OSU Professor Calls on Students, Faculty to Look at Bright Side

Over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, an OSU psychology professor is asking students and faculty to share how they’ve managed to cope with its myriad hardships. 

The Bright Side Project is a follow-up to OSU’s Punch Through Pandemics with Psychological Science online course, which reached nearly 3,700 people in 2020 with lessons about the psychological effects of stress and ways to counter it at the onset of the pandemic. Now, one of the instructors behind that class is asking what people have learned in the meantime. 

“From a psychological aspect, the more you can express your emotions, the more you can actively cope, the better off you generally are in the long run,” said Regan A.R. Gurung, professor and director of OSU’s general psychology program and director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. “The hope is that the Bright Side Project will give contributors the chance to reflect on things that made them happy and then share those with others.” 

This project is setting its sights on a national scale, asking college students and faculty to open up in any manner subjects want, from essays to memes and flow charts. 

The organizers have offered four separate prompts, sectioning off the pandemic into bite-sized pieces: 

• “The Pivot” is the first section, right around when classes and work went online in early March 2020; 
• “Going Remote” focuses on the 2020-21 academic year; 
• “The Return” looks at the return to in-person courses in fall 2021; and, 
• “Now” is, well, now – focusing on signs of improvement, and that ever-taunting light at the end of the pandemic-laced tunnel. 

Responses can come in just about any form, with no limit on word count, deadline, or a need to pick just one prompt. As they come up, organizers will review submissions, arranging them into the four prompt sections for all to view. 

Gurung’s goal with the Bright Side Project is to show contributors that they’re not alone in what they’ve experienced and potentially offer new methods of coping that have worked for others. 

“I think with everyday language when we say we’re ‘coping,’ it means we’re doing ‘OK.’ But psychologically, coping is much more of an active process of dealing with stress,” he said. “Stress is the challenge, and coping is the body and mind’s response to that challenge.” 

While he noted that everyone’s methods are different, Gurung found that he found solace in walks and hikes with his family. 

“We’re coming up on two years of the pandemic. Something we know about coping is, not only is there no one way for everybody, but sometimes when we’re using the same tool over and over, that tool starts losing its utility,” he said. “Maybe you’ve tried a whole bunch of stuff and you need some new ideas. That’s another reason why I think reading people’s different stories may be helpful.” 

Each guest expert who spoke to the Punch Through Pandemics course will also be invited to add their own thoughts to the Bright Side Project. If you’d like to learn more, or even submit a response, click here.