This blog will not be updated as often as the NEW course site:
GO TO:
http://mrcaro.ning.com/
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Parents' Love Seen As Key to Dugard Healing from Captivity
SANTA ANA, Calif. - They suffered every parent's worst nightmare when a stranger snatched their little girl. Then their most improbable dream came true when Jaycee Lee Dugard was found alive after 18 years in captivity.
As Terry and Carl Probyn rejoice, they must also grieve the childhood that was lost as they help their daughter move forward. While Dugard, 29, and her two daughters allegedly fathered by Phillip Garrido, will need extensive psychological treatment, mental health experts say the parents will have a crucial and challenging part in restoring them to family life and society.
"Our thoughts and prayers need to be for the grandparents here," said Curtis Rouanzoin, a Placentia, Calif., psychologist who specializes in trauma cases. "They're going to be an important part of the healing."
The Probyns, who raised Dugard in Orange County before moving to South Lake Tahoe where the abduction occurred, will have to contend with their own pain.
"This couple tragically had their first set of expectations cut off when their daughter vanished," said Laguna Hills, Calif., psychologist Sunny Steinmeyer. "Now they still have a daughter, but not the daughter they thought she would be. It must be worse than trying to get to know a stranger in some ways. They have to walk past their dreams and expectations and imaginings of what this girl would be like at 29 and have to readjust to who she really is."
And who she is, psychologists say, is likely a woman deeply traumatized and potentially struggling with mixed feelings toward her kidnappers and her parents.
Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said in an interview Friday that his estranged wife, who is in Northern California with Dugard, told him their daughter expressed guilt over bonding with Garrido.
"She might have aspects of the Stockholm syndrome," said psychiatrist Jeff Sugar, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry crisis and emergency services at the University of Southern California. "She might be very confused about who and what this person is to her. She may have some attraction to him, even loving feelings for him. Often there's a lot of shame associated with the trauma and feelings of guilt."
Dugard also might have been told that her parents didn't love her and didn't want her anymore - part of the manipulative emotional imprisonment created by an abductor.
"I think it's a very difficult road back," said Heather Huszti, a child psychologist at Children's Hospital of Orange County. "In following some of these other cases where kids have been returned, sometimes those issues do come up of 'You didn't look for me. Why didn't you come and get me?' It wouldn't be unusual to have some anger at some point."
Rouanzoin, the Placentia psychologist, said the parents of Elizabeth Smart serve as examples of immersing their daughter in love after her return home nine months after her 2002 kidnapping.
In an interview with CNN, Elizabeth Smart, now 21, advised Dugard to "just relax and enjoy your family and spend some time reconnecting."
Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, spoke of how the family helped her recover.
"A psychologist once said to me, 'It's really almost like being born again. You have to re-establish a bond with Elizabeth,'" Ed Smart said Friday in an interview with the Associated Press. "Finding those things she loves and enjoys helps her move forward - finding things that will become her passion and allow her to put the past behind her."
But the Probyns also have the challenge of grandchildren they didn't know about who are the product of violence against their daughter.
"The parents of this young mother can be very therapeutic if they can find it within their own hearts to love these kids and embrace their mother and show them what loving grandparents are about," Rouanzoin said. "It will be tough."
Yorba Linda, Calif., psychologist Lois Nightingale said Dugard and her children will need time to debrief and transition from the coping skills they developed to survive. The children, who are 11 and 15, could be delayed in social skills because of the deprivation and lack of stimulation they experienced.
Nightingale said she hopes the parents can help craft a family story to help them all move forward with resilience.
"Our emotions come from what we say about things," Nightingale said. "If the family has a family story of: 'We're survivors. We are strong and we had a faith about this and we went through this for a reason,' they will be able to use that to survive. If the media and their friends and teachers see them as victims and keep saying, 'Poor, poor you,' it will be harder for them. The more they can develop a story of power and gratitude, the better the children will do."
As Terry and Carl Probyn rejoice, they must also grieve the childhood that was lost as they help their daughter move forward. While Dugard, 29, and her two daughters allegedly fathered by Phillip Garrido, will need extensive psychological treatment, mental health experts say the parents will have a crucial and challenging part in restoring them to family life and society.
"Our thoughts and prayers need to be for the grandparents here," said Curtis Rouanzoin, a Placentia, Calif., psychologist who specializes in trauma cases. "They're going to be an important part of the healing."
The Probyns, who raised Dugard in Orange County before moving to South Lake Tahoe where the abduction occurred, will have to contend with their own pain.
"This couple tragically had their first set of expectations cut off when their daughter vanished," said Laguna Hills, Calif., psychologist Sunny Steinmeyer. "Now they still have a daughter, but not the daughter they thought she would be. It must be worse than trying to get to know a stranger in some ways. They have to walk past their dreams and expectations and imaginings of what this girl would be like at 29 and have to readjust to who she really is."
And who she is, psychologists say, is likely a woman deeply traumatized and potentially struggling with mixed feelings toward her kidnappers and her parents.
Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said in an interview Friday that his estranged wife, who is in Northern California with Dugard, told him their daughter expressed guilt over bonding with Garrido.
"She might have aspects of the Stockholm syndrome," said psychiatrist Jeff Sugar, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry crisis and emergency services at the University of Southern California. "She might be very confused about who and what this person is to her. She may have some attraction to him, even loving feelings for him. Often there's a lot of shame associated with the trauma and feelings of guilt."
Dugard also might have been told that her parents didn't love her and didn't want her anymore - part of the manipulative emotional imprisonment created by an abductor.
"I think it's a very difficult road back," said Heather Huszti, a child psychologist at Children's Hospital of Orange County. "In following some of these other cases where kids have been returned, sometimes those issues do come up of 'You didn't look for me. Why didn't you come and get me?' It wouldn't be unusual to have some anger at some point."
Rouanzoin, the Placentia psychologist, said the parents of Elizabeth Smart serve as examples of immersing their daughter in love after her return home nine months after her 2002 kidnapping.
In an interview with CNN, Elizabeth Smart, now 21, advised Dugard to "just relax and enjoy your family and spend some time reconnecting."
Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, spoke of how the family helped her recover.
"A psychologist once said to me, 'It's really almost like being born again. You have to re-establish a bond with Elizabeth,'" Ed Smart said Friday in an interview with the Associated Press. "Finding those things she loves and enjoys helps her move forward - finding things that will become her passion and allow her to put the past behind her."
But the Probyns also have the challenge of grandchildren they didn't know about who are the product of violence against their daughter.
"The parents of this young mother can be very therapeutic if they can find it within their own hearts to love these kids and embrace their mother and show them what loving grandparents are about," Rouanzoin said. "It will be tough."
Yorba Linda, Calif., psychologist Lois Nightingale said Dugard and her children will need time to debrief and transition from the coping skills they developed to survive. The children, who are 11 and 15, could be delayed in social skills because of the deprivation and lack of stimulation they experienced.
Nightingale said she hopes the parents can help craft a family story to help them all move forward with resilience.
"Our emotions come from what we say about things," Nightingale said. "If the family has a family story of: 'We're survivors. We are strong and we had a faith about this and we went through this for a reason,' they will be able to use that to survive. If the media and their friends and teachers see them as victims and keep saying, 'Poor, poor you,' it will be harder for them. The more they can develop a story of power and gratitude, the better the children will do."
Friday, August 21, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Staying positive in negative territory
Pursuing happiness may be an inalienable right, but it's tougher keeping those spirits up while your 401(k) is lower than it used to be.
Part of the reason, say those who study the subject, is that you may be looking for happiness in all the wrong places. People can be happy in an economic slump -- they just have to change their ideas about what it takes to be happy, say a growing number of psychologists who study "positive psychology," which emphasizes the benefits of optimism and having a positive outlook.
Although past studies have found those who live in countries with higher per capita incomes report many measures of greater well-being, it's psychological wealth that helps people get through tough times, say researchers Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, who will present new findings at the four-day annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, which opens here today. About 10,000 psychology professionals are expected to attend.
Though money helps people lead more comfortable lives, it doesn't necessarily contribute to the moments in life that bring happiness -- which tend to come from social interactions and activities, not from accumulating material goods.
"Wealth really means having what you need, and money gives only one part of what we need," says Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
Diener and his son Biswas-Diener, a psychologist and lecturer at Portland (Ore.) State University, co-wrote a 2008 book, Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. They will present findings of a survey of 136,000 people in 132 countries on how income and wealth relate to psychological needs.
"When you look at the entire world, money does matter," Diener says. "But it almost doesn't matter at all for enjoying life."
He says he and his wife had to cut back on spending when the stock market dropped.
"It has mattered zero to our happiness," he says. "We did have to make some tough decisions on what we can't do," such as canceling a trip with their five grandkids to Alaska.
They saved $10,000 by having the kids visit them at home in Salt Lake City instead. "It was not only OK, in some ways it was better. Without the traveling, life becomes slightly simpler and less hectic."
Simplicity is a silver lining to the downturn, says psychologist Robert Wicks.
"In the up economy, people were successful, but in many cases, they were missing their lives," says Wicks, a psychology professor at Loyola University Maryland in Columbia and author of Bounce: Living the Resilient Life, out next month.
"They weren't spending time really enjoying themselves and weren't spending time with family and friends. The simplicity that's possible during difficult economic times would not come to the fore if a crisis had notoccurred."
Some research suggests focusing on gratitude can increase happiness.
Gender plays a role
A study by Todd Kashdan, director of the Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., published online in the Journal of Personality earlier this year, finds that gender plays a role in achieving well-being: Men are much less likely than women to feel and express gratitude.
Carla White, a website designer in Sioux Falls, S.D., says keeping a daily journal about things she's grateful for allowed her to feel happy again after grappling with her father's death for 18 months -- unsuccessfully, she says.
"I think what a gratitude journal does is it shows me I actually have some good stuff in my life. I feel at peace. I feel happy because of that," she says.
White, who also faced the prospect of job loss last year, has created a gratitude journal iPhone application, which she launched at the end of the year.
Anthony Scioli, a psychology professor at Keene State College in Keene, N.H., says he has tried to distance himself somewhat from the segment of positive psychology that focuses on happiness in the here and now.
"We do not live just in the moment. Philosophically, one could even say it is impossible to live in the moment because time is fleeting, and most of the 'time' we live in the future and the past," he says.
"Hope is predominantly about the future, but is also fueled by past experiences of success, empowerment, connection, security, coping."
Scioli will present research on hope at an APA session on Friday.
"Hope brings a special kind of happiness, a more permanent form," says Scioli, co-author of Hope in the Age of Anxiety, with clinical psychologist Henry Biller of the University of Rhode Island-Kingston.
"Hopeful people are sustained by the belief that there are always options," Scioli says.
"Diversify investments, consider a different line of work, or pick up a temporary part-time job. Rent a room in your house for extra income. Hopeful people are more apt to stay calm in a crisis due to their broader life perspective and faith in the future."
But sometimes having hope and wanting to be happy aren't so easy, especially when so many people have been laid off or can't find work.
That's when happiness really suffers, says Biswas-Diener, of Milwaukie, Ore., who is also program director for the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology in the United Kingdom.
"The truth is you do take a hit where your happiness is concerned if you get laid off," he says, but "money is only one of the reasons. It's the stress associated with not being able to pay bills.
"Also, jobs provide meaning. They structure your time. They give you a sense of identity. They allow you to provide for your loved ones. When you take away these critical psychological components, people really do feel it."
Experiences trump stuff
Psychologists also have found that being highly materialistic affects happiness, with those who are most concerned about money and possessions actually being less happy.
Keeping too close tabs on the economy, such as daily monitoring of economic indicators that have been on a roller-coaster ride since the recession began, also hinders happiness.
"We find that people whose moods are up and down a lot are less happy. People who are less reactive to every event, in general, are happier," Diener says.
But what about what money can buy? Previous research has found that using money to pay for something novel, social or experiential brings more happiness than buying things.
Some newer studies confirm these results. San Francisco State University researchers presented findings earlier this year to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, based on what participants said about their purchases.
They said they thought eating out or buying theater tickets was money better spent than on more things, such as a new tech toy or clothing, and the experiential purchase provided greater happiness for themselves and others, regardless of the amount they paid or their income.
Making happy memories
The researchers suggest that's because experiences can provide happy memories, which don't wear away as fast as the rush of buying a new possession.
But a study in this month's Journal of Consumer Research found that negative experiences can turn the theory upside down.
Researchers at the University of Texas-Austin and Washington University in St. Louis found that a bad experience, like a vacation gone wrong, can have a more negative impact on happiness than other spending of a comparable amount.
Humans are predisposed to pay greater attention to the negative, psychologists say.
That's partly evolutionary because humans automatically turn their attention to anything threatening before paying attention to rewards, says Diener -- ignoring a lion's threat, for example, could make you a goner, while ignoring something good isn't a matter of survival.
Focusing on what's good and the special moments that bring happiness to people's lives is why Pamela Gail Johnson of Lewisville, Texas, says she created the Secret Society of Happy People.
Johnson says the group, started in 1998, has struck a nerve with at least 7,000 people she counts as official members.
The website (www.sohp.com) has had more traffic since the downturn, she says.
"When they're in this global uncertainty, they start asking these tougher questions," she says. 'Do I need three cars? Does that make me happy?' "
Johnson urges people to savor the happy moments, even in the midst of financial chaos.
"If your basic needs are met, happiness is not about money," she says.
Part of the reason, say those who study the subject, is that you may be looking for happiness in all the wrong places. People can be happy in an economic slump -- they just have to change their ideas about what it takes to be happy, say a growing number of psychologists who study "positive psychology," which emphasizes the benefits of optimism and having a positive outlook.
Although past studies have found those who live in countries with higher per capita incomes report many measures of greater well-being, it's psychological wealth that helps people get through tough times, say researchers Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, who will present new findings at the four-day annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, which opens here today. About 10,000 psychology professionals are expected to attend.
Though money helps people lead more comfortable lives, it doesn't necessarily contribute to the moments in life that bring happiness -- which tend to come from social interactions and activities, not from accumulating material goods.
"Wealth really means having what you need, and money gives only one part of what we need," says Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
Diener and his son Biswas-Diener, a psychologist and lecturer at Portland (Ore.) State University, co-wrote a 2008 book, Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. They will present findings of a survey of 136,000 people in 132 countries on how income and wealth relate to psychological needs.
"When you look at the entire world, money does matter," Diener says. "But it almost doesn't matter at all for enjoying life."
He says he and his wife had to cut back on spending when the stock market dropped.
"It has mattered zero to our happiness," he says. "We did have to make some tough decisions on what we can't do," such as canceling a trip with their five grandkids to Alaska.
They saved $10,000 by having the kids visit them at home in Salt Lake City instead. "It was not only OK, in some ways it was better. Without the traveling, life becomes slightly simpler and less hectic."
Simplicity is a silver lining to the downturn, says psychologist Robert Wicks.
"In the up economy, people were successful, but in many cases, they were missing their lives," says Wicks, a psychology professor at Loyola University Maryland in Columbia and author of Bounce: Living the Resilient Life, out next month.
"They weren't spending time really enjoying themselves and weren't spending time with family and friends. The simplicity that's possible during difficult economic times would not come to the fore if a crisis had notoccurred."
Some research suggests focusing on gratitude can increase happiness.
Gender plays a role
A study by Todd Kashdan, director of the Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., published online in the Journal of Personality earlier this year, finds that gender plays a role in achieving well-being: Men are much less likely than women to feel and express gratitude.
Carla White, a website designer in Sioux Falls, S.D., says keeping a daily journal about things she's grateful for allowed her to feel happy again after grappling with her father's death for 18 months -- unsuccessfully, she says.
"I think what a gratitude journal does is it shows me I actually have some good stuff in my life. I feel at peace. I feel happy because of that," she says.
White, who also faced the prospect of job loss last year, has created a gratitude journal iPhone application, which she launched at the end of the year.
Anthony Scioli, a psychology professor at Keene State College in Keene, N.H., says he has tried to distance himself somewhat from the segment of positive psychology that focuses on happiness in the here and now.
"We do not live just in the moment. Philosophically, one could even say it is impossible to live in the moment because time is fleeting, and most of the 'time' we live in the future and the past," he says.
"Hope is predominantly about the future, but is also fueled by past experiences of success, empowerment, connection, security, coping."
Scioli will present research on hope at an APA session on Friday.
"Hope brings a special kind of happiness, a more permanent form," says Scioli, co-author of Hope in the Age of Anxiety, with clinical psychologist Henry Biller of the University of Rhode Island-Kingston.
"Hopeful people are sustained by the belief that there are always options," Scioli says.
"Diversify investments, consider a different line of work, or pick up a temporary part-time job. Rent a room in your house for extra income. Hopeful people are more apt to stay calm in a crisis due to their broader life perspective and faith in the future."
But sometimes having hope and wanting to be happy aren't so easy, especially when so many people have been laid off or can't find work.
That's when happiness really suffers, says Biswas-Diener, of Milwaukie, Ore., who is also program director for the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology in the United Kingdom.
"The truth is you do take a hit where your happiness is concerned if you get laid off," he says, but "money is only one of the reasons. It's the stress associated with not being able to pay bills.
"Also, jobs provide meaning. They structure your time. They give you a sense of identity. They allow you to provide for your loved ones. When you take away these critical psychological components, people really do feel it."
Experiences trump stuff
Psychologists also have found that being highly materialistic affects happiness, with those who are most concerned about money and possessions actually being less happy.
Keeping too close tabs on the economy, such as daily monitoring of economic indicators that have been on a roller-coaster ride since the recession began, also hinders happiness.
"We find that people whose moods are up and down a lot are less happy. People who are less reactive to every event, in general, are happier," Diener says.
But what about what money can buy? Previous research has found that using money to pay for something novel, social or experiential brings more happiness than buying things.
Some newer studies confirm these results. San Francisco State University researchers presented findings earlier this year to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, based on what participants said about their purchases.
They said they thought eating out or buying theater tickets was money better spent than on more things, such as a new tech toy or clothing, and the experiential purchase provided greater happiness for themselves and others, regardless of the amount they paid or their income.
Making happy memories
The researchers suggest that's because experiences can provide happy memories, which don't wear away as fast as the rush of buying a new possession.
But a study in this month's Journal of Consumer Research found that negative experiences can turn the theory upside down.
Researchers at the University of Texas-Austin and Washington University in St. Louis found that a bad experience, like a vacation gone wrong, can have a more negative impact on happiness than other spending of a comparable amount.
Humans are predisposed to pay greater attention to the negative, psychologists say.
That's partly evolutionary because humans automatically turn their attention to anything threatening before paying attention to rewards, says Diener -- ignoring a lion's threat, for example, could make you a goner, while ignoring something good isn't a matter of survival.
Focusing on what's good and the special moments that bring happiness to people's lives is why Pamela Gail Johnson of Lewisville, Texas, says she created the Secret Society of Happy People.
Johnson says the group, started in 1998, has struck a nerve with at least 7,000 people she counts as official members.
The website (www.sohp.com) has had more traffic since the downturn, she says.
"When they're in this global uncertainty, they start asking these tougher questions," she says. 'Do I need three cars? Does that make me happy?' "
Johnson urges people to savor the happy moments, even in the midst of financial chaos.
"If your basic needs are met, happiness is not about money," she says.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
IB Psychology: 5th Edition
The 5th edition of IB Psychology is currently under development! One new area of focus compared to previous years will be more time spent on the unconscious! We will explore the final frontier of psychology! It may get a little creepy but that is the fascinating part!
MrCaro.com will be under some new construction next month as well!
And finally, there will be a corresponding interactive web site for the course located at
http://mrcaro.ning.com/
If you are current, future, or previous student, sign up to be a member!
Stay tuned for more IB Psychology Updates!
Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
Associated Press - July 21, 2009
WASHINGTON - The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.
Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English - "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out - how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains - or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.
It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual - by simply speaking to them in two languages - can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.
Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns - nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time - like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba - while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.
While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.
"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."
Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.
What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language - TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.
Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.
Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans - a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography - that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.
"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.
But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.
"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."
MrCaro.com will be under some new construction next month as well!
And finally, there will be a corresponding interactive web site for the course located at
http://mrcaro.ning.com/
If you are current, future, or previous student, sign up to be a member!
Stay tuned for more IB Psychology Updates!
Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
Associated Press - July 21, 2009
WASHINGTON - The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.
Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English - "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out - how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains - or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.
It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual - by simply speaking to them in two languages - can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.
Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns - nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time - like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba - while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.
While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.
"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."
Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.
What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language - TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.
Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.
Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans - a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography - that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.
"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.
But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.
"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Psychology of thriving: Mental health is not just expelling illness. Now, science explores what it takes to flourish
Jul. 6--Back in 1971, Philip Zimbardo locked students in basements beneath Stanford University to see what would happen.
It's not difficult to imagine his doing this. Zimbardo, with his slicked-back, black hair, sharp nose, and devil T-shirt, looks remarkably like a cartoon villain. And the outcome of his Stanford Prison Experiment was truly dark -- in less than a week, ordinary college students assigned to the role of prison guard had turned viciously sadistic, while those designated as prisoners cowered in terror.
But now, Zimbardo says, he's changed. In his opening lecture last month at the First World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia, he emphasized this point by blasting Santana's "Evil Ways" through the speakers of the Center City Philadelphia Sheraton. And 1,600 positive psychologists stood up and danced.
For too long, says Zimbardo, psychologists -- including himself -- have spent most of their time trying to understand how and why things go wrong. This work has produced, among other benefits, effective therapies for mental illnesses. But mental health, like physical health, means more than just eliminating sickness. It means actively thriving.
Can science shed light on what it takes to flourish? Zimbardo thinks it can. "We ask big questions and come up with solid answers based on the best experimental data," he explained. Below, we offer a few snapshots from talks presented at the congress, featuring positive psychologists quantifying some of the most personal aspects of the human experience -- things such as passion, love, and our perception of time.
Time out of mind
Facts. Emotions. Logic. If you ask most people what they base their decisions on, this is the type of answer you're likely to get. But Zimbardo thinks it's not the whole story -- or even most of it.
"The main thing that determines your decisions," he said, "is something you're unaware of -- your perspective on time."
Imagine going out to lunch with co-workers and deciding whether to have that second martini. You could approach the decision by considering what happened last time you drank too much at lunch, or by envisioning how it would affect your work performance later in the day. You could focus on how much fun it would be right now. Or you might figure that you never get much done in the afternoon anyway, so why not?
These four responses are typical of distinct time perspectives: past, future, present-hedonistic, and present-fatalistic.
Zimbardo and his colleagues created a time-perspective survey and gave it to thousands of people. Many had a single, strong time orientation, but some were more mixed.
Not surprising, college students scoring high in the present-hedonistic category were more likely to drink, smoke, use drugs, and drive dangerously.
But in older people recovering from heart trouble, a present-hedonistic orientation had the opposite effect. Elderly people who lived for the moment were more likely to take responsibility for their health.
That's because older people can't take good health for granted, the Canadian researchers who conducted the study said. Many simple daily pleasures are only possible if seniors take care of their bodies. And some activities that give immediate gratification -- such as socializing with friends and being physically active -- also have long-term health benefits.
The first step to making better decisions, Zimbardo says, is to understand how your own time perspective biases your thinking. Then you can start nudging it a little closer to the ideal: feeling positive about the past, planning for the future, and savoring the occasional splash of present hedonism. Take the test and see how you measure up at www.thetimeparadox.com.
Talk about the passion
Whether it's a dream set far in the future or a momentary pleasure, most of us are passionate about something. But University of Quebec professor Robert Vallerand is passionate about, well, passion.
He and his research group developed a survey to measure people's passion for their favorite activities. People rate how strongly, on a scale of one to seven, they agree with statements such as, "If I could, I would only do this activity," or "This activity reflects qualities I like about myself." Strong agreement with either statement is a sign of passion.
Not just the intensity, but also the type of passion matters. Vallerand and his colleagues identified two main kinds of passion: obsessive and harmonious. A person who is obsessively passionate about his favorite activity would agree more with the first statement, while someone whose passion is harmonious would agree more with the second.
When things are going well, it's hard to distinguish between these two types of passion. But when obstacles arise, they can lead to very different behavior.
Obsessively passionate cyclists braved Quebec's frigid winter weather to complete their daily bike rides, while those who were more harmonious spun at home or at the gym. Similarly, obsessively passionate dancers had more trouble taking enough time off to fully heal after an injury, sometimes leading to chronic damage.
Passion matters not only to individuals, but also to society, Vallerand said.
When he compared high-achieving professionals profiled by the Montreal newspaper La Presse with a random sample of people from an evening commuter train, he found that the high achievers were more passionate. They also worked an average of nine hours more per week.
What can you do to cultivate harmonious passion? Vallerand suggests three steps. First, select an activity you like, and set aside enough time to do it regularly. Second, internalize the activity -- make it part of how you see yourself. Finally, focus on enjoying the activity and improving your own performance -- not avoiding failure or doing better than others.
For better or for worse?
Passion can ignite romantic attraction, but the fate of relationships may depend on surprising details -- such as how one spouse responds to the other sharing some good news.
Shelly Gable, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, studies how couples respond to positive events, which could range from winning a casual Frisbee game to getting that long-awaited promotion at work.
Psychologists already knew that if one partner in a relationship provided support after a negative event, this helped the other partner and strengthened the relationship. But no one had looked at positive events.
When Gable did, the results surprised her. Enthusiasm after a positive event strengthened the relationship more than support after a negative event.
"I thought it would be important, but not as important as it was," she said, adding that needing help can make people feel incompetent or indebted.
Another unexpected result was that a passive, supportive response -- like saying, "That's nice, honey," and then turning back to the computer -- was almost as damaging as actually putting down the good event.
Luckily, giving active, constructive responses is a skill anyone can develop. "You don't have to be effervescent," Gable said. All you really have to do is show you care.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
A surprising number of teenagers - nearly 15 percent - think they're going to die young, leading many to drug use, suicide attempts and other unsafe behavior, new research suggests.
The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, challenges conventional wisdom that says teens engage in risky behavior because they think they're invulnerable to harm. Instead, a sizable number of teens may take chances "because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake," said study author Dr. Iris Borowsky, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.
That behavior threatens to turn their fatalism into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over seven years, kids who thought they would die early were seven time more likely than optimistic kids to be subsequently diagnosed with AIDS. They also were more likely to attempt suicide and get in fights resulting in serious injuries.
Borowsky said the magnitude of kids with a negative outlook was eye-opening.
Adolescence is "a time of great opportunity and for such a large minority of youth to feel like they don't have a long life ahead of them was surprising," she said.
The study suggests a new way doctors could detect kids likely to engage in unsafe behavior and potentially help prevent it, said Dr. Jonathan Klein, a University of Rochester adolescent health expert who was not involved in the research.
"Asking about this sense of fatalism is probably a pretty important component of one of the ways we can figure out who those kids at greater risk are," he said.
The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, released Monday.
Scientists once widely believed that teenagers take risks because they underestimate bad consequences and figure "it can't happen to me," the study authors say. The new research bolsters evidence refuting that thinking.
Cornell University professor Valerie Reyna said the new study presents "an even stronger case against the invulnerability idea."
"It's extremely important to talk about how perception of risk influences risk-taking behavior," said Reyna, who has done similar research.
Fatalistic kids weren't more likely than others to die during the seven-year study; there were relatively few deaths, 94 out of more than 20,000 teens.
The researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of kids in grades 7 to 12 who were interviewed three times between 1995 and 2002. Of 20,594 teens interviewed in the first round, 14.7 percent said they thought they had a good chance of dying before age 35. Subsequent interviews found these fatalistic kids engaged in more risky behavior than more optimistic kids.
The study suggests some kids overestimate their risks for harm; however, it also provides evidence that some kids may have good reason for being fatalistic.
Native Americans, blacks and low-income teens - kids who are disproportionately exposed to violence and hardship - were much more likely than whites to believe they'd die young.
The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, challenges conventional wisdom that says teens engage in risky behavior because they think they're invulnerable to harm. Instead, a sizable number of teens may take chances "because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake," said study author Dr. Iris Borowsky, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.
That behavior threatens to turn their fatalism into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over seven years, kids who thought they would die early were seven time more likely than optimistic kids to be subsequently diagnosed with AIDS. They also were more likely to attempt suicide and get in fights resulting in serious injuries.
Borowsky said the magnitude of kids with a negative outlook was eye-opening.
Adolescence is "a time of great opportunity and for such a large minority of youth to feel like they don't have a long life ahead of them was surprising," she said.
The study suggests a new way doctors could detect kids likely to engage in unsafe behavior and potentially help prevent it, said Dr. Jonathan Klein, a University of Rochester adolescent health expert who was not involved in the research.
"Asking about this sense of fatalism is probably a pretty important component of one of the ways we can figure out who those kids at greater risk are," he said.
The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, released Monday.
Scientists once widely believed that teenagers take risks because they underestimate bad consequences and figure "it can't happen to me," the study authors say. The new research bolsters evidence refuting that thinking.
Cornell University professor Valerie Reyna said the new study presents "an even stronger case against the invulnerability idea."
"It's extremely important to talk about how perception of risk influences risk-taking behavior," said Reyna, who has done similar research.
Fatalistic kids weren't more likely than others to die during the seven-year study; there were relatively few deaths, 94 out of more than 20,000 teens.
The researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of kids in grades 7 to 12 who were interviewed three times between 1995 and 2002. Of 20,594 teens interviewed in the first round, 14.7 percent said they thought they had a good chance of dying before age 35. Subsequent interviews found these fatalistic kids engaged in more risky behavior than more optimistic kids.
The study suggests some kids overestimate their risks for harm; however, it also provides evidence that some kids may have good reason for being fatalistic.
Native Americans, blacks and low-income teens - kids who are disproportionately exposed to violence and hardship - were much more likely than whites to believe they'd die young.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Cola Consumption and Muscle Problems: New Research Suggests Link
New research suggests drinking too much cola product is leading to a medical condition that has serious consequences.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1762970/cola_consumption_and_muscle_problems.html
Cola Consumption and Muscle Problems: New Research Suggests LinkNew research suggests drinking too much cola product is leading to a medical condition that has serious consequences.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1762970/cola_consumption_and_muscle_problems.html
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Women look away more from abnormal babies
WASHINGTON - Puzzling new research suggests women have a harder time than men looking at babies with facial birth defects. It's a surprise finding. Psychiatrists from the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, who were studying perceptions of beauty, had expected women to spend more time than men cooing over pictures of extra-cute babies. Nope.
Instead, the small study being published Wednesday raises more questions than it can answer.
First the background: The McLean team already had studied men and women looking at photos of adults' faces on a computer screen. They rated facial beauty, and could do various keystrokes to watch the photos longer. A keystroke count showed men put three times more effort into watching beautiful women as women put into watching handsome men.
Lead researcher Dr. Igor Elman wondered what else might motivate women. Enter the new baby study.
This time 13 men and 14 women were shown 80 photos of babies, 30 of whom had abnormal facial features such as a cleft palate, Down syndrome or crossed eyes. Participants rated each baby's attractiveness on a scale of zero to 100, and used keystrokes to make the photo stay on the screen longer or disappear faster.
Women pressed the keys 2.5 times more than men to make photos of babies with the facial abnormalities disappear, researchers reported in PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science. That's even though they rated those babies no less attractive than the men had.
"They had this subliminal motivation to get rid of the faces," said Elman, who questions whether "we're designed by nature to invest all the resources into healthy-looking kids."
Both genders spent equal time and effort looking at photos of the normal babies.
The study couldn't explain the gender disparity. Elman noted that previous work has linked child abandonment and neglect to abnormal appearance, and even asked if the finding might challenge the concept of unconditional maternal love.
That's too far-reaching a conclusion, cautioned Dr. Steven Grant of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study.
The work is part of broader research into how we normally form attachments and what can make those attachments go awry, work that tests if what people say matches what they do.
"Common sense would tell you one thing," Grant said. "This doesn't fit with common sense. It raises a question."
Psychologists converge to study happiness
The Philadelphia Inquirer - June 21, 2009
Jun. 21--After months of gloomy economic news, Philadelphia has been, at least for a few days, the worldwide epicenter of a certain kind of positive thinking.
About 1,500 people who make their living thinking about what makes us happier and more emotionally successful have converged on Philadelphia for the First World Congress on Positive Psychology. The event opened Thursday and concludes today.
As one of the speakers, Karen Reivich, a psychologist who codirects the Penn Resiliency Project, puts it, this meeting is for those who study "not just what ails people but what allows people to flourish."
Flourishing may be setting the bar pretty high, given how many of us are seeking new jobs or barely holding onto the old ones. But the psychologists have some advice they say can make it easier to weather recession-related turmoil.
The meeting is the largest gathering ever of positive psychologists, who are members of a relatively new field. It landed in Philadelphia -- not exactly known for its positive attytood -- because University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman is here. Seligman, who started out studying depression and "learned helplessness" but later gravitated toward optimism and well-being, is considered positive psychology's founder.
Philadelphia may not seem all that optimistic "at any given moment," he said, but it is the place where a new nation was formed and that was clearly the work of positive thinkers.
Seligman, a former president of the American Psychological Association, said his retirement savings had taken a hit just as other people's did. Changes in fortune, he said, can shake what psychologists call positive emotions, the ones that feel good. But luckily, other factors that affect our sense of well-being do not have much to do with money: engagement in activities, finding meaning in life, and forming relationships with others.
These days, Seligman is thinking about those things and less about retirement funds.
It turns out that it is not precisely true that money does not buy happiness. Very poor people or countries are, in fact, less happy than those that are rich, said Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychologist who is president of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), the meeting's sponsor. However, to use an economics term, income has "marginal utility" when it comes to happiness; its effect on mood diminishes at higher levels.
Many who try to live on less money find they are soon just as happy as they were before, Diener said. "Obviously, our grandparents didn't make as much money as we did, and they were happy," he said.
There is good reason to cultivate positive emotions, he said. Evidence is mounting that good feelings improve health, relationships, and work performance. "Something that people don't know is that being generally happy is very good for you, not just because it feels good," Diener said, "but because it actually helps you function better."
On the other hand, work is an important contributor to well-being, the psychologists said, and losing a job is a big psychological blow. Michael Frese, who teaches at the University of Giessen in Germany and attended the Philadelphia conference, likes a fellow researcher's explanation: the "vitamin theory of work." The idea is that work provides structure and emotional experiences such as exercising control, socializing, and helping others that make people feel better about their lives. The amount they are paid is not a key factor, though low pay is likely to make people look for a different job, Frese said.
He studies how people's attitudes toward work help them thrive in their jobs or find new ones. He has found that people who take initiative in their jobs, shaping the work for themselves, can sometimes be seen as difficult employees but are also more successful and more likely to land on their feet if things go bad.
People who take personal initiative, he said, prepare "both for opportunities and potential problems" in the future. He has studied what happened to East Germans after unification, which led to widespread unemployment. "People who showed a high degree of initiative left companies more quickly while they were still intact," he said. "They migrated more."
Frese said a healthy way to cope with the kind of economic upheaval many Americans were experiencing now was to think of it as a learning experience. "What do you learn as a society so that it will not happen again," he said.
Reivich studies resilience, another key survival trait. She said she believed it, like optimism, could be taught and has developed programs for children that are now in use in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
"One of the things that resilient people do well is, they don't get stuck in habits of thinking," she said. They try to look at problems from all angles and focus on actions they can take to change their situation. She helps people learn how to combat a tendency to think all day about the worst things that could happen by arguing with their own "internal radio station" -- the thoughts we all hear in our heads. It also helps to spend some time each day giving thanks for the good things in your life.
Never underestimate the value of relationships with others when times are tough. "The one-sentence version of resilience and happiness in general is, 'Other people matter,' " Reivich said.
One could make a case that overly exuberant optimism helped get us in this mess in the first place. James Pawelski, executive director of the IPPA and a senior scholar at Penn's Positive Psychology Center, bristled at the notion of a Pollyanna-ish optimism or "happiology."
It is psychologically valuable to look for a silver lining in painful circumstances, he said, but positive psychologists aim to make the world better, not ignore warning signs. The goal is what he called "realistic optimism."
For decades, psychologists and psychiatrists focused on alleviating the pain of people with mental illnesses and other psychological problems. Most still do. Frese said the world's current problems gave positive psychologists an opportunity to think about what this new discipline, spawned in the midst of an economic boom, could contribute when more people are worried about meeting basic needs.
"In terms of evolution, I think it's quite clear that the negative factors are the more important ones," he said. "You don't want to die. That's the first thing you have to take care of."
Contact staff writer Stacey Burling at 215-854-4944 or sburling@phillynews.com.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Workplace romance is topic of research
Jun. 5--Romance in the workplace. It's a topic that's been written about in books, laughed about on sitcoms and dramatized on film.
But, surprisingly, there's been little clinical research on this hot topic, said Amy Nicole Salvaggio, assistant professor of industrial organizational psychology at the University of New Haven in West Haven. "It's very common," Salvaggio said of relationships between co-workers. "It's talked about in literature, TV and movies a lot. [But] it's not commonly studied."
She's hoping to change that. Salvaggio is seeking couples to participate in a study about how one's work life affects his or her love life -- and vice versa. She's looking to speak with couples who work together, and with couples who toil at separate workplaces. In both instances, she'll ask the couples to speak confidentially about their personal relationships and work attitudes.
Salvaggio began her research last year, while working at the University of Tulsa. She said she wanted to study the topic of work and relationships, because nearly everyone struggles with balancing his or her professional and personal lives. "Work and love do kind of make up the cornerstones of our existence," Salvaggio said.
She's particularly interested in talking to couples who are co-workers, mainly because it hasn't been studied much. That's probably because relationships, being so unpredictable, are considered a bit scary to those in the field of workplace psychology, Salvaggio
said.
"Workplace psychology focuses on rationality in the workplace," she said, adding that romantic relationships are inherently irrational, and can intimidate some researchers.
Yet, even though she plans to focus on couples who work together, she said even those with separate places of employment can feel the impact of their job on their relationship. This phenomenon is called "spillover," meaning that one's feelings about the job, both positive and negative, can leach into your personal life.
"We're looking at [answering questions such as] 'If you're satisfied with your job, does that relate to whether or not you're satisfied with your partner?" Salvaggio said.
Couples in the study will fill out an online survey that asks questions about both their job and their relationship. Salvaggio will then follow up with subjects three more times: at one month, three months and six months after the initial survey. Couples need not be married to participate -- they need only define themselves as being in a relationship. The study is also open to couples of all sexual orientation. All the information gathered through the survey will be kept confidential, and couples will not see each other's responses.
Ultimately, the goal is to help companies and couples navigate the intersection of work life and love life. Salvaggio said, just as couples struggle with a job or jobs that put stress on their relationship, employers suffer when a worker's romantic relationship hurts his or her job performance. "We want to offer some guidance beyond common sense," she said.
Salvaggio is seeking couples over the age of 22 who work more than 20 hours a week. Compensation for completion of the entire study will be in the form of gift cards valued at a total of $90 per couple Interested couples can reach Salvaggio at 932-7381 or at asalvaggio@newhaven.edu
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sleep can moderate emotional experiences
SEATTLE, Jun 12, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The sleeping brain evaluates which emotional experiences should be remembered, U.S. researchers said.
The study also found the sooner sleep followed a learning experience the longer the memory lasted -- even for a mater of months. The study suggests memory improves if learning experiences are staggered across time.
Lead study author Jessica Payne of Harvard Medical School in Boston said they were surprised to find the sleeping brain -- in addition to seeing the enhancement of negative memories over neutral scenes -- showed selectivity within the emotional scenes themselves. Sleep served to consolidate into memory what seemed the most relevant, adaptive and useful about the scenes.
"It may be that the chemical and physiological aspects of sleep underlying memory consolidation are more effective if a particular memory is 'tagged' shortly prior to sleeping," Payne said in a statement.
The study included data from 44 college students who encoded scenes with neutral or negative objects on a neutral background and were tested on memory for objects and backgrounds 24 hours later.
Half were randomly assigned to train and be tested between the hours of 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., the other half between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Four months later, participants were once again tested on their memory of the scenes.
The findings were presented at Sleep, the 23rd annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, in Seattle.
The Final Countdown
The Week Ahead
Monday (6/15)
The War on Terrorism
Video: Inside 9/11
HW: Reading Packet pages: 48-57 (review); 65-67;-79-89
Tuesday (6/16)
The War on Terrorism
Video: Inside 9/11
HW: Final Exam Readings
Wednesday (6/17)
FINAL: Blocks 3 and 4
Thursday (6/18)
FINAL: Block 1
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL OF 2008-2009 SCHOOL YEAR!!!!
Have a wonderful summer everyone! I hope to see you all in the fall and many of you in IB Psychology!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
By Request!
Intervention:
Bin Laden's 1996 Fatwa:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
Bin Laden's 1996 Fatwa:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
Monday, June 08, 2009
Celexa failed autism study; kids got side effects
Associated Press - June 01, 2009
CHICAGO - An antidepressant that is among the most popular kinds of medicine used for treating autism didn't work for most kids and caused nightmares and other side effects, new research found.
Results showed risks with Celexa outweighed any benefits in the largest published study of medication versus dummy pills for autism. That's according to the lead author, Dr. Bryan King, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington medical school.
The drug is not approved for treating autism. However, many doctors have prescribed it, thinking it might help prevent repetitive behaviors such as spinning, twirling and head-banging that are hallmark autism symptoms. Similar antidepressants have been shown to help treat repetitive actions in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
But in the autism study, Celexa worked no better than dummy pills. In fact, compared with kids on placebo, those on Celexa were more than twice as likely to develop repetitive behaviors, as well as other side effects including sleep problems and hyperactivity.
Celexa is in a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which are among the most widely used medicines given for autism.
The new research could "change this practice," said prominent Yale University autism researcher Dr. Fred Volkmar. He commented in an editorial released with the study Monday in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
The results echo a separate study reported in February that showed a low-dose form of Prozac, another SSRI, also did not reduce repetitive behaviors in autism.
The overall global market for drug treatment in autism is at least $2 billion and SSRI antidepressants account for nearly 60 percent of that, the study authors said.
Celexa's maker, Forest Laboratories Inc., issued a statement saying the company "was not involved in this study and therefore cannot provide comment."
The National Institutes of Health paid for the research.
Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said the new results underscore the difficulty in treating a condition with an uncertain cause and symptoms that range from mild to severe.
"We are still so challenged to come up with medications that can address core symptoms," she said, "largely because we still don't understand the biology of autism."
The study involved 149 autistic children aged 5 to 17 who were randomly given either up to 20 milligrams daily of Celexa for 12 weeks or dummy pills.
Doctors rated children's symptoms during treatment on a scale of 1 to 7, with high scores reflecting worsening symptoms. The rating method allowed doctors to evaluate improvements in repetitive actions and also other behaviors.
Only about one-third of children on Celexa showed substantial improvement; most showed little or no improvement or got worse.
Celexa is among antidepressants labeled with a warning about the potential for increasing risks for suicidal thoughts and behavior in children, but these symptoms didn't occur in the study.
About one-third of children on dummy pills also improved. King said reasons for that are uncertain. It could be they expected to get better with any kind of pill - the well-known "placebo effect." Or it could just have been a coincidence since autism symptoms tend to fluctuate over time.
That tendency might also explain why many kids on placebo also developed new or worse symptoms, he said.
CHICAGO - An antidepressant that is among the most popular kinds of medicine used for treating autism didn't work for most kids and caused nightmares and other side effects, new research found.
Results showed risks with Celexa outweighed any benefits in the largest published study of medication versus dummy pills for autism. That's according to the lead author, Dr. Bryan King, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington medical school.
The drug is not approved for treating autism. However, many doctors have prescribed it, thinking it might help prevent repetitive behaviors such as spinning, twirling and head-banging that are hallmark autism symptoms. Similar antidepressants have been shown to help treat repetitive actions in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
But in the autism study, Celexa worked no better than dummy pills. In fact, compared with kids on placebo, those on Celexa were more than twice as likely to develop repetitive behaviors, as well as other side effects including sleep problems and hyperactivity.
Celexa is in a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which are among the most widely used medicines given for autism.
The new research could "change this practice," said prominent Yale University autism researcher Dr. Fred Volkmar. He commented in an editorial released with the study Monday in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
The results echo a separate study reported in February that showed a low-dose form of Prozac, another SSRI, also did not reduce repetitive behaviors in autism.
The overall global market for drug treatment in autism is at least $2 billion and SSRI antidepressants account for nearly 60 percent of that, the study authors said.
Celexa's maker, Forest Laboratories Inc., issued a statement saying the company "was not involved in this study and therefore cannot provide comment."
The National Institutes of Health paid for the research.
Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said the new results underscore the difficulty in treating a condition with an uncertain cause and symptoms that range from mild to severe.
"We are still so challenged to come up with medications that can address core symptoms," she said, "largely because we still don't understand the biology of autism."
The study involved 149 autistic children aged 5 to 17 who were randomly given either up to 20 milligrams daily of Celexa for 12 weeks or dummy pills.
Doctors rated children's symptoms during treatment on a scale of 1 to 7, with high scores reflecting worsening symptoms. The rating method allowed doctors to evaluate improvements in repetitive actions and also other behaviors.
Only about one-third of children on Celexa showed substantial improvement; most showed little or no improvement or got worse.
Celexa is among antidepressants labeled with a warning about the potential for increasing risks for suicidal thoughts and behavior in children, but these symptoms didn't occur in the study.
About one-third of children on dummy pills also improved. King said reasons for that are uncertain. It could be they expected to get better with any kind of pill - the well-known "placebo effect." Or it could just have been a coincidence since autism symptoms tend to fluctuate over time.
That tendency might also explain why many kids on placebo also developed new or worse symptoms, he said.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Goodbye Seniors
Make your decisions not out of fear but with courage.
Allow compassion to guide your heart and give hope to others.
At all stages of life, see your future as brighter than your past.
Allow compassion to guide your heart and give hope to others.
At all stages of life, see your future as brighter than your past.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The Weeks Ahead!
Monday (6/1)
1. D-Day - Video
2. D-Day to Victory in Europe!
--Notes
HW: Reading: Hitler's suicide
Tuesday (6/2)
1. War in the Pacific: 1944-1945
--Notes
--Video clips
HW: NONE
Wednesday (6/3)
1. Video: Victory in the Pacific***KEY VIDEO
HW: Readings for debate
Thursday (6/4)
1. Socratic Seminar: The Atomic Bomb
HW: NONE
Friday (6/5)
Prep for Exam II
Current Events
HW: Study: EXAM MONDAY!
1. D-Day - Video
2. D-Day to Victory in Europe!
--Notes
HW: Reading: Hitler's suicide
Tuesday (6/2)
1. War in the Pacific: 1944-1945
--Notes
--Video clips
HW: NONE
Wednesday (6/3)
1. Video: Victory in the Pacific***KEY VIDEO
HW: Readings for debate
Thursday (6/4)
1. Socratic Seminar: The Atomic Bomb
HW: NONE
Friday (6/5)
Prep for Exam II
Current Events
HW: Study: EXAM MONDAY!
Friday, May 29, 2009
WWII: Extra Credit Movie Options
Watch ANY of the below movies and write an analysis of the theme and plot with respect to the greater context of WWII (1 page minimum in length - TYPED). In order to get credit YOU MUST have a PARENT OR GUARDIAN SIGN THE VIDEO CONSENT FORM ISSUED IN CLASS!!!!
OPTION 1: THE THIN RED LINE
OPTION 2: VALKYRIE
OPTION 3: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
OPTION 1: THE THIN RED LINE
OPTION 2: VALKYRIE
OPTION 3: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Girls Hit by Eating Disorders Up 47% ; Skinny Models to Blame for Rise
Sunday Mirror - May 24, 2009
SOARING numbers of young girls are being treated in hospital for eating disorders.
Cases of bulimia and anorexia among girls under 18 have leapt by 47 per cent from 562 in 2004 to 825 last year.
Worryingly, there has also been a 25 per cent rise in girls UNDER NINE being treated for eating disorders.
The new figures also show the number of women needing hospital treatment has risen by 25 per cent to 1,740 compared with 1,398 in 2004. The number of men being treated for eating disorders has also gone up, rising to 226 last year from 183 in 2004.
Health experts blame the increasing pressure on young people to stay thin for the rising number of anorexia and bulimia cases. In a recent poll of 3,000 teenagers 75 per cent said they felt they needed to lose weight after looking at pictures of skinny stars such as Kate Moss and Nicole Richie.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of eating disorder charity Beat, said: "We are very concerned by these figures. We have heard of cases of people being told by doctors 'wait and see and come back later'. And these people get very, very ill before they get any help.
"Eating disorders are a serious psychiatric condition. It's worrying that young people who are suffering are not getting the appropriate treatment until they are dangerously ill."
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb, who obtained the figures, said: "Children shouldn't be getting to the stage where they are so ill they need to be hospitalised before they get help."
I WAS FIVE STONE AGED 15
ALI Valenzuela owes her life to treatment for anorexia - but says not enough is done for sufferers.
At the worst point, when she was 17, her weight fell to FIVE STONE and she only ate two bits of fruit a day.
Ali, 20, who says she is now a safe weight for her height, 5ft 7ins, said: "If I hadn't gone to hospital I wouldn't be here today.
"I knew I looked horrible and people used to stare. But I had no control over it."
She had to beg for funding for private care because no treatment was available on the NHS.
When she got a grant, she had to travel 100 miles from her home in Swansea to a clinic in Bristol.
Ali wants the Government to do more for anorexics and has written a book, Weighing It Up, about her illness.
More than 90,000 children and adults in the UK were diagnosed with an eating disorder last year. But campaigners estimate that 1.3million people are currently battling an eating disorder yet seek no help and choose to suffer in silence instead.
SOARING numbers of young girls are being treated in hospital for eating disorders.
Cases of bulimia and anorexia among girls under 18 have leapt by 47 per cent from 562 in 2004 to 825 last year.
Worryingly, there has also been a 25 per cent rise in girls UNDER NINE being treated for eating disorders.
The new figures also show the number of women needing hospital treatment has risen by 25 per cent to 1,740 compared with 1,398 in 2004. The number of men being treated for eating disorders has also gone up, rising to 226 last year from 183 in 2004.
Health experts blame the increasing pressure on young people to stay thin for the rising number of anorexia and bulimia cases. In a recent poll of 3,000 teenagers 75 per cent said they felt they needed to lose weight after looking at pictures of skinny stars such as Kate Moss and Nicole Richie.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of eating disorder charity Beat, said: "We are very concerned by these figures. We have heard of cases of people being told by doctors 'wait and see and come back later'. And these people get very, very ill before they get any help.
"Eating disorders are a serious psychiatric condition. It's worrying that young people who are suffering are not getting the appropriate treatment until they are dangerously ill."
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb, who obtained the figures, said: "Children shouldn't be getting to the stage where they are so ill they need to be hospitalised before they get help."
I WAS FIVE STONE AGED 15
ALI Valenzuela owes her life to treatment for anorexia - but says not enough is done for sufferers.
At the worst point, when she was 17, her weight fell to FIVE STONE and she only ate two bits of fruit a day.
Ali, 20, who says she is now a safe weight for her height, 5ft 7ins, said: "If I hadn't gone to hospital I wouldn't be here today.
"I knew I looked horrible and people used to stare. But I had no control over it."
She had to beg for funding for private care because no treatment was available on the NHS.
When she got a grant, she had to travel 100 miles from her home in Swansea to a clinic in Bristol.
Ali wants the Government to do more for anorexics and has written a book, Weighing It Up, about her illness.
More than 90,000 children and adults in the UK were diagnosed with an eating disorder last year. But campaigners estimate that 1.3million people are currently battling an eating disorder yet seek no help and choose to suffer in silence instead.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Week Ahead w/Headlines
Tuesday (5/26)
Propaganda Posters!
--Examples
--Group work
HW: WWII Exam 1 Review: IDs: Appeasement, Blitzkrieg, Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa
Wednesday (5/27)
Dr. Sues Goes to War
WWII Review
HW: Study IDs
Thursday (5/28)
WWII Exam I
HW: NONE
Friday (5/29)
WWII: North Africa, Allied Bombing of Europe, and the Battle of Stalingrad
--Notes and Video clip
Current Events
HW: TBA
PSYCHOLOGY NEWS:
Arts appear to play role in brain development
May 18--For years, school systems across the nation dropped the arts to concentrate on getting struggling students to pass tests in reading and math. Yet now, a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines.
Scientists are now looking at, for instance, whether students at an arts high school who study music or drawing have brains that allow them to focus more intensely or do better in the classroom.
Washington County schools Superintendent Betty Morgan would have liked to have had some of that basic research in her hands when she began building a coalition for an arts high school in Hagerstown. The business community and school principals worked together, and the school will open this summer, but even at its groundbreaking a man objecting to the money spent on the school held up a sign of protest reading "Big Note$ Wrong Music."
Scientists and educators aware of the gap between basic research and the school systems are beginning to share findings, such as at this month's seminar on the brain and the arts held at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum.
The event was sponsored by the new Neuro-Education Initiative at the Johns Hopkins University, a center designed to bridge that gap.
Brain research in the past several years is just beginning to uncover some startling ideas about how students learn. First came the proof, some years ago, that our brains do not lose brain cells as we get older, but are always capable of growing.
Now neuroscientists are investigating how training students in the arts may change the structure of their brains and the way they think. They are asking: Does putting a violin in the hands of an elementary school student help him to do math better? Will learning to dance or paint improve a child's spacial ability or ability to learn to read?
Research in those areas, Harvard professor Jerome Kagan said, is "as deserving of a clinical trial as a drug for cancer that has not yet been shown to be effective."
There aren't many conclusions yet that can be translated into the classroom, but there is an emerging interdisciplinary field between education and neuroscience. Like Hopkins, Harvard also has created a center to study learning and the brain.
Much of the research into the arts has centered on music and the brain. One researcher studying students who go to an arts high school found a correlation between those who were trained in music and their ability to do geometry. Yet another four-year study, being conducted by Ellen Winner of Boston College and Gottfried Schlaug of Harvard, is looking at the effects playing the piano or the violin has on students who are in elementary school.
Winner said she was quite skeptical of claims that schools that had introduced the arts had seen an increase in test scores and a generally better school climate. She had previously looked at those claims and found they couldn't be backed up by research.
However, she is in the midst of a four-year study of elementary students that has shown some effects: One group is learning an instrument and another is not. "It is the first study to demonstrate brain plasticity in young children related to music playing," Schlaug said.
The study Winner is working on has shown that children who receive a small amount of training -- as little as half an hour of lessons a week and 10 minutes of practice a day -- do have structural changes in their brains that can be measured. And those students, Winner said, were better at tests that required them to use their fingers with dexterity.
About 15 months after the study began, students who played the instrument were not better at math or reading, although the researchers are questioning whether they have assessments that are sensitive enough to measure the changes. They will continue the study for several more years.
Charles Limb, a Johns Hopkins doctor and a jazz musician, studied jazz musicians by using imaging technology to take pictures of their brains as they improvised. He found that they allowed their creativity to flow by shutting down areas that regulated inhibition and self-control. So are the most creative people able to shut down those areas of the brain?
Most of the new research is focusing on the networks of the brain that are involved in specific tasks, said Michael Posner, a researcher at the University of Oregon. Posner has studied the effects of music on attention. What he found, he said, was that in those students who showed motivation and creativity, training in the arts helped develop their attention and their intelligence. The next great focus in this area, he said, is on proving the connection that most scientists believe exists between the study of music and math ability.
The imaging is now so advanced that scientists can already see the difference in the brain networks of those who study a string instrument and those who study the piano intensely.
The brain research, while moving quickly by some measures, is still painfully slow for educators who would like answers today. Morgan, the Washington County schools chief, said some research did help her support the drive to build the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in Hagerstown.
Mariale Hardiman, the former principal of Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, was once one of those principals who focused a lot of attention on reading and math scores. But she saw what integrating the arts into classrooms could do for students, she said, and she then began her own research into the subject.
She is now the co-director of the Hopkins Neuro-Education Initiative. She said there are a myriad of questions that could be answered in the research that is just starting, but there are two she would like to see approached: Do children who learn academic content through the arts tend to hold onto that knowledge longer? And are schools squeezing creativity out of children by controlling so much of their school day?
Even without research though, Kagan of Harvard said there is ample evidence of the value of an arts education because so many children who aren't good at academics can gain self-confidence through the arts.
"The argument for an arts education is based not on sentimentality but on pragmatism," he said. "If an arts program only helped the 7 million children in the bottom quartile, the dropout rate would drop."
Vitamin D in fish makes it 'brain food'
United Press International - May 22, 2009
WARSAW, England, May 22, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Mothers used to call fish "brain food," but researchers in Britain say fish and sunshine really do help cerebral cognitive function.
University of Manchester scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from other European facilities, compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 men ages 40-79 years at eight centers in Europe.
Dr. David Lee of Manchester's School of Translational Medicine found that men with higher levels of vitamin D -- synthesized in the skin following sun exposure but also found in certain foods such as oily fish -- performed consistently better in a simple and sensitive neuropsychological test that assesses an individual's attention and speed of information processing.
"Previous studies exploring the relationship between vitamin D and cognitive performance in adults have produced inconsistent findings but we observed a significant, independent association between a slower information processing speed and lower levels of vitamin D," Lee said in a statement.
"The main strengths of our study are that it is based on a large population sample and took into account potential interfering factors, such as depression, season and levels of physical activity."
The association between increased vitamin D and faster information processing was more significant in men age 60 and older although the biological reasons for this remain unclear, Lee said.
The findings are published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Propaganda Posters!
--Examples
--Group work
HW: WWII Exam 1 Review: IDs: Appeasement, Blitzkrieg, Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa
Wednesday (5/27)
Dr. Sues Goes to War
WWII Review
HW: Study IDs
Thursday (5/28)
WWII Exam I
HW: NONE
Friday (5/29)
WWII: North Africa, Allied Bombing of Europe, and the Battle of Stalingrad
--Notes and Video clip
Current Events
HW: TBA
PSYCHOLOGY NEWS:
Arts appear to play role in brain development
May 18--For years, school systems across the nation dropped the arts to concentrate on getting struggling students to pass tests in reading and math. Yet now, a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines.
Scientists are now looking at, for instance, whether students at an arts high school who study music or drawing have brains that allow them to focus more intensely or do better in the classroom.
Washington County schools Superintendent Betty Morgan would have liked to have had some of that basic research in her hands when she began building a coalition for an arts high school in Hagerstown. The business community and school principals worked together, and the school will open this summer, but even at its groundbreaking a man objecting to the money spent on the school held up a sign of protest reading "Big Note$ Wrong Music."
Scientists and educators aware of the gap between basic research and the school systems are beginning to share findings, such as at this month's seminar on the brain and the arts held at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum.
The event was sponsored by the new Neuro-Education Initiative at the Johns Hopkins University, a center designed to bridge that gap.
Brain research in the past several years is just beginning to uncover some startling ideas about how students learn. First came the proof, some years ago, that our brains do not lose brain cells as we get older, but are always capable of growing.
Now neuroscientists are investigating how training students in the arts may change the structure of their brains and the way they think. They are asking: Does putting a violin in the hands of an elementary school student help him to do math better? Will learning to dance or paint improve a child's spacial ability or ability to learn to read?
Research in those areas, Harvard professor Jerome Kagan said, is "as deserving of a clinical trial as a drug for cancer that has not yet been shown to be effective."
There aren't many conclusions yet that can be translated into the classroom, but there is an emerging interdisciplinary field between education and neuroscience. Like Hopkins, Harvard also has created a center to study learning and the brain.
Much of the research into the arts has centered on music and the brain. One researcher studying students who go to an arts high school found a correlation between those who were trained in music and their ability to do geometry. Yet another four-year study, being conducted by Ellen Winner of Boston College and Gottfried Schlaug of Harvard, is looking at the effects playing the piano or the violin has on students who are in elementary school.
Winner said she was quite skeptical of claims that schools that had introduced the arts had seen an increase in test scores and a generally better school climate. She had previously looked at those claims and found they couldn't be backed up by research.
However, she is in the midst of a four-year study of elementary students that has shown some effects: One group is learning an instrument and another is not. "It is the first study to demonstrate brain plasticity in young children related to music playing," Schlaug said.
The study Winner is working on has shown that children who receive a small amount of training -- as little as half an hour of lessons a week and 10 minutes of practice a day -- do have structural changes in their brains that can be measured. And those students, Winner said, were better at tests that required them to use their fingers with dexterity.
About 15 months after the study began, students who played the instrument were not better at math or reading, although the researchers are questioning whether they have assessments that are sensitive enough to measure the changes. They will continue the study for several more years.
Charles Limb, a Johns Hopkins doctor and a jazz musician, studied jazz musicians by using imaging technology to take pictures of their brains as they improvised. He found that they allowed their creativity to flow by shutting down areas that regulated inhibition and self-control. So are the most creative people able to shut down those areas of the brain?
Most of the new research is focusing on the networks of the brain that are involved in specific tasks, said Michael Posner, a researcher at the University of Oregon. Posner has studied the effects of music on attention. What he found, he said, was that in those students who showed motivation and creativity, training in the arts helped develop their attention and their intelligence. The next great focus in this area, he said, is on proving the connection that most scientists believe exists between the study of music and math ability.
The imaging is now so advanced that scientists can already see the difference in the brain networks of those who study a string instrument and those who study the piano intensely.
The brain research, while moving quickly by some measures, is still painfully slow for educators who would like answers today. Morgan, the Washington County schools chief, said some research did help her support the drive to build the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in Hagerstown.
Mariale Hardiman, the former principal of Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, was once one of those principals who focused a lot of attention on reading and math scores. But she saw what integrating the arts into classrooms could do for students, she said, and she then began her own research into the subject.
She is now the co-director of the Hopkins Neuro-Education Initiative. She said there are a myriad of questions that could be answered in the research that is just starting, but there are two she would like to see approached: Do children who learn academic content through the arts tend to hold onto that knowledge longer? And are schools squeezing creativity out of children by controlling so much of their school day?
Even without research though, Kagan of Harvard said there is ample evidence of the value of an arts education because so many children who aren't good at academics can gain self-confidence through the arts.
"The argument for an arts education is based not on sentimentality but on pragmatism," he said. "If an arts program only helped the 7 million children in the bottom quartile, the dropout rate would drop."
Vitamin D in fish makes it 'brain food'
United Press International - May 22, 2009
WARSAW, England, May 22, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Mothers used to call fish "brain food," but researchers in Britain say fish and sunshine really do help cerebral cognitive function.
University of Manchester scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from other European facilities, compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 men ages 40-79 years at eight centers in Europe.
Dr. David Lee of Manchester's School of Translational Medicine found that men with higher levels of vitamin D -- synthesized in the skin following sun exposure but also found in certain foods such as oily fish -- performed consistently better in a simple and sensitive neuropsychological test that assesses an individual's attention and speed of information processing.
"Previous studies exploring the relationship between vitamin D and cognitive performance in adults have produced inconsistent findings but we observed a significant, independent association between a slower information processing speed and lower levels of vitamin D," Lee said in a statement.
"The main strengths of our study are that it is based on a large population sample and took into account potential interfering factors, such as depression, season and levels of physical activity."
The association between increased vitamin D and faster information processing was more significant in men age 60 and older although the biological reasons for this remain unclear, Lee said.
The findings are published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Week Ahead
Monday (5/18)
1. Pearl Harbor - December 7th, 1941
2. The Final Solution
--Readings
HW: Complete Reading
Tuesday (5/19)
1. The Final Solution
--Share readings - group
2. Discuss Readings - class
HW: Socratic Seminar Readings
Wednesday (5/20)
1. The Final Solution
--Video
2. Prep for Socratic Seminar
HW: Prep for Seminar
Thursday (5/21)
The Final Solution
--Socratic Seminar
HW: None
Friday (5/22)
The Final Solution
--Memories of the Camps - Video (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC)
Current Events
HW: TBA
1. Pearl Harbor - December 7th, 1941
2. The Final Solution
--Readings
HW: Complete Reading
Tuesday (5/19)
1. The Final Solution
--Share readings - group
2. Discuss Readings - class
HW: Socratic Seminar Readings
Wednesday (5/20)
1. The Final Solution
--Video
2. Prep for Socratic Seminar
HW: Prep for Seminar
Thursday (5/21)
The Final Solution
--Socratic Seminar
HW: None
Friday (5/22)
The Final Solution
--Memories of the Camps - Video (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC)
Current Events
HW: TBA
Sunday, May 17, 2009
IB Psychology Exam
Here is a link to the documentary about medicating children: The Medicated Child.
To aid you, I wrote a brief summary of the video while trying to integrate some of what we went over in class. I wrote the review as if I was arguing from the standpoint of the documentary's authors.
CAUTION: 1. This has not been edited/proofed, I simply wrote it on the quick so don't hold typos against me! 2. This essay is an argument (as basically offered in the video), therefore you can most readily disagree with all or parts of it! Integrate your own analysis and ideas!
I hope it helps some!
Click here for the Documentary Summary and Review
To aid you, I wrote a brief summary of the video while trying to integrate some of what we went over in class. I wrote the review as if I was arguing from the standpoint of the documentary's authors.
CAUTION: 1. This has not been edited/proofed, I simply wrote it on the quick so don't hold typos against me! 2. This essay is an argument (as basically offered in the video), therefore you can most readily disagree with all or parts of it! Integrate your own analysis and ideas!
I hope it helps some!
Click here for the Documentary Summary and Review
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Focused, social kids, better adult health
BOSTON, May 7, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Children, especially girls, who can stay focused and don't sweat the small stuff have a better shot at good health in adulthood, U.S. researchers said.
The study, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that for all the participants, superior attention spans and having a more positive outlook in youth affected health the most.
"Certain characteristics already evident early in life are likely to spark positive or negative emotions, and also influence biological and behavioral responses to stress," lead author Laura D. Kubzansky of the Harvard School of Public Health said in a statement. "Supporting this idea, we found that children who were able to stay focused on a task and react less negatively to situations at age 7 reported better general health and fewer illnesses 30 years later."
Kubzansky and co-authors tracked 569 individuals from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project from age 7 to their mid-30s. Trained observers rated the 7-year-olds on 15 different behaviors and these behaviors were assigned to three different personality attributes: the ability to stay focused on a task and persist in solving a problem, the tendency to react negatively to situations and the tendency toward shyness, acting withdrawn and having difficulty communicating.
The study, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that for all the participants, superior attention spans and having a more positive outlook in youth affected health the most.
"Certain characteristics already evident early in life are likely to spark positive or negative emotions, and also influence biological and behavioral responses to stress," lead author Laura D. Kubzansky of the Harvard School of Public Health said in a statement. "Supporting this idea, we found that children who were able to stay focused on a task and react less negatively to situations at age 7 reported better general health and fewer illnesses 30 years later."
Kubzansky and co-authors tracked 569 individuals from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project from age 7 to their mid-30s. Trained observers rated the 7-year-olds on 15 different behaviors and these behaviors were assigned to three different personality attributes: the ability to stay focused on a task and persist in solving a problem, the tendency to react negatively to situations and the tendency toward shyness, acting withdrawn and having difficulty communicating.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Week Ahead
Monday (5/11)
World War II
--September 1st, 1939
---NOTES
Evacuation of the British School Children
---AUDIO Clips
The Phony War and the Fall of France
---NOTES
---VIDEO
HW: TBA
Tuesday (5/12)
World War II
The Battle of Britain
--NOTES w/Audio
--Readings
--VIDEO
HW: TBA
Wednesday (5/13)
World War II
The Blitz!
---NOTES w/AUDIO clips
---VIDEO
HW: TBA
Thursday (5/14)
World War II
Operation Barbarossa
--NOTES
--VIDEO
HW: TBA
Friday (5/15)
World War II
The Final Solution
--Readings
CURRENT EVENTS
HW: Finish Readings re: The Final Solution
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
Grades
Look for UPDATES this weekend!
Brain activity linked with junk food cravings: study
LOS ANGELES, May 02, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Level of willpower can be attributed to people's cravings for junk food, a new study found.
Self-control to reject unhealthy foods is related with two areas of the brain, researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said in the study published in the May issue of Science.
The researchers used MRI to scan the brains of volunteers as they looked at photos of dozens of types of foods and decided which ones they'd like to eat. They found significant differences in the brain activity between people who had self-control in terms of making food choices and those with no self-control.
Previous research has shown that an area of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is involved in all value-based decisions. When vmPFC activity decreases, a person will probably reject an item, whereas increased activity means they'll probably choose it.
In people with no self-control, the vmPFC seemed to take into consideration only the taste of a food, according to the study.
"In the case of good self-controllers, however, another area of the brain -- called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) -- becomes active and modulates the basic value signals so that the self-controllers can also incorporate health considerations into their decisions," principal investigator Antonio Rangel, an associate professor of economics, said in a news release.
The vmPFC is active during every decision and that the DLPFC is more active when a person is using self-control, according to the study.
"This, ultimately, is one reason why self-controllers can make better choices," Rangel said.
Brain activity linked with junk food cravings: study
LOS ANGELES, May 02, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Level of willpower can be attributed to people's cravings for junk food, a new study found.
Self-control to reject unhealthy foods is related with two areas of the brain, researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said in the study published in the May issue of Science.
The researchers used MRI to scan the brains of volunteers as they looked at photos of dozens of types of foods and decided which ones they'd like to eat. They found significant differences in the brain activity between people who had self-control in terms of making food choices and those with no self-control.
Previous research has shown that an area of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is involved in all value-based decisions. When vmPFC activity decreases, a person will probably reject an item, whereas increased activity means they'll probably choose it.
In people with no self-control, the vmPFC seemed to take into consideration only the taste of a food, according to the study.
"In the case of good self-controllers, however, another area of the brain -- called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) -- becomes active and modulates the basic value signals so that the self-controllers can also incorporate health considerations into their decisions," principal investigator Antonio Rangel, an associate professor of economics, said in a news release.
The vmPFC is active during every decision and that the DLPFC is more active when a person is using self-control, according to the study.
"This, ultimately, is one reason why self-controllers can make better choices," Rangel said.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
The Week Ahead
Sorry about the delay! Tomorrow morning I will publish this week's agenda! Until then, here is another psych headline!
Autism researchers announce breakthrough in identifying gene: Autism researchers at UM and other universities announced a genetic breakthrough that could lead to improved treatment and prevention of the disorder.
The Miami Herald - April 29, 2009
Apr. 29--Researchers say they have found the first piece of the genetic puzzle that could lead to greatly improved diagnosis, treatment and even prevention of autism.
A multi-university team, which included the University of Miami School of Medicine, has identified a gene associated with autism, according to a report published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature.
It may be only one of as many as 50 genes involved, and environmental factors are also involved, but Margaret Pericak-Vance, director of UM's Institute for Human Genomics, says the discovery could lead to practical results within a decade.
"Things are moving so fast, in the next five years or so you can see some of this information being translated maybe into prediction, even therapies," she said.
Therapies that would prevent autism are "farther down the pike," she said.
Autism researchers announce breakthrough in identifying gene: Autism researchers at UM and other universities announced a genetic breakthrough that could lead to improved treatment and prevention of the disorder.
The Miami Herald - April 29, 2009
Apr. 29--Researchers say they have found the first piece of the genetic puzzle that could lead to greatly improved diagnosis, treatment and even prevention of autism.
A multi-university team, which included the University of Miami School of Medicine, has identified a gene associated with autism, according to a report published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature.
It may be only one of as many as 50 genes involved, and environmental factors are also involved, but Margaret Pericak-Vance, director of UM's Institute for Human Genomics, says the discovery could lead to practical results within a decade.
"Things are moving so fast, in the next five years or so you can see some of this information being translated maybe into prediction, even therapies," she said.
Therapies that would prevent autism are "farther down the pike," she said.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Play, humor needed to overcome aggression
BOSTON, Apr 24, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A U.S. psychologist says from a developmental viewpoint, fierce competition is a step back in human development.
In an article published in the American Journal of Play, Dr. Peter Gray of Boston College suggests early hunters and gatherers made cooperative living possible by using play and humor to overcome innate tendencies toward aggression and dominance.
"Play and humor were not just means of adding fun to their lives," Gray says in a statement. "They were means of maintaining the band's existence -- means of promoting actively the egalitarian attitude, intense sharing, and relative peacefulness for which hunter-gatherers are justly famous and upon which they depended for survival."
Gray says the most important skill for social life is how to please other people while still fulfilling one's own needs and desires.
To play well, and to keep others interested in continuing to play with you, you must be able to see the world from the other players' points of view, he says.
Play still serves children, who even when playing pickup baseball or card games, have relatively little concern for winning, Gray says.
"It is the presence of adult supervisors and observers that pushes play in a competitive direction -- and if it gets pushed too far in that direction it is no longer truly play." Gray says.
In an article published in the American Journal of Play, Dr. Peter Gray of Boston College suggests early hunters and gatherers made cooperative living possible by using play and humor to overcome innate tendencies toward aggression and dominance.
"Play and humor were not just means of adding fun to their lives," Gray says in a statement. "They were means of maintaining the band's existence -- means of promoting actively the egalitarian attitude, intense sharing, and relative peacefulness for which hunter-gatherers are justly famous and upon which they depended for survival."
Gray says the most important skill for social life is how to please other people while still fulfilling one's own needs and desires.
To play well, and to keep others interested in continuing to play with you, you must be able to see the world from the other players' points of view, he says.
Play still serves children, who even when playing pickup baseball or card games, have relatively little concern for winning, Gray says.
"It is the presence of adult supervisors and observers that pushes play in a competitive direction -- and if it gets pushed too far in that direction it is no longer truly play." Gray says.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Week Ahead
The below video is from My Bloody Valentine. The video is rather dated by their music is pretty good. They were very influential to 1990s and 2000s alternative.
Monday: 4/27
1. Present Treaties
2. Review for Exam
HW: STUDY!
Tuesday: 4/28
WWI: EXAM
HW: TBA
Wednesday: 4/29
-Russian Revolution
--Discuss HW
--Video Clip
--Reading
HW: NONE
Thursday: 4/30
-Stalin!
--Notes and Reading
--Activity
HW: Handout
Friday: 5/1
-Stalin
--Present Totalitarian States
-Current Events
HW: TBA
Swine Flu FAQ
WebMD Provides Answers to Your Questions About Swine Flu
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
The swine flu virus in the U.S. is the same one causing a deadly epidemic in Mexico. What is swine flu? What can we do about it? WebMD answers your questions.
What Is Swine Flu?
Like humans, pigs get the flu. Four different type A swine flu strains commonly circulate among pigs. Most recent swine flu viruses have belonged to the H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes. Pigs typically get sick but usually don't die from swine flu.
The new swine flu virus infecting humans is very unusual. It's somehow acquired genes from swine, bird, and human flu bugs. And it's also got genes from Eurasian swine flu viruses that aren't supposed to be in North America.
Do Humans Get Swine Flu?
Normally, swine flu bugs don't infect people. Historically, there's a case every year or two in the U.S. among people who have contact with live pigs.
But from December 2005 to January 2009 there was an uptick in swine flu cases. There were 12 human swine flu infections during this time. Eleven of these people had direct or indirect contact with pigs; in the twelfth case it was not known whether there was pig contact.
It's possible this uptick was due to improved reporting systems, but the CDC says "genetic changes in swine flu viruses and other factors might also be a factor."
The new swine flu virus is different. It's not yet clear that it's here to stay. But it is infecting humans, and that has world health officials keeping a close eye on it.
What Are the Symptoms of Swine Flu?
Swine flu symptoms are similar to regular flu symptoms and include cough, sore throat, fever, chills, headache, and fatigue. Some patients have also reported nausea and diarrhea. There is no easy way to distinguish swine flu from other types of flu or other germs. It takes a lab test to tell whether it's swine flu.
Can Swine Flu Spread From Person to Person?
The U.S. residents infected with swine flu virus had no direct contact with pigs. The CDC says it's likely that the infections represent widely separated cycles of human-to-human infections.
Have There Been Previous Swine Flu Outbreaks?
If swine flu sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you remember or have read about the 1976 swine flu outbreak at Fort Dix, N.J., among military recruits. It lasted about a month and then went away as mysteriously as it appeared. As many as 240 people were infected; one died.
The swine flu that spread at Fort Dix was the H1N1 strain. That's the same flu strain that caused the disastrous flu pandemic of 1918-1919, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.
Concern that a new H1N1 pandemic might return with winter led to a crash program to create a vaccine and vaccinate all Americans against swine flu. That vaccine program ran into all kinds of problems -- not the least of which was public perception that the vaccine caused excessive rates of dangerous reactions. After more than 40 million people were vaccinated, the effort was abandoned.
As it turned out, there was no swine flu epidemic.
I Got a Flu Shot. Am I Protected Against Swine Flu?
No. There is currently no swine flu vaccine.
It's possible that the seasonal flu vaccine might provide partial protection against H3N2 swine flu bugs. But the strain that appeared in California is the H1N1 swine flu strain. It is very different from the H1N1 human flu strain included in the seasonal flu vaccine.
It's not known whether previous infection with human type A H1N1 flu might provide partial protection against the type A H1N1 swine flu in the current outbreak.
However, the CDC has made a "vaccine seed" from swine flu isolated from an infected person, and has begun the process of developing a vaccine should the need arise. Whether a vaccine could be produced in quantity by next flu season is a huge question.
How Serious Is the Public Health Threat of a Swine Flu Epidemic?
Any flu epidemic is worrisome, especially when a new strain of flu bug is involved.
"Influenza A viruses new to the human population that are able to efficiently transmit from person to person and cause illness may represent a pandemic threat," the CDC warns.
It's worrisome that, unlike seasonal flu, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico is attacking healthy young people. That's a hallmark of pandemic flu bugs.
But it takes more than a new virus spreading among humans to make a pandemic. The virus has to be able to spread efficiently from one person to another, and transmission has to be sustained over time. In addition, the virus has to spread geographically.
Is There a Treatment for Swine Flu?
Yes. While the swine flu bug is resistant to older flu medicines, it remains sensitive to Tamiflu and to Relenza.
Can You Get Swine Flu by Eating Pork?
No. You can only catch swine flu from being around an infected pig -- or, if it's the new swine flu virus, from an infected person.
Monday: 4/27
1. Present Treaties
2. Review for Exam
HW: STUDY!
Tuesday: 4/28
WWI: EXAM
HW: TBA
Wednesday: 4/29
-Russian Revolution
--Discuss HW
--Video Clip
--Reading
HW: NONE
Thursday: 4/30
-Stalin!
--Notes and Reading
--Activity
HW: Handout
Friday: 5/1
-Stalin
--Present Totalitarian States
-Current Events
HW: TBA
Swine Flu FAQ
WebMD Provides Answers to Your Questions About Swine Flu
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
The swine flu virus in the U.S. is the same one causing a deadly epidemic in Mexico. What is swine flu? What can we do about it? WebMD answers your questions.
What Is Swine Flu?
Like humans, pigs get the flu. Four different type A swine flu strains commonly circulate among pigs. Most recent swine flu viruses have belonged to the H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes. Pigs typically get sick but usually don't die from swine flu.
The new swine flu virus infecting humans is very unusual. It's somehow acquired genes from swine, bird, and human flu bugs. And it's also got genes from Eurasian swine flu viruses that aren't supposed to be in North America.
Do Humans Get Swine Flu?
Normally, swine flu bugs don't infect people. Historically, there's a case every year or two in the U.S. among people who have contact with live pigs.
But from December 2005 to January 2009 there was an uptick in swine flu cases. There were 12 human swine flu infections during this time. Eleven of these people had direct or indirect contact with pigs; in the twelfth case it was not known whether there was pig contact.
It's possible this uptick was due to improved reporting systems, but the CDC says "genetic changes in swine flu viruses and other factors might also be a factor."
The new swine flu virus is different. It's not yet clear that it's here to stay. But it is infecting humans, and that has world health officials keeping a close eye on it.
What Are the Symptoms of Swine Flu?
Swine flu symptoms are similar to regular flu symptoms and include cough, sore throat, fever, chills, headache, and fatigue. Some patients have also reported nausea and diarrhea. There is no easy way to distinguish swine flu from other types of flu or other germs. It takes a lab test to tell whether it's swine flu.
Can Swine Flu Spread From Person to Person?
The U.S. residents infected with swine flu virus had no direct contact with pigs. The CDC says it's likely that the infections represent widely separated cycles of human-to-human infections.
Have There Been Previous Swine Flu Outbreaks?
If swine flu sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you remember or have read about the 1976 swine flu outbreak at Fort Dix, N.J., among military recruits. It lasted about a month and then went away as mysteriously as it appeared. As many as 240 people were infected; one died.
The swine flu that spread at Fort Dix was the H1N1 strain. That's the same flu strain that caused the disastrous flu pandemic of 1918-1919, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.
Concern that a new H1N1 pandemic might return with winter led to a crash program to create a vaccine and vaccinate all Americans against swine flu. That vaccine program ran into all kinds of problems -- not the least of which was public perception that the vaccine caused excessive rates of dangerous reactions. After more than 40 million people were vaccinated, the effort was abandoned.
As it turned out, there was no swine flu epidemic.
I Got a Flu Shot. Am I Protected Against Swine Flu?
No. There is currently no swine flu vaccine.
It's possible that the seasonal flu vaccine might provide partial protection against H3N2 swine flu bugs. But the strain that appeared in California is the H1N1 swine flu strain. It is very different from the H1N1 human flu strain included in the seasonal flu vaccine.
It's not known whether previous infection with human type A H1N1 flu might provide partial protection against the type A H1N1 swine flu in the current outbreak.
However, the CDC has made a "vaccine seed" from swine flu isolated from an infected person, and has begun the process of developing a vaccine should the need arise. Whether a vaccine could be produced in quantity by next flu season is a huge question.
How Serious Is the Public Health Threat of a Swine Flu Epidemic?
Any flu epidemic is worrisome, especially when a new strain of flu bug is involved.
"Influenza A viruses new to the human population that are able to efficiently transmit from person to person and cause illness may represent a pandemic threat," the CDC warns.
It's worrisome that, unlike seasonal flu, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico is attacking healthy young people. That's a hallmark of pandemic flu bugs.
But it takes more than a new virus spreading among humans to make a pandemic. The virus has to be able to spread efficiently from one person to another, and transmission has to be sustained over time. In addition, the virus has to spread geographically.
Is There a Treatment for Swine Flu?
Yes. While the swine flu bug is resistant to older flu medicines, it remains sensitive to Tamiflu and to Relenza.
Can You Get Swine Flu by Eating Pork?
No. You can only catch swine flu from being around an infected pig -- or, if it's the new swine flu virus, from an infected person.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Week Ahead
World War I: continued
-Trench Warfare
--Share short stories
--Reading
-The Turning of the Tide
--Notes
HW: TBA
Tuesday: 4/21
World War I: continued
-The United States and WWI
--Notes/Reading
HW: TBA
Wednesday: 4/22
ACT TESTING...
Thursday: 4/23
World War I: continued
The End: Finding True Peace
--Notes
--Activity: Wilson's 14 Points vs. Treaty of Versailles vs. Causes of WWI (DBQ)
HW: TBA
Friday: 4/24
World War I: continued
The End: Finding True Peace
--Activity: Wilson's 14 Points vs. Treaty of Versailles
HW: STUDY
THS: BAN COMIC SANS FONT...PLEASE!
By EMILY STEEL
Vincent Connare designed the ubiquitous, bubbly Comic Sans typeface, but he sympathizes with the world-wide movement to ban it.
Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer.
The font, a casual script designed to look like comic-book lettering, is the bane of graphic designers, other aesthetes and Internet geeks. It is a punch line: "Comic Sans walks into a bar, bartender says, 'We don't serve your type.'" On social-messaging site Twitter, complaints about the font pop up every minute or two. An online comic strip shows a gang kicking and swearing at Mr. Connare.
The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web. The mission: "to eradicate this font" and the "evil of typographical ignorance."
"If you love it, you don't know much about typography," Mr. Connare says. But, he adds, "if you hate it, you really don't know much about typography, either, and you should get another hobby."
Typefaces convey meaning, typographers say. Helvetica is an industry standard, plain and reliable. Times New Roman is classic. Depending on your point of view, Comic Sans is fun, breezy, silly or vulgar and lazy. It can be "analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume," warns the Ban Comic Sans movement's manifesto. The font's original name was Comic Book, but Mr. Connare thought that didn't sound like a font name. He used Sans (short for sans-serif) because most of the lettering, except for the uppercase I, doesn't have serifs, the small features at the end of strokes.
Mr. Connare, 48 years old, now works at Dalton Maag, a typography studio in London, and finds his favorite creation -- a sophisticated typeface called Magpie -- eclipsed by Comic Sans. He cringes at the most improbable manifestations of his Frankenstein's monster font and rarely uses it himself, but he says he tries to be polite when he meets people excited to be in the presence of the creator. Googling himself, he once found a Black Sabbath band fan site that used Comic Sans. The site's creators even credited him. "You can't regulate bad taste," he says.
Still, he is tickled by -- and trades on -- his reputation. A picture signed by Mickey Mouse that was sent to Mr. Connare to thank him after Disney used the font in ads hangs in his house. His wife, Sue Rider, introduces him at parties as the father of Comic Sans. A friend of his claims to know someone who broke up with her boyfriend in a letter written in Comic Sans to soften the blow. But there certainly hasn't been much money in it for Mr. Connare since Microsoft owns the font.
Of course, there would be no movement to ban Comic Sans if it weren't so popular. "We've been using that font for years," says Peter Phyo, a manager at O'Neals' restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center in Manhattan. "That is just the procedure. I wouldn't know the exact reasoning. It also looks nice on the menu." Mr. Phyo says he hasn't had any complaints.
The proliferation of Comic Sans is something of a fluke. In 1994, Mr. Connare was working on a team at Microsoft creating software that consumers eventually would use on home PCs. His designer's sensibilities were shocked, he says, when, one afternoon, he opened a test version of a program called Microsoft Bob for children and new computer users. The welcome screen showed a cartoon dog named Rover speaking in a text bubble. The message appeared in the ever-so-sedate Times New Roman font.
Mr. Connare says he pulled out the two comic books he had in his office, "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen," and got to work, inspired by the lettering and using his mouse to draw on a computer screen. Within a week, he had designed his legacy.
A product manager recognized the font's appeal and included it as a standard typeface in the operating system for Microsoft Windows. As home computers became widespread, Comic Sans took on a goofy life of its own.
Out to crush that goofy life is Ban Comic Sans, whose weapons include disapproving stickers, to be slapped on inappropriate uses of the font wherever they are found.
Ban Comic Sans was conceived in the fall of 1999, when Holly Sliger was a senior at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, studying typography and graphic design. Designing a museum gallery guide for a children's hands-on artifact exhibit, Ms. Sliger says she was horrified when her bosses told her to use Comic Sans. She told them it was a cliché, and printed out a list of other typefaces she thought better suited the project. They insisted on Comic Sans.
"It was like hell for me," she says. "It was everywhere, like an epidemic."
In the midst of the project, she met her future husband, Dave Combs, at synagogue one Saturday. He was a recent college graduate working as a graphic designer, and she knew he would sympathize. "This is horrible," he remembers saying. She says, "That's when I knew he's the guy I would marry." The couple did wed a year later and continued to gripe about the font.
Mr. Connare says he first realized that the tide had turned against Comic Sans in January 2003, while studying for his master's degree in type design at the University of Reading in Berkshire, England. He got an email from Mr. Combs asking for permission to use his photo for stickers, T-shirts and coffee mugs to promote "typography awareness" for the movement to ban Comic Sans that he and his wife had founded. Busy and distracted, Mr. Connare said OK.
"It sounded a bit silly," he says. He didn't think it would amount to much.
But the Combses had global ambitions. A map hangs in their daughter's bedroom, marked with little red flags to show the dozens of locations around the world from which people have requested their stickers. "They're like parking tickets," Mr. Combs says. As the movement grew, Mr. Connare's image became the logo for Comic Sans bashing.
Mr. Connare eventually, in February 2004, asked the Combses to stop using his picture, and they did.
Today, Mr. Connare sometimes speaks at Internet conferences, using 41-page PowerPoint presentations written in you-know-what. He talks with the Combses about creating an "I Love/I Hate Comic Sans" picture book together.
The font has become so popular that it's approaching retro chic. Design shop Veer is selling a T-shirt with a picture of human heart on it made entirely of tiny Comic Sans characters. Veer's text: "Love it, love to hate it, or hate that you love it."
Vincent Connare designed the ubiquitous, bubbly Comic Sans typeface, but he sympathizes with the world-wide movement to ban it.
Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer.
The font, a casual script designed to look like comic-book lettering, is the bane of graphic designers, other aesthetes and Internet geeks. It is a punch line: "Comic Sans walks into a bar, bartender says, 'We don't serve your type.'" On social-messaging site Twitter, complaints about the font pop up every minute or two. An online comic strip shows a gang kicking and swearing at Mr. Connare.
The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web. The mission: "to eradicate this font" and the "evil of typographical ignorance."
"If you love it, you don't know much about typography," Mr. Connare says. But, he adds, "if you hate it, you really don't know much about typography, either, and you should get another hobby."
Typefaces convey meaning, typographers say. Helvetica is an industry standard, plain and reliable. Times New Roman is classic. Depending on your point of view, Comic Sans is fun, breezy, silly or vulgar and lazy. It can be "analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume," warns the Ban Comic Sans movement's manifesto. The font's original name was Comic Book, but Mr. Connare thought that didn't sound like a font name. He used Sans (short for sans-serif) because most of the lettering, except for the uppercase I, doesn't have serifs, the small features at the end of strokes.
Mr. Connare, 48 years old, now works at Dalton Maag, a typography studio in London, and finds his favorite creation -- a sophisticated typeface called Magpie -- eclipsed by Comic Sans. He cringes at the most improbable manifestations of his Frankenstein's monster font and rarely uses it himself, but he says he tries to be polite when he meets people excited to be in the presence of the creator. Googling himself, he once found a Black Sabbath band fan site that used Comic Sans. The site's creators even credited him. "You can't regulate bad taste," he says.
Still, he is tickled by -- and trades on -- his reputation. A picture signed by Mickey Mouse that was sent to Mr. Connare to thank him after Disney used the font in ads hangs in his house. His wife, Sue Rider, introduces him at parties as the father of Comic Sans. A friend of his claims to know someone who broke up with her boyfriend in a letter written in Comic Sans to soften the blow. But there certainly hasn't been much money in it for Mr. Connare since Microsoft owns the font.
Of course, there would be no movement to ban Comic Sans if it weren't so popular. "We've been using that font for years," says Peter Phyo, a manager at O'Neals' restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center in Manhattan. "That is just the procedure. I wouldn't know the exact reasoning. It also looks nice on the menu." Mr. Phyo says he hasn't had any complaints.
The proliferation of Comic Sans is something of a fluke. In 1994, Mr. Connare was working on a team at Microsoft creating software that consumers eventually would use on home PCs. His designer's sensibilities were shocked, he says, when, one afternoon, he opened a test version of a program called Microsoft Bob for children and new computer users. The welcome screen showed a cartoon dog named Rover speaking in a text bubble. The message appeared in the ever-so-sedate Times New Roman font.
Mr. Connare says he pulled out the two comic books he had in his office, "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen," and got to work, inspired by the lettering and using his mouse to draw on a computer screen. Within a week, he had designed his legacy.
A product manager recognized the font's appeal and included it as a standard typeface in the operating system for Microsoft Windows. As home computers became widespread, Comic Sans took on a goofy life of its own.
Out to crush that goofy life is Ban Comic Sans, whose weapons include disapproving stickers, to be slapped on inappropriate uses of the font wherever they are found.
Ban Comic Sans was conceived in the fall of 1999, when Holly Sliger was a senior at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, studying typography and graphic design. Designing a museum gallery guide for a children's hands-on artifact exhibit, Ms. Sliger says she was horrified when her bosses told her to use Comic Sans. She told them it was a cliché, and printed out a list of other typefaces she thought better suited the project. They insisted on Comic Sans.
"It was like hell for me," she says. "It was everywhere, like an epidemic."
In the midst of the project, she met her future husband, Dave Combs, at synagogue one Saturday. He was a recent college graduate working as a graphic designer, and she knew he would sympathize. "This is horrible," he remembers saying. She says, "That's when I knew he's the guy I would marry." The couple did wed a year later and continued to gripe about the font.
Mr. Connare says he first realized that the tide had turned against Comic Sans in January 2003, while studying for his master's degree in type design at the University of Reading in Berkshire, England. He got an email from Mr. Combs asking for permission to use his photo for stickers, T-shirts and coffee mugs to promote "typography awareness" for the movement to ban Comic Sans that he and his wife had founded. Busy and distracted, Mr. Connare said OK.
"It sounded a bit silly," he says. He didn't think it would amount to much.
But the Combses had global ambitions. A map hangs in their daughter's bedroom, marked with little red flags to show the dozens of locations around the world from which people have requested their stickers. "They're like parking tickets," Mr. Combs says. As the movement grew, Mr. Connare's image became the logo for Comic Sans bashing.
Mr. Connare eventually, in February 2004, asked the Combses to stop using his picture, and they did.
Today, Mr. Connare sometimes speaks at Internet conferences, using 41-page PowerPoint presentations written in you-know-what. He talks with the Combses about creating an "I Love/I Hate Comic Sans" picture book together.
The font has become so popular that it's approaching retro chic. Design shop Veer is selling a T-shirt with a picture of human heart on it made entirely of tiny Comic Sans characters. Veer's text: "Love it, love to hate it, or hate that you love it."
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