Date: June 10, 2003
Contact: Pam Willenz
Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5707

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION'S 111th ANNUAL CONVENTION TO BE HELD IN TORONTO AUGUST 7-10, 2003

New Approaches for Educators to Maximize Student Success, Better Ways to Handle Stress, And Understanding the Brain for Health and Learning to be Major Themes

TORONTO — Psychologists will be looking at new ways to combat stress, understand the differences in brain structure to help people learn and overcome addictions and ways to improve student learning during the 111th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).

More than 1,200 symposia, invited addresses, paper, poster and other sessions will be devoted to a wide range of psychological issues ranging from emotional intelligence and how children learn to the way peoples’ social identities affect achievement and interpersonal relations. Understanding the genetic differences and life experiences that shape people’s brains and influence their abilities for attention and language, the merits of both drug and therapy for depression and the importance of studying brain-behavior relations in humans and nonhuman primates to understand perception and memory will be also be featured.

Other sessions will feature national security concerns and how the roles, missions and size of the armed services has changed, how technology has diminished the role of play in preschool and how this affects children’s mental health. Other presentations will include:

• The effects of drugs of abuse on the human brain
• Obsessive compulsive disorder and the neurobiology of attachment and separation
• The rise in internet hostility and its consequences
• How Olympic athletes maintain high sports performance
• Sex differences in responses to infidelity
• Causes and treatment for compulsive sexual behavior
• How shy teens deal with shyness
• Predictors of marital satisfaction in long-term marriages
• Attitudes toward funerals
• Issues and concerns regarding an Alzheimer’s Home Screening Test
• Love, marriage and close relationships as stress reducers and health boosters

APA President Robert Sternberg, Ph.D., (Yale University) 2003 presidential track includes a diverse group of six presentations, around the theme “Education and the Brain” including:

Grover J. Whitehurst, PhD, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
· Friday, August 8, 10:00-10:50 am
· “Psychology and Evidence-Based Education”
· Chair: Valerie Reyna, PhD, University of Arizona

Henry L. Roediger, III, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
· Friday, August 8, 11:00-11:50 am
· “Aging and False Memory: Exploring Mark Twain’s Conjecture”
· Chair: Endel Tulving, PhD, Rotman Research Institute

Peter Salovey, PhD, Yale University
· Friday, August 8, 12:00-12:50 pm
· “Emotional Intelligence: What Do We Know, Really?”
· Chair: Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, Yale University

Endel Tulving, PhD, Rotman Research Institute
· Friday, August 8, 1:00-1:50 pm
· “What Makes Mental Time Travel Possible?”
· Chair: Henry L. Roediger, III, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Michael I. Posner, PhD, University of Oregon
· Saturday, August 9, 1:00-1:50 pm
· “Educating the Developing Brain”
· Chair: Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, Yale University

Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, Yale University and the Rainbow Project Collaborators
· Saturday, August 9, 2:00-2:50 pm
· “The Rainbow Project: What’s Wrong with College Admissions and How Psychology Can Fix It”
· Chair: Wayne J. Camara, PhD, The College Board

Other notable speakers will be Stephen Lewis, former Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. and known for his expertise on international relations and current affairs, human rights, global education, employment equity and race relations, healthcare and the environment and Ms. Fatuma Ndangiza, the Executive Secretary for the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in Rwanda.

For information about other convention programming, please visit the APA Convention Homepage at http://www.apa.org/convention03/

Logistics

The press facilities for the convention will be in the Boardroom, Lobby Level, the Crowne Plaza. The pressroom will open for on-site media registration on Thursday, August 7, from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM, During each day of the convention, the pressroom hours will be open from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (except Sunday, August 10, when it will close at noon). Please note change: Convention papers will be available online. We will supply you with CDs or you may email the papers as attachments. We will also have working space, telephones, fax machines, phone lines for data transmission and APA staff resources for you. The press area will also be the site of any news briefings held during the convention.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

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