Ms. Himali Mhatre will present her APS as per the detail below:

Date : 20th September 2022

Time: 3.30 to 5.30 pm

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.2

Topic: Understanding Response of Lay-people to Covid-19 Pandemic

Guide: Prof. Subodh Wagle

RPC Members: Prof. Pankaj Sekhsaria, Prof. Himanshu Burte

Abstract:

The success of any policy measure is critically dependent on the responses of different actors involved, especially two actors playing critical roles. These include, first, frontline workers, who ultimately deliver policy benefits, and, second, citizens who are ultimate recipients of policies. One of the major factors shaping and determining these responses—i.e., decisions and actions—of these actors are cognitive representations held by them of various elements associated with these policies, especially of physical phenomena involved. According to the literature, actors make use of these mental models—to make sense of the reality around them. The responses of these actors could be understood and partly explained by eliciting, articulating, and analysing their mental models of social or physical phenomena involved in the concerned policies.

Various behavioural and other policy measures such as lockdown, information campaigns were implemented by different government agencies to contain the spread of Covid-19. The success of these policy measures is critically dependent on the responses of lay-people to these measures. 

This report describes the study on mental models held by lay-people of four core phenomena involved in the spread of Covid-19, namely, transmission of the virus to the host body, entry of infection in the host body, its effect on the body, and recovery from the disease. 

Various components of research design and the theoretical considerations for the research are discussed. The analysis protocol  for the ongoing research is described in the report.