“Trust in times of crisis” is the personal reflection of each one of us to indicate the process of overcoming the many difficulties that Pandemic and COVID brought us. We have trusted in our patience, in our strength, in our security, in our reflection, in our civic behaviour, in our ability to overcome even the most insurmountable, to adapt our behaviours to something that only a year ago was presented to us as something weird.
Then, all of us at INFAD lived in times of illusion, hope, satisfaction with the Congress that in a few days we were going to celebrate at the University of Transylvania, in the city of Brasov (Romania). We had already many subscribers, with a program of conferences, presentations, round tables, etc. very satisfying and scientific, with positive expectations to meet each other again, like almost every year, at the end of April, but it was only in our backpacks.
Suddenly, Pandemic, and with it, e-mails and more e-mails, with immense doubts. What to do? The Organizing Committee faced the situation in a double decision: Keep online for predetermined dates and / or postpone, hoping that the Pandemic would be overcome. Both options were accepted and the Congress was held online on both dates, April and November 2020.
We learned a lot about telematic techniques, to overcome difficulties, but the life, affection, contact and satisfaction, that comes when meeting the speakers and the participants, produced a certain void for all of us, and we still yearn for that one annual contact to see and learn from each other.
A year passed, colleagues at INFAD in Coimbra, Portugal, wanted a new Congress. We hoped that Pandemic would allow us to celebrate it in person, but Portuguese scientists, health technicians in Pandemic and viruses advised us to celebrate it ONLINE.
That is then our decision and that is the theme of our congress: “Trust in times of crisis”.
Our motto encourages us to do so, it gives us strength, positivity and confidence. You know our position in Positive Psychology: “Where there is a problem, there must be a solution. We must analyze and respond ”
The general objectives of the XXIX International Congress of Psychology INFAD focus on:
– Bring together Spanish, Portuguese and foreign experts online to reflect on the role of Psychology to face pandemic moments like the one we are currently experiencing, which are presented to us in the current world.
– Present the research carried out, or about to be carried out, on the contributions of Psychology in these issues, from the fields of pandemic difficulties: social, family and educational, of values on the other hand, of new realities that have been incorporated into our daily, labour lives, economic, sanitary, etc.
– Start a deep reflection on the current concerns related to the entire psychological field. What does our society ask of us, what does it demand of us about interpersonal relationships, that self-awareness emerges in the current conditions of socio-cultural development, group inter-generational, cross-cultural, technological, reflective, difficult, impoverishing conditions of this pandemic? Analyzing all this, from the field of Psychology.
– Show the role of the Psychologist and other skills and psychological assistance in crisis situations.
– Discuss the role of the psychologist and other skills and their possible intervention in the face of today’s difficulties.
– Share and debate the latest theoretical-conceptual, technological-instrumental and technical-practical advances of Spanish, Portuguese, and other European, American and Asian researchers in the context of the congress theme.
– Constitute, expand and / or consolidate international networks of researchers and professionals.
– Promote exchanges between psychologists, academics and other professionals.
– Generate proposals for solutions for society in the face of current, social, family problems, etc.
Coimbra, March 2021
Florencio Vicente Castro; President of the INFAD Association
Sonia Brito-Costa; President of the Organizing Committee
