Constructivist psychology can inform adapting to existential threats.
Mascolo and Burbach (2020) propose a model of transformative problem-solving to support the adaptation of communities, organisations and individuals in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This model involves a series of loosely organised phases that evolve dynamically over time, including encountering the threat, coordinating a leadership process, constructing a systematic problem-solving space, constructing possible solutions and synthesising and implementing a systemic solution. The authors illustrate the process of transformative problem-solving with an analysis of how a group of four families in the UK responded to the need to rethink their approach to educating their children during coronavirus lockdown. Through using transformative problem-solving, the families were able to explore their assumptions and values around parenting and education, acknowledge a need to grieve and recognise that the solution to their difficulties lay in showing initiative and creating systematic changes in existing educational structures. The authors propose that transformative problem-solving, and constructive thinking more broadly, can help individuals, organisations and communities adapt to the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic and other potential existential crises.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2020.1835592
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