Several economists have alluded that saving lives is not as important as saving the economy. One of those economists, Sean Snaith, has stated “…there are eight billion people in the world, so the number of deaths from the [Corona] virus, as bad as it has been, does not justify devastating the economy…” (Hacket, 2020) Interestingly enough, the economist making these ethically-debatable claims has also stated that there needs to be a cost-benefit analysis to support his accusations (which hasn’t been done yet). Why would Sean Snaith, Ph.D., the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting and a nationally recognized economist in the field of business and economic forecasting, be willing to make such claims without taking the necessary steps to support his theory? Perhaps Dr. Snaith is counting his chickens before they hatch, so to say. He is pushing for social change based on his beliefs without having all of the information that he himself describes as necessary. I think it’s a fair assessment that Dr. Snaith as well as those economists that share his beliefs and have come to similar conclusions are participating in activist research, at least certain aspects of it.
“Activist research goes beyond participatory research in that the researcher is not only vested in the outcome of the research, but may be pushing a certain value set through their research.” (Nelson) Dr. Snaith has already shown that he has a bias towards believing that lost lives do not justify the devastation of the economy. This bias is evident as Dr. Snaith has already publicly announced his findings and beliefs without completing his research. Snaith is directly contradicting the findings of health experts who say that “reopening commerce too soon could lead to a resurgence in cases.” (Hacket, 2020) The biases between the health experts and economists can be seen in their contradicting research findings and beliefs on how society should proceed. The health experts are concerned about health and the economists are concerned about the economy and the research from both groups support their corresponding values and biases towards certain outcomes. The contradicting research findings raises major ethical concerns specifically when those findings are publicized without completing all research and have the potential of contributing to the loss of life.
It may not have directly been Dr. Snaith who contributed to the many protests that have been seen, specifically in Madison, Wisconsin, but there is no doubt that his value set and the value set of economists with similar findings have most definitely contributed. Thousands of people protested and rallied the shelter in place order, all in close proximity and all without face masks. The protesters held similar beliefs as Snaith and wielded “… signs that said “All Workers Are Essential” and “Death … is preferable to communism.”( Beck & Glauber, 2020) Ironically, “The same day as the protest, Wisconsin saw its highest daily increase in confirmed positive cases of the virus – 304.” (Beck & Glauber, 2020)
I find Dr. Snaith’s actions deplorable and completely unethical regardless of his findings. At no point should the loss of life be deemed less important than a declining economy. I think that scientists, health experts, economists, psychologists, and researchers in all areas owe it to society and their field of study to not only complete all necessary steps to confirm or deny their hypothesis when conducting research but to also refrain from publicly publishing their findings that are not peer-reviewed and that may contribute to the loss of life and the spread of an uncontrollable, untreatable virus.
References
Beck, M., & Glauber, B. (2020, April 24). Thousands gather at Wisconsin state
Capitol to protest coronavirus restrictions. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from
“How hard could going to school online really be?”
That is a question I am asked more times than I can count. It is a lot harder than a lot of people think. In some of my classes, there is hardly any material posted by the instructor; it was just “read this chapter in your textbook and take this quiz” It was almost as if I was trying to teach myself everything that I needed to know.
For me, math is my weakness, so taking a math class all online seemed like a death sentence for me. Being a psychology major, we have to take a statistic class, I was TERRIFIED! There was no way I was going to pass. When I got to Stat 200, I would spend hours with a tutor; I would meet with my professor through zoom, email, and phone communication. It was a lot harder than when I took a math class in high school and just had to raise my hand to get help.
Online learning, you don’t get that personal communication between your teacher and your peers. You are left physically alone, but virtually you have everything you need at your fingers tips. Sometimes you just need to look for it. If I were to answer the “how hard could it be?” question accurately, I would have to say, “It is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do!”
New-age learning is something I never thought I would be involved with. When I first attended college everything was done at a brick and mortar with face to face interaction with our professors. I had one professor who had a favorite student and they seemed to always be nicer to them, willing to answer the questions they would ask. The third-grade teacher we learned about who wanted to teach her class how stereotyping was interesting. It reminded me of a lesson Mr. Smith (name changed) did in high school. He was my high school history teacher and we were learning about World War II.
In this lesson, he had everyone who had brown hair and brown eyes stand up and move to the back of the classroom. Anyone who had any hair color other than blond hair and blue eyes was told to also join those in the back of the classroom. After he had us separated he told those of us left sitting to look around the room. My natural hair color is blond and I have blue eyes. There was me and two other people left sitting. He told us we would have been the only ones to survive if Hitler were to still be alive. This may seem extreme and probably not something you would expect to learn about in high school but it helped drive home the point of discrimination.
It was a lesson that still sticks with me 14 years later. I will never forget him or that lesson, I will never forget that simply because someone looks different than me they are discriminated against. I think that was a defining moment for me, even if I didn’t know it back then. As an adult, I speak out against discrimination, I teach my kids that you treat everyone the same regardless of what they look like, who they love, or what gender they are.
My mother once told me that she is a passive-aggressive type of person, explaining that she seems to bottle everything up inside until those emotions burst from inside, usually at the person causing the distress. My father seems to be the same way, wearing a smile on his face as issues become more frequent and complex until the only response left is a frown. My brother, I think, tries to keep his negativity in check around his friends until he can find someone to vent his frustrations to. Even I seem to have inherited the same habit, where I worry about school, work, home, family, the present, the future, and everything in between. Plans unravel, situations become more dire, and all one can do is smile and press on as things grow more out of control. When searching for inspiration for this blog post, though, I started to realize that maybe, similar to learning more about pessimism, this form of coping with negativity might not be the healthiest to enact.
Though I couldn’t find information related to it in the book or modules for this course, an article by Ana Masedo and M. Rosa Esteve a concept called “Wegner’s Theory of Ironic Processes”, and how theory has been used to study pain tolerance. Masedo and Esteve mention how “Research suggests that suppression contributes to a more distressing pain experience”, and their experiment seemed to involve putting groups representing the variables of repression, acceptance, and spontaneous coping, and exposing them to “a cold presser procedure.” The results of Masedo and Esteve’s experiment, then, indicate that “The acceptance group showed pain and distress immersion ratings that were significantly lower than in the other two groups”.
Another study focused on suppression and acceptance was conducted by Laura Campbell-Sills, David Barlow, Timothy Brown, and Stefan Hofmann. In their study, participants with anxiety and mood disorders were assigned to two groups where they seemed to learn either emotion suppression or emotion acceptance before proceeding to watch an emotional movie. From this study and their measurements, Campbell-Sills et al. found that “Although both groups reported similar levels of subjective distress during the film, the acceptance group displayed less negative affect during the post-film recovery period. Furthermore, the suppression group showed increased heart rate, and the acceptance group decreased heart rate in response to the film.” While Masedo and Esteve showed how acceptance can affect ones reaction to physical pain, Campbell-Sills et al. seem to demonstrate how it can also have an effect on emotional distress, as well.
Though these articles’ abstracts don’t really provide much explanation about acceptance and suppression and how these concepts could relate to pain, their results make me wonder how that data can relate to the way my family seems to handle stress. If repression of our negative emotions isn’t effective in eliminating physical and emotional pain experienced momentarily in an experiment, then how effective is it to really cope like this in a more realistic environment? How many people engage in repression, possibly without even realizing it, when there could be other ways to handle whatever pain they feel?
References:
Campbell-Sills, L., Barlow, D. H., Brown, T. A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2005, November 21). Effects of suppression and acceptance on emotional responses of individuals with anxiety and mood disorders. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005796705002068
I personally have been impacted by this in my own family. My daughter became deeply depressed in the summer of 2018. She was just turned 26, a bubbly young adult with a heart of gold. She loved dancing, animals, had a joyous adventurous vibe wanting to experience the world as she saw it. She had loved the arts and New York. She had a love of writing poetry and reading.
She seemed to deteriorate and change in her behaviors, which started with her mood swings, and her patterns and actions. She seemed very snippy and started to lose interest in her favorite things. I even seen a mean side to her. Now, I had experience dealing with mental health professionals with her diagnoses, but this was different. I tried to address the concerns I was noticing, but it was worse. She even began rejecting my grandson, her nephew who she loved dearly since his birth in December 2017. She lost concern and started tearing up her poetry, throwing out her books she treasured, and videos and keepsakes she cherished. She was refusing a lot. I did my own outreach attempt, which helped but barely, and ended up going to her medication appointment.
It was a blessing that she was receptive to the new psychologist who was kind, and very thorough as she usually doesn’t like opening up. That was a blessing. He recommended some things like a day program but she rejected that and at that time, she didn’t get hospitalized but was being watched by me, etc.
She had to work through finding out what the issues were and come to find out, one of her medicines she had been on can create these issues later on. That was one problem. She later agreed to talking to a therapist and made strides there and stopped again in 2019 after making progress.
That was the scariest time for me. I had tools, but it almost wasn’t enough how bad it was. So just wanted to share in case anyone may need and to call the prevention line, and take your friend/loved one to crisis in your area if possible. Save a life! It can happen to the best of us, unexpectedly, or by other means that may have ignited it.
This song is an example of how my daughter felt. Please pay attention and do all you can. My daughter actually heard me playing this as I posted this and said that is exactly a song from that time and how she felt. She clearly remembers and said, “You remember mom.” Sobering.
“More Americans teens and young adults appear to be struggling with mental health issues.” (CBSNEWS)
Retrieved from CBSNEWS: Health experts also recommend that everyone also familiarize themselves with the warning signs of suicide, which may include:
A person thinking about or threatening suicide or seeking a way to kill themselves
Increased substance abuse
Feelings of purposelessness, anxiety, being trapped, or hopeless
Social isolation and withdrawing from people and activities
Expressing unusual anger, recklessness, or mood change
“If you believe a loved is at risk of suicide, do not leave him or her alone. Try to get the person to seek help from a doctor or the nearest hospital emergency department or dial 911. It’s important to remove access to firearms, medications, or any other potential tools they might use to harm themselves.” (CBSNEWS)
“For immediate help if you are in a crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.” (CBSNEWS)
Find your local crisis invention number and keep it available. Pay attention to all of the signs.
References:
CBSNEWS. Welch, Ashley. “Depression, anxiety, suicide increase in teens and young adults, study finds.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-depression-anxiety-mental-health-issues-increase-teens-young-adults/.
YouTube. Vevo. Logic. “1-800-273-8255 ft. Alessia Cara, Khalid” Aug. 17, 2017. Accessed April 18, 2020.
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