IMPACT OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ON BALUCHISTAN AND PUNJAB: A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

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*Dr. Bisma Butt, **Dr. Shahnila Tariq, ***Dr. Behzad Anwar, ****Sumaira Ayub

Abstract

Several countries around the globe implemented tight quarantine policies, such as lockdowns in whole cities in order to avoid the fast spreading and transmission of COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019). At the start of the pandemic, lockdowns were also imposed in Pakistani Cities. The purpose of this study is to look at and study the psychological effect of COVID-19 lockdown on individuals in Pakistan. The goals of the study are achieved by (1) Sampling Facebook users (geo location = Baluchistan, Pakistan) and sampling Facebook users (geo location = Punjab, Pakistan), (2) retrieving published posts of two weeks prior and after lockdown  of all users who are in these regions (e.g., the date of lockdown in Pakistan; March 23, 2020); (3) obtaining the psycholinguistic aspects of these posts by using the ‘Language Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary’; and (4) performing Wilcoxon tests in order to study the changes and variations in the psycholinguistic features of the social media posts prior and after the lockdown in these regions i.e. Baluchistan and Punjab in Pakistan. After the lockdown in these regions, the results revealed that people concentrated greater on "home" and had greater levels of cognitive process. Meanwhile, following the lockdown, the stress level in Punjab, Pakistan reduced and focus on leisure grew. Following the lockdown, there was a greater focus on group, religion, and emotions in Baluchistan, Pakistan. The findings give policy and decision-makers up-to-date information regarding public reactions and their effects concerning psychological conditions in the COVID-19 environment, and they have ramifications for data and evidence based mental health intercessions in both provinces.


 

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