Bahman 1

Laila Bahman

WRIT 2

Professor Morland

8 December, 2021

COVID-19’s Impact in Economics and Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had an unprecedented impact on society as a

whole. It has challenged everyone, from young children who lacked vital socialization, to adults

who were laid off from their jobs due to business closures. This pandemic was not just an issue

of public health, but was talked about throughout many different disciplines. The scholarly

article, “COVID 19 and Its Mental Health Consequences” written by Anant Kumar and K.

Rajasekharan Nayar, discusses the concerns of declining mental health as a result of COVID-19

safety guidelines by taking a psychological approach. Meanwhile, Muhammad ​Shafiullah’s “Do

stock markets play a role in determining COVID-19 economic stimulus? A cross-country

analysis” examines the effects of the pandemic from an economic perspective. While these two

journals are both written to demonstrate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns,

they are from different disciplines which target their own respective discourse communities

through the use of jargon, subheadings and organization, and references used.

To begin with, the psychology journal tackles the various mental health issues that have

been intensified as consequences of the pandemic. The authors argue that the fears invoked by

the constant misfortune surrounding COVID-19, as well as closures and limited resources and

activities available, have caused an overall decrease in mental health among everyone

worldwide. The language used in this paper is not too specific to the field, meaning that there is

not much jargon foreign to any reader. This makes it easy to understand to those who may not be
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a part of the intended discourse community. This is partially because mental health has become

more common to talk about in recent years, especially due to the rise in popularity and use of

social media. The authors discuss how social media has become an outlet to share “rumors and

unauthenticated information [creating] fear, anxiety, and stress with a sudden and near-constant

stream of news reports about an outbreak.”1 The language used to discuss the issues that this

paper brings to light is, naturally, not super advanced or different from what the average person

may be used to even though the topics have already become widely known. However, there is

some vocabulary that may not be known to everyone. For example, the authors mention

“psycho-social consequences” and “psycho-social support.” which could leave the audience

confused at first glance. Despite the initial confusion, there are many context clues and

explanations within the surrounding sentences that can help draw conclusions of what the

authors are trying to say. This paper is more accessible to the average person due to the lack of

advanced jargon meant for experts in the field.

Conversely, the economics paper carries a more advanced repertoire of jargon than the

psychology one. It solely discusses the findings from the research of whether stock market

declines can predict the COVID-19 stimulus packages given. The vocabulary and advanced ideas

are thrown onto the audience without giving clear explanations. The readers are expected to

already have some sort of background knowledge in economics in order to understand this paper.

For example, someone without a strong economics background may not understand how an

“approach to measuring changes beyond a particular threshold (such as one SD) is intuitive

because we are interested in identifying substantial stock market falls attributable to the

1
Kumar, Anant, and Nayar, K. Rajasekharan. “COVID 19 and Its Mental Health Consequences.”
Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), vol. 30, no. 1, Routledge, 2021, pp. 1–2,
doi:10.1080/09638237.2020.1757052.
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COVID-19 pandemic, overlooking day-to-day fluctuations”2 This excerpt refers to a function

given that defines stock market rise. The functions and graphs provided in this journal require

outside knowledge, not just in economics. There is also math terminology, such as standard

deviation (SD), that may not be common knowledge to someone who has not done math in a

while. People who study economics have a lot of practice with formulas of this nature and

interpreting graphs like the ones provided, so little explanation and context is necessary for them.

However, people outside of the discourse community may not have any idea what the author is

saying, since the paper was not written for them. Since it is lacking that context, it can be

inferred that the discourse community is very specific to that field.

The organization of the two journals greatly differs as well. The psychology paper is a lot

shorter and more concise than its economic counterpart, making it feel like a summary of ideas.

The economics article is twenty three pages long, while the psychology one is a mere three

pages. The majority of the psychology paper solely evaluates concerns with mental health and

side effects that COVID-19 has brought about. For example, one of the paragraphs goes into

depth on how over emphasizing the need to wash hands induces unnecessary anxiety and fear in

many. The authors write that “OCD and related maladaptive behaviors particularly due to

consistent promotion of handwashing to mitigate the coronavirus infection and its spread is a

serious concern.”3 This seems like an idea that many would not even consider. Being told to

wash hands does not seem that it would provoke OCD and anxiety, but the authors bring

attention to it, therefore, making it important to the paper as it is new information. Despite this, it

2
Shafiullah, Muhammad, et al. “Do Stock Markets Play a Role in Determining COVID‐19
Economic Stimulus? A Cross‐country Analysis.” World Economy, John Wiley & Sons, Inc,
2021, doi:10.1111/twec.13130.
3
Kumar, Anant, and Nayar, K. Rajasekharan. “COVID 19 and Its Mental Health Consequences.”
Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), vol. 30, no. 1, Routledge, 2021, pp. 1–2,
doi:10.1080/09638237.2020.1757052.
 Bahman 4

is not given its own section in the paper. It is instead added in the middle of one of the

pre-existing paragraphs. The entire paper is written in one section; there are no subheadings to

break it up. From this, it can be inferred that everything holds a similar amount of significance to

the paper and that every piece of information should transition into the next.

On the other hand, the economics paper is a lot more structured and clearly laid out. It

includes an abstract and five other main sections, two of which being the introduction and

concluding comments section. This helps break apart all the information into chunks, making it

slightly easier to process all the information. This is especially useful in really long research

papers like this. Since the psychology paper was not nearly as long, it did not need to be broken

apart. Having one section for literature review, one section describing the data and methodology,

and one section for results makes the economics paper more organized when looking for

something specific. This is essential especially in such a long paper, as it becomes more

convenient when skimming. Within these chapters are also visual models and representations,

including tables, graphs and formulas. While some of these may be more difficult to understand

for people outside of the discourse community, people with the background knowledge would

appreciate the addition of these elements as it helps visualize the arguments.

There are also differences in the kinds of sources used by the authors to create these

scholarly articles. In the psychology paper, there are a variety of primary and secondary sources

used. Many of the sources come from the World Health Organization, the American

Psychological Association, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, all of which are

primary sources. There are also a variety of secondary sources used, including The Guardian,

Business Today, Psychiatric Times, and some news sources from India. However, it seems that

the economics paper utilized more reliable primary sources. Some examples being Pew
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Research, the World Health Organization, the National Bureau of Economic Research,

Cambridge University Press, and other scholarly articles and books. There are a variety of

sources used to create this paper, such as books, journals, articles, and press conferences. Most of

the references in the psychology paper came from either the World Health Organization or were

news articles from India, which does not provide the authors or audience with much variety in

perspectives on the issue of mental health. This is opposed to the economic paper, where the

bibliography provided the authors and audience with a broad range of economic perspectives and

opinions that will back the main claim and make sure it is accurate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been talked about consistently for almost two years now,

as it has truly turned everyone’s lives upside down. It has had an interdisciplinary impact in

many different ways across the world, and even though psychology and economics both fall

under the umbrella of social sciences, the impacts are very different. These impacts are discussed

in many different ways, but the authors of these two scholarly journals specifically attract their

intended audiences through the use of jargon, organization methods, and different kinds of

sources.

Works Cited

Kumar, Anant, and Nayar, K. Rajasekharan. “COVID 19 and Its Mental Health Consequences.”

Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), vol. 30, no. 1, Routledge, 2021, pp. 1–2,

doi:10.1080/09638237.2020.1757052.

https://search.library.ucsb.edu/permalink/01UCSB_INST/1876c7q/cdi_proquest_miscella

neous_2395630015
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Shafiullah, Muhammad, et al. “Do Stock Markets Play a Role in Determining COVID‐19

Economic Stimulus? A Cross‐country Analysis.” World Economy, John Wiley & Sons,

Inc, 2021, doi:10.1111/twec.13130.

https://search.library.ucsb.edu/permalink/01UCSB_INST/1876c7q/cdi_proquest_miscella

neous_2549209533