The main goal of our research was to develop a new measure of persistence and to assess its construct validity and psychometric proprieties. First, we discuss the history of the psychological construct of persistence, defined here as the tendency to remain engaged in specific goal-related activities, despite difficulties, obstacles, fatigue, prolonged frustration or low perceived feasibility. The developed scale, measuring motivational persistence, contains three-factors: long-term purposes pursuing, current purposes pursuing and recurrence of unattained purposes. The results of the two validation studies conducted, employing both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, advocate the hypothesized structure. Also, the Pearson and canonical correlations between the three factors of the new self-report scale and other three related measures (and their factors) indicate good levels of convergent and divergent validity of the new scale.

This study investigated the effect of conspiracy ideation, moral disengagement, and intolerance of uncertainty on compliance with the anti-SARS-COV-2 social distancing rules and two other facets of people’s reactions toward the coronavirus crisis. A convenience sample of 245 Romanians completed an online survey in March 2020. Results indicate that conspiracy ideation is associated with lower assessments of virus risk and lower compliance with the confinement measures. Moral disengagement had a parallel effect of undermining personal compliance to the social distancing regulations, highlighting the need to define social distancing as morally relevant and prevent individual justifications for noncompliance.

Background: Given the profound psychological distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs). Objective: We aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors with PMIEs in a sample of Romanian physicians, of which almost half worked in Covid-19 treatment medical units. Method: We ran a web-based survey in April 2020, three weeks after the general lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus. Participants (N = 114, aged 23 to 67, M = 38.85, SD = 9.82, 74.6% females) answered the PMIE scale items, in addition to questions related to the physical and emotional self-impact related questions, and demographical and work-related variables (i.e. age, gender, medical experience, and speciality). Results: Results suggested that almost 50% of the participants reported high levels of PMIE exposure. No significant associations were found between PMIE exposure, and the type of medical unit physicians worked in (Covid-19 or non-Covid-19), nor their specialization and medical experience. Demographic variables (i.e. age and gender) and experience did not predict PMIE exposure. However, we found significant associations between PMIE and the physicians’ physical and emotional self-reported impact. Conclusions: Healthcare systems, governments, and societies worldwide need to recognize that physicians are prone to PMIE exposure and related adverse psychological outcomes due to their daily activity in containing the pandemic. Public policies need to actively offer and promote psychological support, to protect and help physicians from the adverse mental health outcomes following the pandemic.