Running Head: REPORT

The effect of homeworking/study since March 2020 and social anxiety level on unfamiliar face
recognition

[Writer Name]

[Institute Name]
Introduction

The pandemic of COVID-19 started from Wuhan – China, in 2019, which altered
numerous facets of loves of people, integrating the initiation of restrictions of movement and
individuals were imposed on working from home. Regarding Garcia & Weiss (2020), the
pandemic of COVID-19 has commenced home-schooling and working from home, which
severely influences the performance, justice and education policies. On the other hand, besides
the Covid-19 has negatively impacted the educational sectors. However, it also has drastic
impacts on social interactions. Hence, nearly every aspect related to life and work has been
disrupted due to COVID-19. According to Zheng et al. (2020), the impacts of working from
home due to COVID-19 restrictions have impacted the psychological health of workplace users.
Zheng et al. (2020) research was somewhat similar to the study by Aderka et al. (2013), who also
showed the psychological and physiological concerns in female employees were greater while
working from home than male employees. Additionally, Burton et al. (2010) demonstrated that
female employees were usually to a greater extent unfocussed from their responsibilities when
remote reworking resulting in challenges in facial recognition

Furthermore, a study was carried out by Benke et al. (2021) aimed to evaluate the
growing cases related to problems of anxiety and mental health ever since the COVID-19 has
appeared. Benke et al. (2021) showed that working from home can results in serious emotional
and psychological effects on employees facing social anxiety. On the other hand, the findings of
Benke et al. (2021) also showed the adverse impacts of social anxiety on facial expression
recognition and facial identity recognition. Besides, in support of above mentioned research,
Webster et al. (2018) discovered a relationship between social connections and facial
recognition.

Webster et al. (2018) further tracked down that despite the fact that remote working is an
ultimate decision for individuals encountering stress related conditions, their conditions
deteriorate as they carry on to work from home all through the pandemic. Moreover, Leneferink
et al. (2020) additionally broke down the mental medical issues all through the Covid episode,
especially the impacts of strategies concerning home stay, like social distancing practices and
social resources. Leneferink et al. (2020) include the guidelines of social distancing and
lockdowns on the intensified levels of anxiety and depression. Also,, this stage has seen raised
paces of private and conduct types of social distancing guidelines (Warnock-Parkes et al., 2020).

Although various studies have shown the relationship between social anxiety and
unfamiliar facial recognition, no study has demonstrated the association of social anxiety due to
working from home and unfamiliar face recognition. Hence, this research has covered this
significant gap of literature. Moreover, another gap witnessed is the limited studies regarding the
association of social anxiety, working from home and unfamiliar face recognition in times of
covid-19. Hence this research will fulfil the major gap mentioned above and is of prime
significance for academic earners and future researchers. Moreover, this research is significant as
it provides a deeper understanding of social anxiety associated with working from home due to
covid-19. Furthermore, the study is also substantial as it emphasises the prevalence of social
anxiety and how it affects people's lives.

Therefore, this research intends to evaluate the impacts of homeworking/study and social
anxiety level on unfamiliar face recognition during the outbreak of COVID-19. For this purpose,
the following hypothesis was devised to fulfil the research aim. The first hypothesis was to
examine whether there is a significant impact of work from home. It is anticipated that people
who have been remote working will not be as scoreless on the facial recognition scale. The
second hypothesis was to examine whether the score has a significant impact on social anxiety
and facial recognition capabilities. The third hypothesis was to determine whether there is a
significant impact of the combination of WFH and social anxiety on facial recognition re. It is
anticipated that people who have been remote working have amplified social anxiety and will not
be as scoreless on the facial recognition scale as those working from the workplace.

Method

This research has used a quantitative approach to accumulate and investigate the data.
The data was gathered in a research survey evaluating the intensities of societal anxiety in
opposition to the "Social Interaction Scale (SIAS)". Regarding the research design of the present
study, the research integrates a "between-subject" research design. According to Twisk & de
Vente (2019), a between-subject design is a kind of experimental design in which all respondents
are given only one treatment/condition. Here "treatment" refers to the independent variable
levels, and the researcher compares group differences between respondents in several conditions.
 Besides, the independent variable in the present research is working from home and
social anxiety levels. Since the research explores the impacts of WFH and social anxiety, which
triggers from covid-19, these two were regarded as two levels of independent variables.
Furthermore, facial recognition is the dependent variable.

The study assessed the dependent variable utilising the "Glasgow Face Matching Test
(GFMT)", consolidating the scores of face ID. The data was accumulated using a web-based poll
on Facebook and Twitter. Two-way ANOVA was utilized to assess the cause and impacts among
the factors and test the associations of homeworking/studying, social anxiety and facial
recognition.

Participants

There were 74 participants involved in the present research who partake in an online
survey. Out of this, the average was 1.68 ≈ 2. This implies that most females were present in the
current study, i.e. 50. At the same time, online 24 males participated in the study. In addition,
only those participants were above the age of 18 and were working professionally. For exclusion
criteria, participants with a past condition related to social anxiety or always remote working
were excluded from the research as it can mislead the findings. To investigate the sample size
chosen for participants, G-power was utilised. G-power calculation indorsed that suggested
participants would be 28, although the recommended number of participants was between 32 and
40. However, the researcher kept the number at 74.

Apparatus/Material

The study used Qualtrics for the survey and SPSS for analysis utilising a fatorial
independent measures ANOVA involving Levene's normality test and descriptive statistics to
analyse the variables.

Procedure

The research incorporated gathering data through users of social media. Participation was
carried out voluntarily. However, each participant was informed regarding the purpose and
implications of the study. Participants' were given a sheet comprising the research guidelines for
signing a consent form via Qualtrics. Additionally, respondents were provided with an online
form composed of personal details such as age, gender, workplace, or education institute where
they study. Moreover, respondents complete an online questionnaire along with social anxiety
scale and GFRT. The online questionnaire begins with the demographics of respondents and
making an irreplaceable anonymity identity for respondents. The social anxiety scale comprises
20 questions on a scale of 0-4. The face recognition test contains ten images pairs as the
respondents will recognise the resemblance or dissimilarities in the images within 15-20 minutes.
Completed responses were examined in Qualtrics.

Ethics

Additionally, the participants should be mindful of the research benefits, what comprises,
and its details. Connelly (2014) addresses the necessity of ethical consideration in the study.
These considerations not just are concerned for the respondents however additionally for the
researcher and the research quality. Furthermore, the researcher presented the reference to
confidentiality within the survey as no personal info was shared in the research. As per NMC
Code (2018), confidentiality plays a vital role in protecting human rights. And if the researcher
reveals any info to someone else, participants can withdraw from the research (NMC Code,
2018). The researcher also ensured that data was safe and could only be accessed by themselves
and the researcher also took ethical approval from the university, which is provided in Appendix
1. Moreover, the informed consent form was signed before collecting the data for research to
ensure the participants were aware of the research purpose. Thus, it is articulated that the
researcher has followed all four ethical principles to make the present study consistent and
credible.
Results

This section presents the descriptive statistics, normality test and two-way ANOVA to
test the hypothesis.

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 demonstrates the descriptive statistics of the data set, which is considered vital in
research analysis to explain the behaviour of the dataset (Little & Rubin, 2019). For example,
table 1 shows the total participants (N=74) in which the mean of working from a home variable
is 3.66 ≈4, social anxiety is 7.7≈8, and facial recognition is 4.2≈4.

Normality test

ANOVA supposes samples must come from a sample population that is with the same
variance. Hence Levene's test for homogeneity of variance is utilised to inspect this. Levene's
test is considered an inferential statistic used to assess whether the normality distribution is
followed in the dataset. If p<0.05, then the researcher can accept the null hypothesis, implying
that the dataset does not follow the normal distribution. If p>0.05, then the researcher will reject
the null hypothesis, and it must be concluded that normality distribution is observed in the
dataset.

H0: The dataset does not follow the normality distribution.

H1: The dataset follows the normality distribution.

The results of Levene's test is demonstrated in table 2. Table 2 shows that the dataset
follows the normality distribution (Levene’s test statistic = 1.704; p-value: 0.101>0.05).

Two-way ANOVA

Since it is confirmed that homogeneity is preserved (p>0.0.5), ANOVA can now be

performed. The researcher has used a factorial independent measures design to analyse the
impact of social anxiety and WFH on facial recognition. The researcher also examined the
interaction impact between WFH and social anxiety on unfamiliar facial recognition.

The findings of AONVA are shown in table 3. If p<0.05, the Ho is not acceptable, and if
p>0.05, the null hypothesis neglected to dismiss. From table 3, it has been seen that work from
home significantly affects facial recognition (F (4,34)=2.596; p-value: 0.05</=0.05), social
anxiety has a significant impact on facial recognition (F (12,34)=2.5963.884; p-value:
0.001</=0.05), and blend of work from home and social anxiety additionally has a significant
affect on facial recognition (F (17,34)=1.937; p-value: 0.04</=0.05). This indicates that null
hypotheses in all three cases are rejected.

Data screening

The present study involving teh quantitaive data is considered to be exploratory and
given every one of the appropriate info regarding the psychological effects of Covid-19. There
was a pre-assessment of the assembled information to enhance their quality. Such as, information
were assessed for data that is not present. There were 98 respondents, and in view of completed
information, 24 respondents data was deleted. Regardless, the acquired quantitative data was
inspected through a two-way ANOVA examination. SPSS programming helped with noticing
missing information, irregularities, and normality. Due to the assortment of users of online
media, this exploration will essentially enhance the information quality on the impacts of Covid
on mental medical issues like anxiety.

Discussion

The current research findings showed that social anxiety and working from home
individually and the interaction effect of both significantly impact unfamiliar facial recognition.
These findings are supported by the study of Zheng et al. (2020), who showed that the
disturbances brought about by the Covid-19 flare-up have upset all parts of life and work. Zheng
et al. (2020) considered the effects of WFH in the times of covid-19 and the psychological
wellbeing of office workstation representatives. This investigation is same as the discoveries
from an exploration by Aderka et al. (2013), that exhibits that remote working exhibited issues
related to physical and mental health in females are higher as compared to males. Moreover,
female workers were more diverted from their commitments routinely whilst working in-doors,
inciting hardships in facial recognition (Burton et al., 2010).

Leneferink et al. (2020) inspected the mental wellbeing problems in times of covid-19
flare-up, explicitly the effects of staying home such as acts of less social interactions and social
resources. As shown by the current investigation outcomes, students were more stressed in times
of covid-19. They trademark this to the anticipated data shared via digital media platforms
regarding the spread of the defilement and the loss of life, likewise as other social effects like
demonisation thinking about sicknesses (Leneferink et al., 2020).

Besides, this research contends that numerous participants face stress and anxiety due to
the expanding anxiety about the eventual fate of Covid-19 and social distance limitations.
Nevertheless, different students confronted gnawing financial constraints during their remote
learning procedures, prompting expanded mental well-being problems, nervousness and
depression (Anderson et al., 2013). Consequently, the discussion uncovers an immediate
connection among the extending rates of problems linked to mental pressure and mental
wellbeing like depression and anxiety throughout the epidemic of the Covid-19 (Leneferink et
al., 2020). This has altogether impacted the effectiveness of representatives working from home,
incorporating students who have expected to take their virtual courses.

Also, it has been uncovered that consistent data is shared via online media platforms
about the spread of the infection, the loss of life, and other time-management and work-related
reasons for stress and anxiety (Benke et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The current research concludes that remote working caused elevated problems related to
mental and physical health in females as compared to males. Also, it was assessed that
psychological wellness concerns in times of the outbreak of Covid-19 specifically the effects
caused due to to working from home and social distancing practices and social assets, have
impacted the efficiency of in-home workers, incorporating students who have expected to take
their virtual courses. Different explanations behind stress among the perceived students and
professional workers incorporate balancing house chores, managing children, and course content.

Limitation of the study

The current research has assessed working from home, social anxiety, and unfamiliar
facial recognition carried out without any help on self-revealed measurements. Although these
agendas are generally used in different researches, self-reported measures might bring about
answers being influenced by respondents' mood since respondents are approached to report
straightforwardly on their behaviours. Likewise, this research lacks diversity ruining the
researcher capacity to generalise research outcomes.
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