Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Self-organizing systems can shift between stability and flexibility in response to perturbation, a potential adaptive mechanism for understanding biopsychosocial resilience. Inverse Power-Law (IPL) structure, a frequency distribution that describes fractal patterns commonly produced by self-organization, produce measurements of stability and flexibility. This study applies these measures to emotional resilience at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ratings of frequency over the past week (1-5 Likert scale) across 12 emotions (six positive and six negative) gathered in mid-April 2020 as part of a survey of adults’ (N = 4,094) pandemic experiences and health in the USA. The distributions of everyone’s emotion ratings were tested for IPL fit, resulting in a mean R2 = .75. A steeper IPL shape parameter, reflecting greater emotional stability, was associated with better mental (anxiety, depression, and stress) and physical (fatigue, headache, and diarrhea) health overall. However, when total scores for positive and negative emotion were controlled, the reverse effect was found. Finally, a significant interaction effect was found between a measure of COVID-19 impact and IPL shape on each of the six health outcomes, suggesting that greater emotional flexibility may provide buffering against large-scale and unexpected challenges. Altogether, these results suggest that emotional stability may be most beneficial against illness when life is relatively stable, while emotional flexibility may be more adaptive when life is unstable.
Recommended Citation
Pincus, D., Ricca, B. P., Jenkins, B., Boehm, J. K., Berardi, V., Moors, A. C., & Frederick, D. A. (2025). Emotional balance, health, and resilience at the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001580
Copyright
American Psychological Association
Included in
Health Psychology Commons, Other Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Other Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons, Social Psychology Commons
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Emotion in 2025 following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001580
This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
This scholarship is part of the Chapman University COVID-19 Archives.