Indeed, it is important to remember that while this is a new and unsettling experience for us, this is an equally new and unsettling experience for our students (many of whom are likely to be displaced from their housing situations and/or face economic hardships).
How we address these changing circumstances to our students will markedly impact their own reactions. We have an opportunity to use our teaching personas, philosophies, and practices to both help our students understand and manage the gravity of this current crisis and reassure them that we have some control, even in this uncertain situation, to create positive personal and professional experiences through our continuing academic connections. Below, we provide recommendations for how we can use our teaching personas, philosophies, and practices to lead our students during this crisis.
Acknowledge, and accept, that things are different now for us and our students. We could not anticipate the essentially universal transition to remote learning models. Many instructors do not want to teach online, and many students do not want to learn online. We are justified not only in our frustrations caused by this transition, but also in our desire to commiserate briefly with colleagues about how difficult and scary this will be (and not just academically, but cognitively, emotionally, physically, socially, etc.). But rather than focus on the negative, we recommend that instructors immediately transition to discussing with their students how they are ready to accept and lean into these changes. As instructors, we have the unique opportunity here to provide guidance, excitement, and inspiration about the changes we are facing. We have the opportunity to communicate with our students the value of this modified educational experience, which is a much more effective use of our time and skills than grieving about how things were or could/should have been.
Show your students that you will be reasonable and empathetic. Once you have acknowledged the changes and guided your students to accept that these changes will happen, you have the opportunity to reassure your students that, at least academically, things will be okay. Explicitly state to your students that you will shepherd them through this difficult time by making changes to their academic experience that are reasonable and fair. Share with them your empathy to their experiencing potential crises in many domains of life. Your student athletes may have had their seasons cancelled. Your senior students may not see their friends again or experience walking across the stage to receive their diplomas at graduation. Your students, or their family or friends, may be impacted directly by COVID-19. Let them know that you recognize that your class is not the only responsibility or concern they have right now, and let them know that they can trust you to continue to promote their learning and academic success through this difficult time.
Model engagement, optimism, and PEACE for your students. Our teaching philosophy is called Trickle Down Engagement, and is based on the idea that instructors engagement in the course and the content will impact students engagement, and ultimately, will facilitate their learning. Our Trickle Down Engagement teaching philosophy is based on theories of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2008; Ryan & Deci, 2017), intrinsic motivation (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999), positive psychology (Fredrickson, 2001), and emotional contagion (Frenzel et al., 2009), and our data supports this link between instructor engagement, student engagement, and student learning (Saucier, Miller, Jones, & Martens, 2020).
We believe that in times of crisis, instructors have the unique opportunity to model their engagement intentionally and palpably to their students to guide and inspire them through that crisis. Instructors have the opportunity to model acceptance of (as we stated earlier) and optimism about the situation. Further, instructors have the opportunity to bring PEACE to their students. In saying this, we mean not only that instructors can promote a sense of calm, reassurance, and positivity to their students (Saucier, 2019a) while teaching remotely, but PEACE is an acronym the describes the teaching persona they should make apparent to their students all the time. Instructors should explicitly manifest the attributes of Preparation, Expertise, Authenticity, Caring, and Engagement (PEACE) to their students (Saucier, 2019b). By doing so, instructors can use their teaching personas intentionally to inspire their students to persevere through the challenges we currently face.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world and will fundamentally change how we face many aspects of life. The transition of education to remote teaching models has been and will continue to be difficult for instructors and students. While this pandemic is (hopefully) temporary, we may make permanent impressions on our students by focusing on more than how to deliver our content in online modalities. We as instructors have unique opportunities to use our teaching personas, philosophies, and practices to inspire our students to keep learning, especially as we keep teaching in engaging and PEACE-ful ways.
Bios:
Donald A. Saucier, PhD, (2001, University of Vermont) is a university distinguished teaching scholar and professor of psychological sciences at Kansas State University. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, and he has been selected as a fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Midwestern Psychological Association. His numerous awards and honors include the University Distinguished Faculty Award for Mentoring of Undergraduate Students in Research, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Teaching Resource Prize. Don is also the current faculty director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Kansas State University.
Tucker L. Jones, M.S. (2018, Kansas State University) is a doctoral candidate in the department of psychological sciences at Kansas State University. His research interests focus on exploring the various factors that are associated with emotional and behavioral responses to others. Tuckers recent work has examined (a) individual differences associated with emotional and behavioral responses to ambiguous social situations in which rejection might be inferred, (b) antisocial and prosocial teasing in children, and (c) individuals reactions to children/adults with various undesirable characteristics.
References:
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.Psychological bulletin,125(6), 627-668.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. M. (1985).Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across lifes domains. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 49(1), 14-23.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.American psychologist,56(3), 218-226.
Frenzel, A. C., Goetz, T., Ldtke, O., Pekrun, R., & Sutton, R. E. (2009). Emotional transmission in the classroom: exploring the relationship between teacher and student enjoyment.Journal of educational psychology,101(3), 705.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychologicalneeds in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: Guilford Press.
Saucier, D. A. (2019a, September 19). Having the time of my life: The trickle-down model of self and student engagement. ACUE Community. https://community.acue.org/blog/having-the-time-of-my-life-the-trickle-down-model-of-self-and-student-engagement/
Saucier, D. A. (2019b). Bringing PEACE to the classroom. Faculty Focus: Effective Teaching Strategies, Philosophy of Teaching. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/bringing-peace-to-the-classroom/
Saucier, D. A., Miller, S. S., Jones, T. L., & Martens, A. L.(2020). Trickle down engagement: Effects of perceived teacher and studentengagement on learning outcomes [Manuscript in preparation]. Department ofPsychological Sciences, Kansas State University.
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Leading Our Classes Through Times of Crisis with Engagement and PEACE - Faculty Focus
The Future of Work Is Now – CEOWORLD magazine
We have been dancing at the edge of the future of work for the past decade. Keeping our partnership with that future close enough to reap the amazing benefits of disruptive technologies, but at a safe enough social distance to ignore the messy truths and human costs attached to those disruptions.
Then came the coronavirus. Forcing massive disruptions upon us all. No place to hide from hidden human costs.
Suddenly, everything changed.
Companies and managers who had forever insisted that employees remain desk-bound to ensure proper supervision suddenly found ways to make teleworking work; school districts that were stuck in the 20th century suddenly found new ways to teach, evaluate students, and keep track of learning; every organization in every industry completely rethought every aspect of work.
Suddenly, teachers, healthcare workers, grocery store employees, community food pantries, and delivery people became far more important than NBA players, pop-stars, and all who we had worshipped just days earlier.
The need for major changes was not tied solely to a global pandemic. They had been there all along, as part of the coming disruptive future of work.
The most direct path to that future is not paved with disruptions caused by viruses or technologies like AI, 5G, or the Internet of Things. It is paved by those who are bold and brave enough to get past their own limiting beliefs.
Where Will Your Leadership Take Us?
Pandemics are one of four biblical horsemen creating clarity, meaning in our lives, and shaping the rest of human history. As Andrew Nikiforuk wrote decades ago in his book, The Fourth Horseman, pandemics may seem to be random events, but they are actually the result of systemic vulnerabilities weve created ourselves.
The same is true about how todays leaders are approaching the future of work. Are you creating the next apocalypse or several decades of abundance? Your ability to move past your current prejudices, propensities, and predispositions may be the deciding factor.
Once the current crisis is over, we need you focused on the coming Era of AI. What you do, how you lead, how you plan, truly matters to us all.
You are the translator between extremely disruptive digital transformations and those we wish to empower to do their best. You are the difference between everyone soaring to new heights or having a robopocalypse forced upon them.
More than ever, we need you to understand how major changes in technologies impact human behavior, needs, performance, and motivation.
This is your legacy moment. We are at the edge, advancing towards a tech-driven future that has lost major chunks of its humanity. How do you as a leader ensure that we build a more human-centered future? The fierce urgency of tomorrow begins today.
4 Ways to Use Todays Pandemic to Jumpstart the Future of Work
The future of work is now. The pandemic crisis is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the world differently, to lead differently, to make a difference in more profound ways than you ever imagined. Go for it!
Written by Bill Jensen.Have you read?
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The Future of Work Is Now - CEOWORLD magazine
Experts say you should stop blaming bats for the COVID-19 pandemic – NewsDio
People have been blaming bats for the sudden spread of the new coronavirus worldwide. But for some scientists, these animals are innocent, and the main reason the world suffers from the effects of COVID-19 is human behavior. Initial research suggested that bats are a potential source of the new coronavirus. They could have carried the virus, but zoologists and disease experts agreed that humans started the pandemic by altering the environment. It is important to know that scientists have not yet confirmed where the coronavirus originated. It is not the first time that bats have been linked to the disease, as they also carried some viruses in the past that are very similar to the causes of COVID-19, CNN reported. With studies still ongoing to find the actual source of the coronavirus, it is clear to some experts that humans are the reason why the new coronavirus has moved from bat communities to many parts of the world. Human activities, such as deforestation and transportation, begin the process called "zoonotic overflow". "The underlying causes of the zoonotic spread of bats or other wildlife have almost always, always, been shown to be human behavior," Andrew Cunningham, professor of wildlife epidemiology at the London Zoological Society, told CNN. "Human activities are causing this." Destruction of natural habitat and hunting cause stress to bats, damaging the animal's immune system. In Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 pandemic began, scientists linked the first case of infection to a wet local market that sold wild animals such as delicacies or pets."We think the impact of stress on bats would be very similar to that of people," said Cunningham. "It would allow infections to increase and be excreted, to be eliminated. You can think that if people are stressed and have the cold sore virus, they will get a cold sore. That is the virus that is 'expressed'. . "Zoonotic spread can spread disease quickly and cause global problems in weeks. This is due to human access to transportation, allowing movement from one place to another. Human activities cause both stress on animals and the rapid transmission of the virus from wildlife when traveling to places. People are "very well connected," according to Kate Jones, president of ecology and biodiversity at University College London. Astonham and Jones expressed that damage to the environment can also harm humans. Experts warned that without changes in human behavior to protect the planet, diseases like COVID-19 or worse may reoccur in the future. Zoologists and disease experts agreed that humans, not bats, started the COVID-19 pandemic due to activities that altered the environment and wildlife. Pixabay. [TagsToTranslate] covid-19
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Experts say you should stop blaming bats for the COVID-19 pandemic - NewsDio
Lessons From the 1918 Flu – NPR
In 1918, the St. Louis Red Cross Motor Corps personnel wear masks as they hold stretchers next to ambulances in preparation for victims of the influenza epidemic. Library of Congress/AP hide caption
In 1918, the St. Louis Red Cross Motor Corps personnel wear masks as they hold stretchers next to ambulances in preparation for victims of the influenza epidemic.
It's easy to stare out your window at the nearly empty streets, at the people wearing masks and leaving a six-foot berth for passersby, and to believe that this is a moment unlike any other. To assume that the fear, the haphazard responses to the pandemic, the radical adjustments people are making to their livesthat these are all unprecedented.
But like most extraordinary moments, this one has a long trail that leads to it. Just over a century ago, a new infectious disease overtook the globe. Its history has long been buried, subsumed beneath the story of World War I. Historian Nancy Bristow believes it's no mistake that Americans have focused on their victory in the war rather than on the devastation of the 1918 flu pandemic.
"To remember the flu would be to admit to the lack of control that people had had over their own health. It would be to admit that the United States was not necessarily all powerful, but was like everywhere else in the world: subject as victims to something beyond their control," she says.
When we exhume this history, instructive lessons for our own time emerge. As is happening now, Americans had trouble hewing to the new constraints on their social behavior.
"It was hard for people because on the one hand it's inconvenient. And on the other, they were asking for new habitsthings that they had always been allowed to do before, and suddenly you're not allowed, for instance, to spit on the street or to share a drinking cup. That you had to cover your cough and sneeze in your elbow. These were new things people were being asked to do in 1918," Nancy says.
This week on Hidden Brain, Nancy guides us through the history of the epidemic, from the policies American cities imposed on their citizens, to the blues musicians who crooned, "Influenza is the kind of disease/Makes you weak down to your knees." Bridging 1918 and 2020, we uncover the human dimensions of a pandemic.
Additional Resources:
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds Of The 1918 Influenza Epidemic by Nancy Bristow, 2017
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter, 1939
"The 1919 Influenza Blues" by Essie Jenkins
"Jesus Is Coming Soon" by Blind Willie Johnson, 1928
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Lessons From the 1918 Flu - NPR