Coping with COVID 19: A Study in the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States from a Psychological Perspective

Dealing with COVID 19 is probably the most challenging state of affairs that the world has faced in recent times. Investigations are still underway for developing suitable drugs to control the pandemic having a detrimental effect on the economy, social relations, and health – both physical and psychological- of the populations. To date, the worthwhile means have been vaccination and preventive strategies such as lockdown, maintaining social distance, using masks, etc. There is no other way for the society at large and individuals, in particular, to cope with the pandemic except by adapting to these strategies. In this context, the paper discusses the different coping approaches that people from different regions of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have adopted in the COVID scenario based on the responses of 184 individuals for an online survey conducted during November – December 2021. Of the three copying styles, emotion and problem focused and avoidant, the respondents had chosen emotion focused style of coping mostly and it is related to the demographic factors like age, gender and level of education.