In a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychology , researchers take a novel approach to understanding the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by using the concept of disorientation explore its temporal and social dimensions. Study: Social and temporal disorientation during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of 3306 responses to a quantitative questionnaire. Image Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock.
com COVID-19 has profoundly impacted time perception, cognitive processes, subjective temporal distances, and duration assessments. Thus, disorientation is a crucial lens for understanding the heterogeneity of this crisis, with negative impacts such as anxiety, boredom, and loneliness influencing life satisfaction and work-related stress. Social isolation significantly impacts temporal disturbances, as it can lead to slower perceived passage of time, extended subjective temporal distances, and an overall sense of time expansion.
Previous studies have emphasized the link between social disorientation and temporal distortions; however, further research could clarify this association. Researchers developed a qualitative and open-ended questionnaire to identify themes from study participant responses, based on which they created the 59-question instrument for social and temporal disorientation (ITSD) to assess COVID-19-related disorientations. The ITSD was updated based on comments from specialists in phenomenology, cognitive sciences, psychology, and .
