VOLUME 30 , NUMBER 5 May 1999

Heard on the street

"Family firms don't want psychotherapy...or a lot of touchy-feely stuff. They want to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably and get the family working together in a harmonious way."

--Psychologist Ralph Daniel, a consultant with the California Family Business Institute in Westlake Village, on the need to listen to clients and help them strategize in the growing practice area of keeping family businesses intact (Los Angeles Times, March 3).

"It's about as useful as advice to throw gasoline on a fire. It's harmful to society. It's like the old joke, 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. How do you become a very angry person? The answer is the same. Practice, practice, practice.'"

--Psychologist Brad Bushman of Iowa State University, on the common lore that venting anger verbally or physically gets rid of it, published in APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (ABC's "20/20," March 6).

"No one is trying to suggest that the only way that anyone should ever learn in the future is to be strictly online...[However,] it becomes a way to use the technological tools for the appropriate kinds of courses and at the same time allow students to have a shorter period of time in which they have to leave everything they're doing and be the captive audience. And it is, I think, the mix that is most powerful."

--Psychologist Sally Johnstone, director, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, Boulder, Colo., on the future of online learning (National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," March 9).

Heard in the Monitor

"People often talk about the next century as being the Pacific century. If that's so, questions about cultural differences in judgment and decision-making will be crucial."

--Frank Yates, University of Michigan, discussing the need for
decision-making research, page 12.

"It's significant, for example, that in the aftermath of the tragic event like the killing of two Capitol police officers in Washington last year, the public discussion has been more about the gaps in our community treatment system instead of knee-jerk responses like, 'We should just lock up all those mental cases.'"

--Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) noting that advocacy by APA and others has improved the public's understanding of mental illness, page 18.

"We have these great expectations about work fulfilling our lives, but the difference between the ideal and real are so great it causes stress."

--Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, University of Iowa, speaking at the "Work, stress and health" conference co-sponsored by APA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, page 28.

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