Trouble sleeping. Bad dreams. Cracked teeth. Increased alcohol intake. As cases of Covid-19 boom, the attendant stress of living in a pandemic persists. More than half of Americans say that worry or stress about the Covid-19 pandemic has affected their mental or physical health. And many of our usual ways of coping — seeing friends and family, for example, or exercising at the gym — have been curtailed.What are the keys to building psychological resilience in the face of difficulties? What does research reveal about how coping strategies lessen or worsen the damage from stress and trauma? How do those recommendations need to shift, given the realities of Covid? And how might people cope with the double stress of the pandemic and the holidays?One key, researchers say, may be focusing on flexibility.Join a discussion of the science of resilience and coping with clinical psychologist George Bonanno, who has studied how veterans and others respond to trauma and loss, and social psychologist Judith T. Moskowitz, whose work with patients diagnosed with HIV and cancer has helped uncover the power of effective coping methods. The speakers will share their insights on what steps can be taken now to protect against the long-reaching assaults of stress on our physical and mental health.Please submit questions prior to the event either by clicking on "Ask a Question" or by emailing them to events@knowablemagazine.org.Speakers:Judith T. Moskowitz, PhD, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Professor of Medical Social Sciences📷Judith Moskowitz trained as a social psychologist and studies the impact of positive emotion on adjustment to health-related and other life stress. She is the Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded trials of an intervention designed to increase positive emotion and improve psychological and physical well-being in people experiencing various types of life stress. Her research team is currently conducting trials of the intervention aimed at improving health and health behaviors in dementia caregivers, high school students, people with type 2 diabetes, women with stage IV breast cancer, and people living with HIV. She tweets as @JudyMosk.George A. Bonanno, PhD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director, Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab📷George Bonanno’s research and scholarly interests have centered on the question of how human beings cope with loss, trauma and other forms of extreme adversity, with an emphasis on resilience and the salutary role of flexible coping and emotion regulation. The author of The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells us about Life After Loss, Bonanno’s recent work has focused on defining and documenting adult resilience in the face of loss or potential traumatic events, and on identifying predictors of both psychopathological and resilient outcomes. He tweets as @giorgiobee.Moderator:Eva Emerson, Editor in Chief, Knowable MagazineEva Emerson is Editor in Chief and cofounder of Knowable Magazine from Annual Reviews. A graduate of the UC Santa Cruz science communication program with a background in biology, she was formerly Editor in Chief of Science News Magazine.This event is part of Reset: The Science of Crisis & Recovery, an ongoing series of live events and science journalism exploring how the world is navigating the coronavirus pandemic, its consequences and the way forward.Reset is supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Knowable Magazine is a product of Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. Major funding for Knowable comes from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.Keep an eye out for future Reset events coming this winter. Dates, times, and speakers to be announced on Knowable Magazine.

Stress and Resilience in the Pandemic and Beyond