Psychosocial Construction of Fear: A Qualitative Content Analysis of COVID-19 Survivors' Stories Published in Online Newspapers

Abstract

In a brief time, COVID-19 has changed the global picture. In the context of this pandemic, people are experiencing anxiety and fears. These fears of people areintensified by several factors such aspersonal experience of disease, the stigmatization they faced, and rejection they endured. Different theoretical perspectives explainedthefear,rangingfrom death anxiety to stigmatization and from social exclusion to family estrangement. The purpose of this study was to understand how "corona fear" is psychologically and socially constructed.24 COVID-19survivors' stories were selected from known e-newspapers such as Arab News, Times Herald, Express Tribune, Dawn News, India Today, BBC News, and Aljazeera News of different countries: Pakistan, China, South Korea, Argentina, South Africa, Nigeria, and Michigan. Using conventional qualitative content analysis, the narratives were analyzed. The results showed four major themes: Risk perception, death anxiety, social stigma, and psychological crisis. It was evident that corona patients boredouble pain; physical pain due to the disease,and emotional pain due to social rejection and discrimination. Health care authorities can join hands with mental healthprofessionals to implementprograms resolvingpsychological crises and stigmatization whichcan helpovercome such elements. By this study, we assume that a socio-linguistic analysis of the narrative accounts of COVID-19 patients and their caregivers can provide rich data related to language situated in pandemic contexts.