Social Psychological Bulletin special topic on Psychosocial functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly an exceptional event in our lives. Few could be‐ lieve that the entire world would go into a state of emergency with schools, workplaces and public places closed for months, and our daily personal and professional routines severely interrupted. People's reactions to the pandemic have captured the fascination of psychologists. Psychologists initiated efforts to find solutions useful to the general public and policy makers, and the pandemic offers unique settings for testing and developing theory. Many of us have decided to conduct research to understand and explain people’s behavior, attitudes and emotions during the COVID-19 outbreak, and to test theories in the novel context that it offers (e.g., Bavel et al., 2020; Brooks et al., 2020; Cantarero, Van Tilburg, & Smoktunowicz, 2020; Dolinski, Dolinska, Zmaczynska-Witek, Banach, & Kulesza, 2020; Torales, O’Higgins, Castaldelli-Maia, & Ventriglio, 2020). As part of the Special Topic on the COVID-19 Pandemic at SPB, we invited submis‐ sions reporting research on psychosocial factors related to the coronavirus outbreak. The number of articles we received greatly exceeded our expectations. Thanks to thorough Editorial