biojournalism.com

My friend was reading the news during class. I glanced over because the term ADHD caught my eye, and I read a most disturbing title.

“A.D.H.D Drugs Linked to Higher Test Scores”

I have no problem with the article or with the scientists who conducted the study the article discusses. It simply states that children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) who are being treated with medication are shown to have higher test scores than those who are not.

As a journalism major, my teachers have stressed the need for word choice and critical thinking. A title like that is very disturbing to me, someone who suffers from ADHD. It makes it sounds like people with ADHD who are medicated somehow have a better chance in school. In my mind it is like its implying that ADHD drugs are to students as steroids are to athletes.

My brother sent me some interesting blog posts regarding Echinoderms vs. Mollusks and which ones are better and why.

I was at first wondering how this argument starting showing up over the internet and decided to test out its argumentative quality…

Although many psychologists swear by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), there is some criticism toward the diagnosis of Mental Disorders.

The DSM-IV assumes that humans can distinguish between normal and abnormal. Some people argue that mental disease…

If you ever study animal behavior or ethology, you’re taught not to read human emotion into animal reactions and behavior.

But why?

The answer is that these are animals and we’re looking for reasons for actions rather than saying an animal hid because it was embarrassed. Animals arn’t humans! they don’t even come CLOSE! Right…?

Perhaps it isn’t as inaccurate as all that to believe that some animals are as complex in emotion as humans.

Stress… Everyone knows its bad. Flight and Fight responses were designed for short bursts of time, enough to escape that saber tooth tiger and that was all. We’d all be better off without stress, but the college student knows how…

During my psych discussion section yesterday, we designed a quick experiment to test people’s curiousity and/or conformity to a group.

We basically had an ‘actor’ stare up at the sky and we were trying to see how many people would also…

Although computers have changed the face of University Education, I still find it remarkable how many students take notes by hand rather than on a laptop. I know my personal reasons. They have to do with distractions.

And now I realize…

I’m up late writing my psychopathology paper on Schizophrenia for Psychology…. It’s giving me a headache as I face my worst writer’s block ever.

I’m supposed to be using examples from “A Beautiful Mind”, explaining if the media’s portrayal of the…