Posted: 25 Aug 2010 02:28 PM PDT

Published: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 5:16 PM Updated: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 5:18 PM

GRAND BLANC— The advanced placement psychology class offered by Grand Blanc High School is just not enough for student Hana Alharastani and her classmates, and they want the opportunity to learn more.
"I'm very interested in psychology, that is what I am planning on majoring in college," says the 17-year -old senior, "so I am hoping to learn more by starting a club."
The club would expand on the concepts and activities the students have been learning in the class. "We are going to have some guest speakers, a hypnotist, and movies so that we can see psychology in action." Alharastani also plans to have demonstrations of certain studies terms and theories.
Grand Blanc High psychology teacher Kathleen Wright plans to advise the group, and is looking forward to continuing to work with the students who have taken her class. "A lot of the students signed up for psychology without really understanding what psychology is," says Wright, "but at the end of the class, ninety percent of my students earned college credit, and psychology is one of the hardest A.P. tests there is. I think the students did so well because they are so interested in it."
"The club was completely Hana's idea, she was sad because the club was ending and she still wanted to have discussions about psychology with her classmates." explains Wright.
The club will meet on the first Thursday of every month in the psychology room, and is open to all Grand Blanc High students.

In Our Schools: New Psychology Club at Grand Blanc High

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Obituary: O Ivar Lovaas, psychology professor

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 04:31 PM PDT

Psychology professor and pioneer of popular therapy to help treat autism in children

Ivar Lovaas, psychologist.
Born: 8 May, 1927, in Lier, Norway.
Died 2 August, 2010, in Lancaster, California, aged 83.

OIvar Lovaas was a psychologist who developed one of the most widely used therapies for children with auti

sm, and in doing so helped change the treatment and the public perception of the condition.

At his death, Lovaas was an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he had taught since 1961.

He was the first researcher to suggest that, for at least some children, autism is treatable. His work came to wide attention in 1987, when he published a scholarly article titled "Behavioral Treatment and Normal Educational and Intellectual Functioning in Young Autistic Children".

In it, he reported that after rigorous training, some autistic children had been able to catch up with their peers and function in conventional classrooms.

"His work first of all showed that the kids were teachable," said Tristram Smith, a psychologist at the University of Rochester. "It was also very important in deinstitutionalisation, showing that you could teach the kinds of skills that the kids needed to succeed at home and in the community."

In the 1960s, when Lovaas began studying autism, the prevailing Freudian view rooted the condition in neurosis. Autistic children, if they were treated at all, were given psychotherapy, to little discernible effect. Others, including many of Lovaas's early research subjects, were misdiagnosed as schizophrenic or mentally retarded and consigned to institutions. Lovaas, by contrast, took a behaviourist approach, proposing that autism might be ameliorated through a rigorous one-on-one programme of behaviour modification. The programme he devised, known as the Lovaas model, took as its starting point a discipline known as applied behaviour analysis.

Drawing on the work of behavioural psychologists such as Ivan Pavlov and BF Skinner, applied behaviour analysis, or ABA, uses behaviour-modification techniques to treat social and psychological problems such as drug abuse and mental illness.

The Lovaas model emphasised intensive repetition: the autistic child worked 35 to 40 hours a week with a teacher or parent trained in the method. It also stressed early intervention, with children ideally starting therapy before the age of three and a half.

At the heart of the model was a system of rewards and punishments intended to reinforce appropriate behaviours and discourage inappropriate ones. Social skills were broken down into discrete, learnable units.

Psychology key for Brazil in 2014 says Parreira

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 10:08 AM PDT

By Rodrigo Viga Gaer

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Brazil will need to prepare psychologically for the huge pressure they will face as World Cup hosts in 2014, when a second failure on home soil is simply not an option, former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said.

Parreira, who steered Brazil to their fourth world title in 1994 after a 24-year drought, felt the weight of expectation himself and told Reuters it would be worse in four years' time.

The 67-year-old knows the size of the task facing Brazil, who were shocked by Uruguay in the deciding match of their previous home finals in 1950.

"We'll be coming from two defeats in the 2006 and 2010 Cups and you can be sure the pressure will be very big on the national team. It will be a huge responsibility," Parreira said in an interview.

"We've already lost one World Cup at home and we can't lose a second one at home, we can't allow that to happen," said Parreira, who is in line to take on a role in new coach Mano Menezes's technical staff.

"That's going to put gigantic pressure (on the players) and, as well as technical preparation, we'll have to have a very big psychological preparation."

Such concern has already been voiced by Menezes, who said after his appointment as Dunga's successor last month that he plans to have a psychologist working alongside him.

Parreira added the buildup to 2014 would be harder with Brazil going through a radical renewal of the team and knowing that by then they will have gone 12 years without winning the title.

"After two failures a renewal is almost mandatory for the coach. A new cycle always opens when you lose," said Parreira, who is resting at home after coaching South Africa at their World Cup.

NEW HOPES

Parreira, in charge again when Brazil lost their 2006 quarter-final to France in Germany, was encouraged by Menezes's debut in a friendly against United States in New Jersey last month which Brazil won 2-0.

With youngsters like Neymar, Paulo Henrique Ganso and Alexandre Pato, the team played the attacking football fans and media demanded of Dunga's side that lost to Netherlands in this year's quarter-finals.

"I liked the new faces, the new players. We don't lack quality. Brazil is the best country for a renewal.

"Now we have to give those lads a run-in and experience before the Cup," Parreira said, adding there was room for 2010 World Cup players like Kaka, Robinho, Daniel Alves, Ramires and Thiago Silva.

Another problem will be the lack of competitive matches for Brazil who, as World Cup hosts, will not take part in the South American qualifiers.

Despite difficulties like taking the team to high altitude venues in Bolivia and Ecuador and bringing a large majority of squad members all the way back from Europe, Parreira said the marathon qualifying campaign was essential for team building.

"At first I was against the qualifiers because of the difficulties and toll they took. Later I changed my mind and realised they were essential," he said.

Without the qualifiers, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) will have to take full advantage of opportunities like the Copa America in Argentina next year and the Confederations Cup in Brazil in 2013, he said.

"The CBF will have to prepare a good list of friendlies with strong opponents until 2014. It's important to play more (matches) in Brazil and for that the CBF will have to work hard and negotiate a lot. They have to already feel the climate." (Writing by Rex Gowar in Buenos Aires; editing by Kevin Fylan; to query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

The Psychology of SEO

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 09:02 AM PDT

How far can you take a web site using SEO? On the surface, that depends solely on your ability to implement strategies and tactics to overcome the competition. Yet when you peel back the curtain, you realize there's a lot more going on requiring you to have what essentially boils down to a psychology degree.

Pragmatism From helping site owners deal with an unfocused business offering all the way to understanding what goes through the minds of users performing a search, it's a psychological process. In many ways it's also an emotional thing. And if you don't grasp these factors, you yourself are going to need a psychiatrist. :-)

This article isn't a how-to as far as overcoming psychological issues – I'll leave that for a future article. Because that alone could be book-length. Instead, this is more about waking you up if you're not already awake to the fact that psychology is a critical aspect of what we do. And to get you thinking about it.

Lack of Focus

I stopped counting years ago the number of site owners who THINK they have a well defined business model, only to have me rip that notion to shreds with just a few questions during our first meeting. What are your services? Who is your market? Do you have different types of customers? What are your immediate business goals? What are your long term business goals?

The Not So Unique Offering

Just one out-cropping of the lack of focus issue is where you're dealing with someone who swears what they're doing is unique. They will jump up and down with passion, throwing a plethora of buzz-words that (they think) proves what they're offering is unique. Which may be possible. Except if so, they're still going to need to use phrases that other people use when looking for things. And that means competitor results even if they're just perceived competitors. Site owners don't like hearing that.

Or it just may be the case that no matter how it's communicated, the perception of users doing a search that this site's offering is just like all the others out there, could very well be so insurmountable that you have to help the site owner accept this reality. And help them find a way to adapt or adjust. Even when they're emotionally attached to that "you won't believe how great and unique this is" mentality.

SEO is Easy / Instant / Voodoo / Bogus…

We all know about these. They've been discussed over and over. Yet the reason they've been discussed so much is because they're now standard fare. And it's up to us to understand how to break through that thinking.

The Evolving / Changing Business

Many of my clients come to me at a time when they're hovering over keeping what works and scrapping it to offer something new altogether. Maybe the owner's burned out. Maybe their market dried up. Maybe they think this is the perfect time to shift focus. Whatever the reason, you're going to have to help them break through the indecision and commit to one path. Otherwise you'll never be able to truly optimize the site. Because it's going to be a moving target.

Grieving Clients

All of this just becomes exponentially more challenging when you come to find out that the SEO is being seen as a savior to an already dying business. That it's a last ditch effort to bring in revenue before the creditors bang down the doors at your client/employer's offices. Especially when they're still in the denial or anger stages. Because if they are, they may not even see that it's hopeless. Because if they did, why else would you be in dialogue with them? Or maybe they're in the last throes of false hope.

Whatever the stage of grieving they're in, it just might be up to you to wake them up to reality. Unless you want to take on yet one more client who will work you to near death then inform you that they can't pay you what you are otherwise owed. Because they just reached acceptance that their business is dead.

User Mentality

Even when all else is in alignment with the site owner, as an SEO you need to understand user mental models. You need to get into the mind of the user for all sorts of reasons related to Information Architecture, yet just as vital, you need to do so because only then will you be able to help determine the best keyword phrases for this unique site.

How well can you delve into the minds of users? Especially when it's for a market you have no previous experience working in. Can you step into the shoes of a victim of mesothelioma? If not, you're going to miss 80% of the people who are really looking for an attorney specializing in that highly niche field. Because it's not all about "mesothelioma lawyer". I know. Been managing one of those sites four years this November.

The Observer Self

Seriously though – how good are you at getting out of your own mind and into the minds of your client/employer, the marketing manager, the developer(s), the graphic designer, hosting provider, product manager? And how good are you at looking at things from the eyes of the site's ideal client or customer? Without polluting your thinking with your own experience/linguistic bias, intellect, emotional filters?

The better you are at detaching from your own inner mind and emotional filters, the better your chance of seeing things from and knowing how to reach the mind/emotional buttons of those people. And THAT is quite often much more important than knowing when to use h1 tags or how to get back-links that count…

______________________

Image of William James (Pragmatism) provided courtesy of www.all-about-psychology.com/

Psychology

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

“In Our Schools: New Psychology Club at Grand Blanc High” plus 3 more

“In Our Schools: New Psychology Club at Grand Blanc High” plus 3 more

Published: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 5:16 PM Updated: Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 5:18 PM

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