The Importance of the Collaboration Between Communication Studies and Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Analysis in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Communication studies and the discipline of psychology have a major role in the analysis of the social and physical conditions that we experience and in evaluating the effects of these conditions. The interaction of these two disciplines has progressed further with the advancement and widespread use of communication technology and has constituted a multidimensional research tradition. Such an interdisciplinary approach has vital contributions to scientific studies. This study aims to emphasize the importance of the collaboration of communication studies and psychology by revealing the role of this interdisciplinary approach in the possible solution of the problems highlighted by the pandemic. For this purpose, research areas that need the collaboration of these two disciplines and new research questions for future studies have been identified and analysed by scanning the literature on the problems stood out during pandemic. In this study, it has been determined that this interdisciplinary approach can have important scientific contributions while handling a) the solutions of environmental problems faced globally, b) the effects of the pandemic on human psychology, c) the impacts of the pandemic on the breach of online privacy and surveillance practices, and d) the difficulties experienced in the development of positive health behaviours during the pandemic. It is hoped that the formulated research questions can lead the way for future studies and contribute to the post-pandemic period as well as the pandemic period.

Keywords

• Communication Studies
• Human Behavior
• Psychology
• Interdisciplinary Approach
• Covid-19 Pandemic

İletişim Çalışmaları ve Psikoloji Birlikteliğinin Önemi: COVID-19 Pandemisi Bağlamında Disiplinler Arası Bir Analiz

Abstract

Deneyimlediğimiz sosyal ve fiziksel koşulların analizi ile bu koşulların etkilerinin değerlendirilmesinde hem iletişim çalışmalarının hem de psikoloji disiplininin önemli bir yeri bulunmaktadır. Bu iki disiplinin etkileşimi iletişim teknolojisinin ilerlemesi ve kullanımının yaygınlaşması ile birlikte daha da gelişim göstermiş, çok boyutlu bir araştırma geleneğini inşa etmiştir. Böyle bir disiplinler arası yaklaşımın bilimsel çalışmalara sağladığı önemli katkılar bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışma, iletişim çalışmaları ve psikoloji birlikteliğinin önemini, bu disiplinler arası yaklaşımın pandeminin öne çıkardığı sorunların olası çözümündeki rolünü ortaya koyarak vurgulamayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaçla pandemi sürecinin öne çıkardığı sorunlarla ilgili literatür taranarak bu iki disiplinin birlikteliğine ihtiyaç duyan araştırma alanları ve gelecek çalışmalar için yeni araştırma soruları belirlenmiş ve analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmada bu disiplinler arası yaklaşımın a) dünyanın karşı karşıya kaldığı çevre sorunlarının çözümünü, b) pandemi sürecinin insan psikolojisine etkilerini, c) pandemi sürecinin çevrimiçi mahremiyet ihlali ve gözetim pratiklerine etkisini, d) pandemide sağlıkla ilgili olumlu davranışların geliştirilmesi ile ilgili yaşanan zorlukları ele alırken sağlayacağı önemli bilimsel katkılar olabileceği ortaya konmuştur. Formüle edilen araştırma sorularının gelecek çalışmalara yol göstermesi ve pandemi sürecine olduğu kadar pandemi sonrası sürece de katkıda bulunması umulmaktadır.

Keywords

• İletişim Çalışmaları
• İnsan Davranışı
• Psikoloji
• Disiplinlerarası Yaklaşım
• Covid-19 Pandemisi

References

1. Ahmed, M. Z., Ahmed, O., Aibao, Z., Hanbin, S., Siyu, L. ve Ahmad, A. (2020). Epidemic of COVID-19 in China and associated psychological problems. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, 102092.
2. Ahn, S. J. (2015). Incorporating immersive virtual environments in health promotion campaigns: A construal level theory approach. Health Communication, 30(6), 545-556.
3. Ahn, S. J., Bailenson, J. N. ve Park, D. (2014). Short-and long-term effects of embodied experiences in immersive virtual environments on environmental locus of control and behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 235-245.
4. Aiello, L. M., Quercia, D., Zhou, K., Constantinides, M., Šćepanović, S. ve Joglekar, S. (2020). How epidemic psychology works on social media: Evolution of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. ArXiv 2020, arXiv:2007.13169.
5. Ando, K., Ohnuma, S., Hübner, G. ve Hui, L. D. (2021). Comparing the effect of personal communication and mass media on energy saving behaviors cross-cultural study in Japan, China and Germany. Journal of Environmental Information Science, 2020(2), 19-30.
6. Armocida, B., Formenti, B., Ussai, S., Palestra, F. ve Missoni, E. (2020). The Italian health system and the COVID-19 challenge. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e253.
7. Bailenson, J. ve Yee, N. (2008). Psychology in communication processes. W. Donsbach (Der.) içinde, The International Encyclopedia of Communication (ss. 3931-3937). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
8. Bhusal, M. K. (2020). The World After COVID-19: An opportunity for a new beginning. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP), 10(05), 735-41.

9. Breves, P. ve Schramm, H. (2021). Bridging psychological distance: The impact of immersive media on distant and proximal environmental issues. Computers in Human Behavior, 115, 106606.
10. Bridgman, A., Merkley, E., Loewen, P. J., Owen, T., Ruths, D., Teichmann, L. ve Zhilin, O. (2020). The causes and consequences of COVID-19 misperceptions: Understanding the role of news and social media. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(3), 1-18.
11. Bulton, P ve Bulger M. (2020, Nisan 17.) Keeping children safe online during the COVID-19 pandemic. 14.05.2021 tarihinde https://www.unicef.org/laos/stories/keeping-children-safe-online-during-covid- 19-pandemic adresinden edinilmiştir.
12. Cacioppo, J. T. (2013). Psychology science in the 21st century. Teaching of Psychology, 40(4), 304-309.
13. Carr, C. T. (2020). CMC is dead, long live CMC!: Situating computer-mediated communication scholarship beyond the digital age. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(1), 9-22.
14. Chou, W. Y. S., Hunt, Y. M., Beckjord, E. B., Moser, R. P. ve Hesse, B. W. (2009). Social media use in the United States: implications for health communication. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 11(4), e48.
15. Clark, H., Coll-Seck, A. M., Banerjee, A., Peterson, S., Dalglish, S. L., Ameratunga, S., ... ve Costello, A. (2020). After COVID-19, a future for the world’s children? The Lancet, 396(10247), 298-300.
16. Congar, K. ve Samar, K. (2020, Mart 25). İnsanlığı tehdit eden en büyük tehlike. 20.09.2020 tarihinde https:// tr.euronews.com/2020/03/25/insanligi-tehdit-eden-en-buyuk-10-tehlike adresinden edinilmiştir.
17. Domaradzki, J. (2021). The Werther effect, the Papageno effect or no effect? A literature review. International Journal Of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2396.
18. Elmqaddem, N. (2019). Augmented reality and virtual reality in education. Myth or reality? International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 14(3), 234-242.
19. Fuchs, C. (2015). Dijital emek ve Karl Marx. (T. Kalaycı ve S. Oğuz, Çev.) İstanbul: Nota Bene.
20. Fuchs, C. (2020). Sosyal medya: Eleştirel bir giriş. (D. Saraçoğlu ve İ. Kalaycı, Çev.) İstanbul: Notabene Yayınları.
21. Gabbiadini, A., Baldissarri, C., Durante, F., Valtorta, R.R., De Rosa, M. ve Gallucci, M. (2020). Together apart: The mitigating role of digital communication technologies on negative affect during the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 554678. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.554678
22. Geçer, E., Yıldırım, M. ve Akgül, Ö. (2020). Sources of information in times of health crisis: evidence from Turkey during COVID-19. Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice. doi: 10.1007/s10389.020.01393-x
23. Giles, D. (2010). Psychology of the media. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
24. Gorji, S. ve Gorji, A. (2021) COVID-19 pandemic: the possible influence of the long-term ignorance about climate change. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1-5. doi:10.1007/s11356.020.12167-z
25. Harper, C. A., Satchell, L. P., Fido, D. ve Latzman, R. D. (2020). Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. doi: 10.1007/ s11469.020.00281-5
26. Heffner, J., Vives, M. L. ve FeldmanHall, O. (2021). Emotional responses to prosocial messages increase willingness to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and Individual Differences, 110420.
27. Holmes, E. A., O’Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., ... ve Bullmore, E. (2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. The Lancet Psychiatry,7(6), 547-560.
28. Jaques, C., Islar, M. ve Lord, G. (2019). Post-Truth: Hegemony on social media and implications for sustainability communication. Sustainability, 11(7), 2120.
29. Kim, B. ve Kim, D. (2020). Understanding the key antecedents of users’ disclosing behaviors on social networking sites: The privacy paradox. Sustainability, 12(12), 5163.
30. Koeze, E. ve Popper, N. (2020, Nisan 7). The virus changed the way we internet. The New York Times. 15.09.2020 tarihinde https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html adresinden edinilmiştir.
31. Kularbphettong, K. (2019). The Awareness of environment conservation based on opinion data mining from social media. International Journal of GEOMATE, 17(61), 74-79.
32. Lambert, H., Gupte, J., Fletcher, H., Hammond, L., Lowe, N., Pelling, M., Raina N., Shahid, T. ve Shanks, K. (2020). COVID-19 as a global challenge: towards an inclusive and sustainable future. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(8), e312-e314.
33. Li, K., Cheng, L. ve Teng, C. I. (2020). Voluntary sharing and mandatory provision: Private information disclosure on social networking sites. Information Processing & Management, 57(1), 102-128.
34. Lin, X. ve Kishore, R. (2021). Social media-enabled healthcare: A conceptual model of social media affordances, online social support, and health behaviors and outcomes. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 166, 120574.
35. Lorentzen, H. F., Benfield, T., Stisen, S. ve Rahbek, C. (2020). COVID-19 is possibly a consequence of the anthropogenic biodiversity crisis and climate changes. Danish Medical Journal, 67(5), [A205025].
36. Lyon, D. (2006). 9/11, synopticon, and scopophilia: watching and being watched. K. D. Haggerty ve R. V. Ericson (Ed.). The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility içinde. Toronto: the University of Toronto Press, 35- 54.
37. Lyon, D. (2012). Vesikalı yurttaş: Gözetim aracı olarak kimlik kartları. (B. Baysal, Çev.). İstanbul: Kalkedon.
38. Ma, L., Ding, X., Zhang, X. ve Zhang, G. (2020). Mobile users’ self-disclosure behaviour on WeChat: Application of social cognitive theory. Mobile Information Systems, 7(1).
39. Markowitz, D. ve Bailenson, J. (2019). Virtual reality and communication. Human Communication Research, 34, 287-318.
40. McIntyre, K. ve Gyldensted, C. (2018a). Constructive journalism: An introduction and practical guide for applying positive psychology techniques to news production. The journal of media innovations, 4(2), 20-34. doi:10.1080/17512.786.2018.1472527
41. McIntyre, K. ve Gyldensted, C. (2018b). Positive Psychology as a theoretical foundation for constructive journalism. Journalism Practice, 12(6), 662-678, doi: 10.1080/17512.786.2018.1472527
42. Meindl, J. N. ve Ivy, J. W. (2018). Reducing media-induced mass killings: Lessons from suicide prevention. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(2), 242-259.
43. MMA-Türkiye (2020). Covid-19 Virüsünün Dijital Medya ve Mobil Üzerindeki Etkisi. 15.09.2020 tarihinde https://www.mmaglobal.com/files/18._how_covid_-_19_is_affecting_the_mobile_and_digital_ world_-_turkish.pdf adresinden edinilmiştir.
44. Monserrat-Gauchi, J., Novo-Domínguez, M. ve Torres-Valdés, R. (2019). Interrelations between the media and architecture: Contribution to sustainable development and the conservation of urban spaces. Sustainability, 11(20), 5631.
45. Nabity-Grover, T., Cheung, C. M. ve Thatcher, J. B. (2020). Inside out and outside in: How the COVID-19 pandemic affects self-disclosure on social media. International Journal of Information Management, 55, 102188.
46. Neuman, W. R. (2018). Dijital fark (G. Metin, Çev.) İstanbul: The Kitap Yayınları.
47. Nguyen, M. H., Hargittai, E. ve Marler, W. (2021). Digital inequality in communication during a time of physical distancing: The case of COVID-19. Computers in Human Behavior, 120, 106717.
48. Ogbodo, J.N., Onwe, E.C, Chukwu, J., Nwasum, C.J., Nwakpu, E.S., Nwankwo, S.U., Nwamini, C., Elem, S. ve Ogbaeja, N.I. (2020). Communicating health crisis: a content analysis of global media framing of COVID-19. Health Promotion Perspectives, 10(3), 257-269.
49. Okdie, B. M., Ewoldsen, D. R., Muscanell, N. L., Guadagno, R. E., Eno, C. A., Velez, J. A., Dunn, R., O’Mally, J. ve
50. Smith, L. R. (2014). Missed programs (You Can’t TiVo This One) why psychologists should study media. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(2), 180-195.
51. Parks, A. C. ve Boucher, E. M. (2020) Positive Psychological Interventions (PPIs) in the age of COVID-19: on the potential impact of digital PPIs on loneliness, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(5), 569-571, doi: 10.1080/17439.760.2020.1789715
52. Raney, A. A., Janicke-Bowles, S. H., Oliver, M. B. ve Dale, K. R. (2020). Introduction to Positive Media Psychology. Routledge.
53. RTÜK (2019). Radyo dinleme eğilimleri araştırması. 17.09.2020 tarihinde https://www.rtuk.gov.tr/assets/Icerik/ AltSiteler/radyo-dinleme-egilimleri-arastirmasi2020basilmis-versiyon.pdf adresinden edinilmiştir.
54. Russell, D., Neustaedter, C., Tang, J., Judge, T., ve Olson, G. (2021). Videoconferencing in the Age of COVID: How well has it worked out? 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japonya, Mayıs 08-13, 2021. doi: 10.1145/3411763. 3450398
55. Salari, N., Hosseinian-Far, A., Jalali, R., Vaisi-Raygani, A., Rasoulpoor, S., Mohammadi, M., Rasoulpoor, S. ve Khaledi-Paveh, B. (2020). Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Globalization and Health, 16(1), 1-11.
56. Saeri, A. K., Ogilvie, C., La Macchia, S. T., Smith, J. R. ve Louis, W. R. (2014). Predicting Facebook users’ online privacy protection: Risk, trust, norm focus theory, and the theory of planned behavior. The Journal of Social Psychology, 154(4), 352-369.
57. Saunders, C. D. (2003). The emerging field of conservation psychology. Human Ecology Review,10(2), 137-149.
58. Schiavo, R. (2013). Health communication: From theory to practice. New York, NY: Jossey Bass.
59. Sharma, T. ve Bashir, M. (2020). Use of apps in the COVID-19 response and the loss of privacy protection. Nature Medicine, 26(8), 1165-1167.
60. Skinner, B. F. (1982). Why we are not acting to save the world. American Psychological Association: Washington D.C. 07.09.2020 tarihinde http://gator.uhd.edu/~williams/downloads/skinner82.pdf adresinden edinilmiştir.
61. Strong, P. (1990). Epidemic psychology: a model. Sociology of Health & Illness, 12(3), 249-259.
62. Sun, R., Rieble, C., Liu, Y. ve Sauder, D. (2020). Connected despite COVID-19: the role of social interactions and social media for wellbeing. PsyArXiv. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/x5k8u.
63. Sun, T. ve Zhong, B. (2020). Multitasking as multisensory behavior: Revisiting media multitasking in the perspective of media ecology theory. Computers in Human Behavior, 104, 106151.
64. Sundar, S. S. (Dü.) (2015). The handbook of the psychology of communication technology. Chichester: Wiley- Blackwell.
65. Talevi, D., Socci, V., Carai, M., Carnaghi, G., Faleri, S., Trebbi, E., Bernardo, A., Capelli, F. ve Pacitti, F. (2020). Mental health outcomes of the CoVID-19 pandemic. Rivista di Psichiatria, 55(3), 137-144.
66. Telegram’ın kurucusu: Tarihin en büyük dijital göçüne tanık oluyoruz (2021, 14 Ocak). NTV. 14.01.2021 tarihinde https://www.ntv.com.tr/teknoloji/telegramin-kurucusu-tarihin-en-buyuk-dijital-gocunetanik oluyoruz,PDV78PHQVkalFP2Ti785Og adresinden edinilmiştir.
67. Thakur, V. ve Jain, A. (2020). COVID 2019-suicides: A global psychological pandemic. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 88, 952.
68. Van Dorn, A., Cooney, R. E. ve Sabin, M. L. (2020). COVID-19 exacerbating inequalities in the US. Lancet, 395(10232), 1243.
69. Vives-Cases, C., Goicolea, I., Hernández, A., Sanz-Barbero, B., Gill, A.K., Baldry, A.C., Schröttle, M. ve Stoeckl, H. (2016) Expert opinions on improving femicide data collection across Europe: A concept mapping study. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0148364.
70. Waldman, A. E. (2020). Cognitive biases, dark patterns, and the privacy paradox. Current Opinion in Psychology, 31, 101-105.
71. Wang, Y., McKee, M., Torbica, A. ve Stuckler, D. (2019). Systematic literature review on the spread of health-related misinformation on social media. Social Science & Medicine, 240, 11255.
72. We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020). Digital 2020 global overview report. 07.09.2020 tarihinde https://wearesocial. com/digital-2020 adresinden edinilmiştir.
73. Weil, S. (2020). Two Global Pandemics: Femicide and COVID-19. Trauma and Memory, 8(2), 110-112.
74. WhatsApp gizlilik sözleşmesi nedir? WhatsApp gizlilik sözleşmesi hangi maddeleri içeriyor? (2021, 13 Ocak). NTV. 13.01.2021 tarihinde https://www.ntv.com.tr/teknoloji/whatsapp-gizlilik-sozlesmesi-nedirwhatsapp- gizlilik-sozlesmesi-hangi-maddeleri-iceriyor,nTF6eUVSxEaiSuZqaI7ZwQ adresinden edinilmiştir.
75. WHO (2019). Suicide in the World: Global Health Estimates. 20.05.2021 tarihinde https://www.who.int/teams/ mental-health-and-substance-use/suicide-data adresinden edinilmiştir.
76. Zentürk, I.T. (2015, Şubat O2). Beş duyu çılgınlığı, sanal alemi ete kemiğe mi bürünüyor. 14.05.2021 tarihinde https://tr.euronews.com/2015/02/02/5-duyu-cilginligi-sanal-alem-ete-kemige-mi-burunuyor adresinden edinilmiştir.