Physical distancing requirements around the COVID-19 pandemic have created undeniable difficulties for many psychology research projects that relied on in-person interactions, forcing academics to be flexible and creative.
In response, many researchers are moving as much work as possible online. Meanwhile, funding agencies are supporting accommodations on existing grants where possible and will likely be turning an eye toward research that could help prepare for the next pandemic.
“The pandemic has illustrated the importance of social and behavioral research, especially since our mitigation strategies and their impacts are predominately social and behavioral in nature,” says William Riley, PhD, the director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “I believe it also increases the burden on social and behavioral scientists applying for grant funding to make a strong case for the public health impact of their research moving forward.”
The impacts of the pandemic on research have varied widely, even within labs. At the Rice University psychoneuroimmunology lab of Chris Fagundes, PhD, some graduate students were able to pivot immediately to analyzing existing data from home. Others who were in the process of conducting in-person experiments will see their degrees delayed by at least six months to a year. The biggest challenge has been avoiding laying off lab staff whose salaries are paid by stalled grants, Fagundes says. Fortunately, his lab’s emphasis on stress and the immune system made it possible to apply for supplemental grants through NIH to focus on pandemic-related outcomes. It’s a strategy that can both benefit lab employees and inform public health.
Post-lockdown, some researchers have been able to resume in-person activities with precautions and protective equipment. Others remain in limbo. Many scientists who work with rodents had to euthanize animals during lockdowns because animal care technicians could not work. Some of these scientists, leery of future shutdowns, have delayed expanding their colonies again. Socially distanced in-person research also moves slowly, says BJ Casey, PhD, a psychologist and collaborator on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development™ study at Yale University. Many families are reluctant to come in for brain imaging during a pandemic, Casey says. “All of us were far too optimistic that once we began to scan children again, we would be able to catch up fairly rapidly,” she says.
The sudden shift to virtual activities has occasionally been positive. At Penn State University, psychologist Daryl Cameron, PhD, was forced to move his “Expanding Empathy” symposia online, but he was pleasantly surprised that the change allowed panelists to participate in a conversation about empathy and COVID-19. “Getting everyone together like that for the panel webinar wouldn’t have happened in the in-person iteration of events,” Cameron says.
Families in Casey’s study have appreciated doing psychological assessments online rather than having to travel to her lab. Other researchers report more time to prepare papers for publication, a freedom reflected in the 25% increase in submissions to APA journals between January and September 2020 compared with January to September 2019. Data in some fields, however, suggests a gender gap in submissions, with women submitting fewer papers for publication (Kibbe, M. R., JAMA Surgery, Vol. 155, No. 9, 2020opens in new window). APA is working to analyze data on submissions by gender to its journals, but the data were not available at press time.
Funding agencies have made efforts to support researchers during the pandemic upheaval. Like NIH, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has also offered COVID-19 opportunities: Its Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) had funded 240 RAPID Awards for a total of $32.4 million as of October 2020. That same month, NIH announced the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative, a $500 million program aimed at improving COVID-19 testing in vulnerable populations. Awardees include psychologists such as Leslie Leve, PhD, of the University of Oregon, whose project will implement an outreach and testing program for Oregon’s Latinx community, and Mary Cwik, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose project will test interventions to expand testing access to American Indian communities.
While future federal funding depends on the decisions of a new Congress, NSF and NIH officials do say that the pandemic has brought the importance of psychology research to the forefront.
“If you are doing psychology research and you have the ability to tie your research agenda to the amazing public impact you could have at a moment like this, this agency would be receptive to those proposals,” says Arthur Lupia, PhD, the head of SBE. “We’re living in a society that desperately needs that kind of insight.”
