Term Paper Assignment Articles Critique
Term Paper Assignment: Articles Critique
Dallas College, El Centro Campus
PSYC 2319, Section 5100X, Fall 2021
Abstract
This paper comprise a comprehensive critique of three peer-reviewed journal articles that addressed discourses surrounding the efforts, intentions, and initiatives developed to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its introduction outlines why the study by Killgore et al. (2021), exploring COVID-19 vaccine fear and hesitancy and willingness to get this vaccine, is important. It also covers in brief the importance of research by Biddlestone, Green, and Douglas (2020) on cultural and psychological variables influencing intentions to constrain COVID-19 spread, and Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) on social media mediated anti-vaccination infodemic. The literature review summarizes the articles’ findings, indicating that numerous factors influence vaccination programs and initiatives to curb the spread of COVID-19. These factors are people’s demographics and political ideology (Killgore et al., 2021) intentions to engage in pandemic-curbing behaviors mediated by cultural orientation, conspiracy theories, and powerlessness (Biddlestone et al., 2020), and infodemic (Germani & Biller-Andorno, 2021). The critical analysis of Killgore et al. (2021) showed violations of the principles the scientific method, but the study’s findings were useful in informing further vaccine hesitancy inquiry.
Term Paper Assignment: Articles Critique
Introduction
Killgore et al. (2021) employed online survey research methods to address people’s willingness to get COVID-19 vaccinations and the factors underlying this readiness once the vaccine is available. While not explicitly stated, these scholars chose to utilize these research methods for two reasons. Firstly, aligning the online survey with the online crowdsourcing platform used for participant recruitment was easy. Secondly, the survey offered a linguistically convenient approach to collecting specific data and responses from a broad target audience of English speaking individuals. Killgore et al. (2021) deemed this research important because it highlighted the role that people’s political ideology plays in predicting their fear of the COVID-19 vaccine and their willingness to get related inoculations.
Moreover, the study was important because its findings generated valuable insights into demographic contributions to vaccine hesitancy. Demographic attributes such as participants’ race, sex, income levels, ethnicity, and educational levels comprise sociological factors affecting their willingness to be vaccinated and their fear of the vaccine (Killgore et al., 2021). Lastly, the authors considered the research to be important because its findings had implications for aligning vaccination campaigns with individuals’ socio-political worldview perspectives, cultures, and socio-historical backgrounds. For Biddlestone et al. (2020), their study was important because it underscored the probability that collectivism enhances a sense of power that can encourage powerful responses during crises emanating from COVID-19. Finally, Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) deemed their study important because it alluded to evidence-driven policies that target the anti-vaccination community to encourage the presentation of truthful vaccine-created information, thereby curbing the circulation of COVID-19- concomitant infodemic.
Literature Review/Summary
The research work by Killgore et al. (2021) contributed to the body of knowledge relating to the causes of COVID-19 vaccine fear and hesitancy that characterize inoculation efforts to combat the spread of this pandemic. The non-experimental studies conducted by Biddlestone et al. (2020) and Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) furthered the discourses concerning various concepts associated with endeavors to halt the spread of COVID-19. Explicitly, Biddlestone et al. (2020) focused on exploring the psychological and cultural factors influencing individuals’ intentions to engage in actions and behaviours that lessen the spread of this novel pandemic. On their part, Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) examined and analyzed the engagement of anti-vaccination supporters in infodemic or spreading online misinformation on social media, particularly Twitter, and the role this anti-vaccination movement plays in fueling vaccine hesitancy.
The method that Killgore et al. (2021) utilized in selecting and recruiting the survey participants involving using the online crowdsourcing platform called Amazon Mechanical Turk. These researchers deemed this approach effective in participant recruitment because of its high new participant turnover and high online traffic. This research occurred in the United States between December 10 and 15, 2020, involving 1017 English-speaking adult participants, who comprised 98.3% of initially recruited survey population (Killgore et al., 2021). The participants’ demographics were that 58.4% of the total sample were females. All participants were aged between 18 and 91 years, and the sample’s median age was 34 years. Killgore et al. (2021) affirm that 75.7% were White males and females, with the rest derived from other U.S. ethnic groups.
While Killgore et al. (2021) did not state any hypotheses explicitly, they collected data using the online survey research methods within a quantitative research design to address factors influencing inoculation readiness. The outcomes of this study established that willingness to be vaccinated and fear of the COVID-19 vaccine depend on two major sociological factors: individuals’ demographics and political worldviews. Killgore et al. (2021) concluded that political conservativism, female sex, income, age, non-white ethnicity, and lower educational levels contributes to vaccine hesitancy and fear of COVID-19. The ensuing study implication was that for vaccination campaigns to be successful, broadly supported, and effective, they should be framed strategically to capture individuals’ political ideology and demographic concerns at the grassroots. Such alignment would entail frontline healthcare workers discussing COVID-19 vaccines and inoculations consistent with individual patients’ sociological and political worldviews (Killgore et al., 2021). This would inspire attitudes and behaviors that overcome emotional reticence and negative emotional reactions to the vaccine.
Biddlestone et al. (2020) adopted the correlational study method to establish that feelings of powerlessness, belief in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories, and measures of the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism are the key cultural and psychological factors affecting people’s intentions to engage in reducing the spread of this pandemic. These scholars selected and recruited their participants via social media posts and Reddit forums. Biddlestone et al. (2020) leveraged software from Qualtrics to design and administer questionnaires for data collection. Their research took place in the United Kingdom between 4 and 13 April 2020, involving 704 participants. 30.4% individuals in the sample were Americans, 34.2% were British, and the rest were from 64 other nationalities (Biddlestone et al., 2020). About the demographics, the sample comprised 306 men, 376 women, two transgender individuals, ten non-binary, and ten who did not disclosure their gender, all with a mean age of 37.26 years.
Biddlestone et al. (2020) developed two study hypotheses. The first was that both horizontal and vertical individualism predict lower intentions to engage in behaviors that diminish COVID-19 spread. Equally, horizontal and vertical collectivism predicts higher intentions. The second hypothesis was that mindsets of powerlessness and belief in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories mediate the associations between engagements in behaviors that curb COVID-19 spread and individualism-collectivism (Biddlestone et al., 2020). Their overall findings validated their hypotheses partially by affirming that vertical collectivism directly predicted positive social distancing intentions. Horizontal collectivism indirectly predicted positive social distancing intentions, medicated by feelings of powerlessness. It also predicted positive hygiene-related intentions indirectly and directly, medicated by lower feelings of powerlessness. Finally, vertical individualism had indirect and direct impacts on predicting negative social distancing intentions via both one’s feelings of powerlessness and belief in the pandemic-related conspiracy theories. Based on these findings, Biddlestone et al. (2020) arrived at two conclusions. Firstly, promoting collectivism enhances efforts to curb COVID-19 spread. Secondly, understanding the interplay between culture and information consumption (COVID-19-related conspiracy theories) and personal feelings (feelings powerlessness) helps respond to collective crises (Biddlestone et al., 2020).
Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) did not have any definite sample, research design, and research participants because their study was explicitly descriptive based on information derived from Twitter regarding content considered as infodemic. They collected information about anti-vaccination discourse from multiple global and domestic (U.S.) locations between September and December 2020 from three Twitter actions: tweets, retweets, and replies. The criterion Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) used to identify anti-vaccination supporters was the utilization of #vaccinesharm and #vaccineskill hashtags within the anti-vaccination social media community.
These researchers formulated two hypotheses. Firstly, Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) hypothesized that a robust sense of community, established on common interests that go beyond vaccines and founded on emotional language and personal beliefs, define the anti-vaccination movement’s success. Secondly, they hypothesized that there exists a pull of strong influencers within this community, who produce the most engaging contents and messages. These messages are majorly received by anti-vaccination profiles, which also function as the messages’ echo chamber (Germani & Biller-Andorno, 2021).
The findings of their study established that anti-vaccination supporters, led by former U.S. President, Donald Trump, utilize emotional language to share vaccination-related conspiracy theories. These anti-vaccination supporters are more engaged in Twitter discussions than pro-vaccination supporters, where a pull of strong influencers facilitate their content sharing (Germani & Biller-Andorno, 2021). Lastly, consistent with the first hypothesis, the anti-vaccination movement’s success depends on a robust sense of community centered on contents generated by a small portion of anti-vaccination profiles. Germani and Biller-Andorno (2021) suggest that this community largely serves as a sounding board for the online circulation of anti-vaccination discourses.
Critical Analysis
Killgore et al. (2021) failed adhere to the conventions of the scientific method satisfactorily. From a psychological scientist’s lens, these researchers violated these principles because despite making observations that identify a research problem, they failed to formulate hypotheses, establish research objectives and questions to test such hypotheses, and draw inferences that help refine the hypotheses. Even so, they adequately followed the scientific principles of academic inquiry, as they clarified their systematic research methodology, presented their findings logically, sufficiently corroborated their arguments with scholarly evidence, and declared no conflict of interests in this inquiry. Additional, Killgore et al. (2021) did not demonstrate the objectivity of their findings. Specifically, they failed to establish and declare their study’s validity and reliability. However, the researchers obtained proper and informed consent consistent with the ethics of psychology. They ensured that all participants filled a written informed consent form before enrollment, with the University of Arizona’s Institutional Review Board reviewing and approving the study’s protocol.
By advocating that political conservatism encourages vaccine fear and hesitancy, Killgore et al. (2021) raise the vital question of whether political liberalism can reinforce vaccination decisiveness. Critically, future research can be structured to answer this question by exploring vaccine hesitancy levels among respondents who self-identify themselves as politically liberal. While there was no hypothesis for Killgore et al. (2021) to validate or nullify, I found their findings satisfying because they empirically demonstrated the need to account for individuals’ demographics when considering variances in vaccination receptions. Judging from the scope of their research, there are no additional questions I would like to have seen these researchers address. Essentially, their findings have left me more interested in this topic because I intend to contribute to developing a vaccine hesitancy model that captures socio-political and sociodemographic mediators of delayed vaccines acceptance.
References
Biddlestone, M., Green, R., & Douglas, K. M. (2020). Cultural orientation, power, belief in conspiracy theories, and intentions to reduce the spread of COVID‐19. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(3), 663-673. Doi: 10.1111/bjso.12397.
Germani, F., & Biller-Andorno, N. (2021). The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral analysis. PloS one, 16(3), e0247642. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247642.
Killgore, W. D., Cloonan, S. A., Taylor, E. C., & Dailey, N. S. (2021). The COVID-19 vaccine is here – now who is willing to get it?. Vaccines, 9(4), 339. Doi: 10.3390/vaccines9040339.