Heard on the street

"I'm not knocking experts, but I do think we should avoid offering advice until we're absolutely sure that it accounts for every variable. How many times has one study come out, only to be contradicted by another?"

--Psychologist Penelope Leach, author of "Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five," (Knopf, 1997) on the baby-in-parents'-bed controversy (New York Times, Oct. 1).

"They just don't understand addiction. They all say they'll stop in five years, that 'it's just a kid thing.' No kid expects to become addicted. They're all surprised when it happens to them."

--Psychologist Robert Schwebel, author of "How to Help Your Kids Choose to be Tobacco-Free," on young smokers (Newsweek, Oct. 4).

"'Listens to songs that promote violence....Appears to be an average student....Isolated....Dresses sloppily....'I mean, excuse me. This is another definition of adolescence!"

--Kevin Dwyer, president of the National Association of School Psychologists, on an FBI profile of students at risk for violent behavior (U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 11)

"Personality tests are used very frequently in pre-employment screening, even more now than 25 years ago. People see more liability issues in hiring and firing, so they want to be as sure as they can before they sign on the dotted line that somebody is not a difficult employee."

--Robert Bornstein, professor of psychology at Gettysburg College , on the current use of personality tests (New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17).

Heard in the Monitor

"Religion is a tremendously significant part of life here. It's wonderful, it's powerful and it gives strength. But it has its dark sides."

--Don McGeehee, who practices psychology in the Ozark mountains.

"People have searing memories of what happened, 'That guy burned down' my house or raped my wife.'" Those memories, trigger fear and a desire for revenge. Until the cycle is broken, there is no mechanism for reconciliation.

--Michael Wessells, PhD, of Randolph-Macon College, on psychologists' roles in ethnopolitical conflict.

"Psychology students choose a program in people, not math, so they come into stats thinking, 'Gotta get this over with.' If we can link this to their lives, they're going to have a more motivated attitude."

--Frances Conners, University of Alabama, on how linking courses to students' lives improves learning.



Read our privacy statement and Terms of Use

Cover Page for this Issue

PsychNET®
© 1999 American Psychological Association

APA Home Page . Search . Site Map