For those of you that don't catch This American Life, this last episode was filled with all sorts of interesting moments for health communication researchers interested in college drinking. The show, #1 Party School, was an exploration of Penn State's party and drinking culture. I was listening to the first half of the show or so thinking about social norms campaigns and other interventions, and then at the end the show dug into what the university (and other universities) are doing to combat these kinds of drinking problems.
I think This American Life is the best radio show out there, and this episode was especially excellent. I'd probably think that even if I wasn't into health communication, but I'm sure that link to my own interests didn't hurt. If you haven't listened to this show yet, this is the episode to start with.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
A Book Recommendation: Perfect Pitch
(I'm not sure how exactly I managed to go two full weeks without posting anything... I'll chalk that up to the end of the semester.)
I was recently reviewing my book and podcast list, which I give out to students at the start of each semester. It's very advertising-oriented, but there is one book that I think just about anyone could benefit from. Perfect Pitch, by Jon Steel, is a fantastic book on making good presentations.
Steel is the author of a very useful book on advertising I use in my graduate seminar (Truth, Lies and Advertising), but Perfect Pitch is more broadly useful than that. For anyone that consistently makes presentations (or teaches how to make presentations), the book provides an engaging and practical perspective on what makes a good presentation and how to prepare for presentations. It's a little outside of the mainstream of what I suspect most academics from other fields might be reading, so I wanted to point folks to this book - it's great.
I was recently reviewing my book and podcast list, which I give out to students at the start of each semester. It's very advertising-oriented, but there is one book that I think just about anyone could benefit from. Perfect Pitch, by Jon Steel, is a fantastic book on making good presentations.
Steel is the author of a very useful book on advertising I use in my graduate seminar (Truth, Lies and Advertising), but Perfect Pitch is more broadly useful than that. For anyone that consistently makes presentations (or teaches how to make presentations), the book provides an engaging and practical perspective on what makes a good presentation and how to prepare for presentations. It's a little outside of the mainstream of what I suspect most academics from other fields might be reading, so I wanted to point folks to this book - it's great.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
College Students and Adderall: Part 2
To follow up on my original note about this, the presentations in my freshmen class went well. It's always fun and rewarding to see how students improve over the course of the semester.
The team working on Adderall and college students ended up with some interesting findings. In their convenience sample of friends and classmates (at UT and other schools), the vast majority of students had either used Adderall themselves or knew someone who had. It was typically to improve academic performance rather than recreational use. And among those who had used it, there was a perception that it definitely helped improve academic performance - leading to quite a challenge in addressing the problem. That is particularly the case when some of the side effects didn't seem to present any short-term health concerns.
The students proposed trying to link the concept of students using Adderall to athletes using steroids. I don't know if it would end up having an impact to try and stigmatize use in that way, though there does seem to be some kind of potential in linking Adderall to cheating - students might not appreciate the idea that the person getting the A+ and setting the curve is doing it with Adderall. And of course there is the fact that some students do actually need Adderall, which complicates things.
I'm still digesting the presentation and what it might mean, but it was definitely interesting... I feel like there's work to be done here.
The team working on Adderall and college students ended up with some interesting findings. In their convenience sample of friends and classmates (at UT and other schools), the vast majority of students had either used Adderall themselves or knew someone who had. It was typically to improve academic performance rather than recreational use. And among those who had used it, there was a perception that it definitely helped improve academic performance - leading to quite a challenge in addressing the problem. That is particularly the case when some of the side effects didn't seem to present any short-term health concerns.
The students proposed trying to link the concept of students using Adderall to athletes using steroids. I don't know if it would end up having an impact to try and stigmatize use in that way, though there does seem to be some kind of potential in linking Adderall to cheating - students might not appreciate the idea that the person getting the A+ and setting the curve is doing it with Adderall. And of course there is the fact that some students do actually need Adderall, which complicates things.
I'm still digesting the presentation and what it might mean, but it was definitely interesting... I feel like there's work to be done here.
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