Heard on the Street

"Some people say that it's an impulse-control disorder [like gambling]. Other people say it's a symptom. I don't care what it is...something happens to these people and they have to be treated."

--Psychologist Maressa Hecht Orzack, founder of the Computer Addiction Service, McLean Hospital, on people who become addicted to bidding in online
auctions (MSNBC, Feb. 2).

"It suggests that babies are smarter than we thought. And it means they are tuning in to a very, very important distinction quite early in life. The distinction between people and objects."

--University of Chicago psychologist Amanda Woodward on her finding that babies learn to differentiate between people and objects earlier than previously thought (Knight Ridder News Service, Feb. 16).

''There is no single entity called EQ [Emotional Intelligence Quotient] as people have defined it. One sympathetic interpretation of what journalists were saying is that there were a dozen unrelated things, which collectively might predict more than intelligence, things like warmth, optimism and empathy. But there was nothing new about that. Instead, the story became this fabulous new variable that is going to outpredict intelligence. There is no rational basis for saying that.''

--University of New Hampshire psychology professor John Mayer on media "overselling" of the concept of
emotional intelligence (Boston Globe, Feb. 21).

"The same cholesterol and stress that we worry about for heart disease also cause sexual dysfunction [because they affect circulation]."

--New York psychologist and sex therapist Michael Perelman, referring to survey results published in The Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that many Americans experience problems with sexual intimacy (Newsweek, Feb. 22).

Heard in the Monitor

"Most of the issues that vex humanity daily--ethnic conflict, arms escalation, overpopulation, abortion, environment, endemic poverty­cannot be solved without integrating knowledge from the natural sciences with that of the social sciences and humanities."

--Harvard University's E.O. Wilson, page 17.

"We have an obligation to engage the enemy because if we don't know the enemy, we can't fight back. When a new technology comes along, I owe it to my students to explore effective uses. Technology is a way for us, as professionals, to hone our craft."

--Brock University psychology professor John Mitterer on the need for psychology faculty to test which learning technologies work best for students, page 37.



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