Heard on the street

"From a parenting point of view, children are better off today, and will be better off in the next few decades. Parents realize children need attention and oversight of what?s going on in their lives, and those beliefs are penetrating into the lower socioeconomic groups."

?Jerome Singer, Yale University child psychologist, on what parenting will look like in the 21st century (Newsweek, Nov. 2).

"If you have a lot of Picassos, one little additional Picasso isn?t going to do it for you. But if you live in Wallingford in a little Craftsman house, one Picasso is good enough."

?Cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Loftus, University of Washington, on his theory that the more you have, the less satisfied you are with something new (Seattle Times, Oct. 27).

"When coaches and parents get kids focusing too much on winning, they don?t."

?Sports psychologist Alan Goldberg, Amherst, Mass., on educating parents about raising healthy, happy athletes (Washington Post, Oct. 25).

"Finally a good news story involving a positive role model?it?s just what the docotor ordered to psychologically uplift the mood for the U.S."

?Robert Butterworth, a Los Angeles psychologist on Sen. John Glenn?s shuttle voyage. Butterworth studied the public?s reaction to the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger (Entertainment Wire, Oct. 29).

Heard in the Monitor

"The good news out of all that is that, this instance, nothing being passed, is better than something [bad] is being passed."

?Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA?s executive director for practice, on the actions of the 105th Congress.

"Mentoring is a lot like sex in that everyone thinks that it is very important, but no one ever talks about it. We just hope that it develops haphazardly through divine chemistry. Instead we should approach mentoring like we do test-tube babies. If it doesn?t happen on its own, let?s see if we can make it happen."

?Bernice Strauss, PhD, Sam Houston State University.

"This is farm-worker treatment. When your?e hired as a part-timer, right away you?re a second-class citizen."

?Ann Rosen Spector on being a part-time psychology professor.