On a daily basis, I read blogs on personal development (e.g., motivation, happiness, productivity, etc.) that oftentimes do not cite any sources of information. Either a tremendous amount of information flows out of the writers’ thought processes or there is and has been a failure to follow proper citation rules.

Perhaps my skeptical attitude rears its ugly head because even my graduate psychology professors with PhD’s defer to and cite outside sources of information. I find it baffling that so many bloggers have so much to say and in such a detailed manner with no citations.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you blog on a particular or specialized topic such as personal development.

Do you think bloggers should provide citations (MLA, APA) when they blog? If so, why or why not?

The three types of face-to-face “talks” are:

1. Verbal: what we say (the words we speak)
2. Paraverbal: how we say it (tone, pitch, cadence)
3. Nonverbal: our body language (kinesics) & personal space (proxemics)

When someone is anxious, upset, hostile/aggressive, always use supportive, empathic skills first. Crisis situations can oftentimes be defused using verbal de-escalation skills before reaching the point where physical intervention becomes necessary. Good verbal interventions skills reduce the need for physical intervention.

Empathic Listening Skills: Active process to discern/understand what the other person is really saying.

1. Listen Carefully
2. Give Them Undivided Attention
3. Be Nonjudgmental
4. Use Silence
5. Restate/Paraphrase to Clarify (Reflection)

Do NOT give advice and Do NOT question. Why?

1. It takes the burden off you. Leave the advice-giving to Oprah. You’re there to support, not to play talk show host.
2. It’s ok to give suggestions/ideas/options for a better way.
3. It helps people talk through their problem and vent their frustrations.
4. It helps people feel understood.

Thank you Leo for bringing this topic to light as it’s something that I’ve been wanting to discuss. Leo shares,

“I’m not sure if things on this front have gotten worse in recent years, but if it has, I suspect the change isn’t in people, it’s in the loss of a sense of community. It’s that we don’t come together enough, and are separated from each other in many ways.”

He says that anonymity and a more divided community (less religious, TV & media, car society) have contributed to a less civilized, ruder society.

I want to add to Leo’s list with two things from my own perspective:

1. Microwave Mentality: I believe that we have become this instaneous world where everything we want, we want it now. We have 24 hour supermarkets, we have drive-in churches (so you get in and out) where you don’t even have to get out of your car to attend church, we have the Internet where it’s always open and with a few clicks have anything and everything delivered to our doorsteps. I think this “Microwave Mentality” has caused us to come to expect that everything will be readily, easily and instantly available. The problem, naturally, comes when things aren’t readily or instantly available. See a related topic where I talked about “Keeping Up with the Joneses” and “Affluenza.”

This type of “Microwave Mentality” blinds us into thinking that if you want it, you can have it. There’s a funny story about a person who prayed to God asking for patience, “Lord, give me patience, but I want it now!”

2. Character Education: As someone who has worked with (K-12) and who still works with students (college-level), I’ve seen more and more students who have not learned basic social skills and courtesies. We no longer teach character education (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship) in either our homes or our schools (some school districts are teaching and implementing it) but yet we expect children to graduate and enter the workforce and act like adults. There are more and more broken families (evidenced by the staggering statistics that over 50% of American marriages end up in divorce) and more families where both parents have to work. The result is that we end up with latch key kids.

According to the U.S. census, one third of all school age children in the United States are, for some part of the week, latch key kids; that is, they go home to an empty house or apartment…The Census Bureau found that 15% were home alone before school, 76% after school and 9% at night. Presumably, the 9% have parents who work night shifts. Source: Latch Key Children - NYU Child Study Center

I think once children are taught character education (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship) and once we (adults & children) change our way of thinking from that of the “Microwave Mentality” then and only then will we begin to see a shift towards a kinder, gentler, more civilized society.

Update [12.28.2007] - I received an email from Tom Henderson at OpenEducation.Net, a site dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today. He’s asked me to share this link, Increasing Student Achievements by Focusing on Social Skills, with our readers. The article argues that the American school system has relied heavily on psychology (study of the human mind) to train new teachers, when it should instead broaden its scope to include fields like sociology (study of groups of people) or anthropology (study of human societies & cultures). Good stuff.

Lorelle VanFossen, the author of the article, asked:

We all run across bloggers claiming to be experts in their subject, or other bloggers writing about these people and calling them “experts”. What makes them an expert? What do you consider an expert? What are the characteristics that make a person qualified to be called an expert?

Anyone can start a blog today. They can make up all kinds of expertise and powerful sounding resumes and descriptions for their “expertise”. They can come up with highfalutin titles and synonyms for “expert” like “master” and “leader”.

How do you know if they are telling the truth? Where is the proof of their expertise?

I left a really long comment to chime in and I thought I’d share it here with our loyal visitors and readers:

Presently, I’m employed as a Behavior Specialist for a school system. I can definitely relate to the things mentioned by Lorelle VanFossen, Jim Kukral, and Chris Baskind. When I first started my job I had no background as a “Behavior Specialist” other than my Master’s in Psychology with some experience doing mental health counseling. I had never worked in a school environment before. This I made very clear to the recruiter. When I started my job there was, naturally, a lot of pressure that came with “living up to my title” because after all, I am a “specialist.” So what I did was to collaborate with others who were more experienced than me but who were in related areas like “counseling.” While doing this, I read as much as I could online and through books and was fortunate enough to attend a conference (which really helped me).

As Jim Kukral said, “…being an expert, is…knowing more than someone else, period. It has nothing to do with time learning it.” I started to understand that people were turning to me and counting on me to solve behavior problems in their classrooms and in their schools. After studying up on behavior management and issues, I realized that I did know a bit more than many others in my school system. This was validating and yet frightening at the same time.

And as Chris Baskind mentioned, “…you wanna be a White House Correspondent? Act like one.” So I started to be the behavior specialist that came next to my name. I always tried to keep myself in check by “partnering up” with people instead of coming across as demeaning or condescending because no one liked to be talked down to.

Lo behold, “The rest of the “expert” secret sauce is in the quality of your observations and how well you express them.” (Chris Baskind)

People soon came to respect my ideas, tips, and strategies which always came with my famous disclaimer “I didn’t create this stuff, I just found them and put them together for you. I’m a good synthesizer of information.” In other words, I’m good at taking bits of information and making them coherent or “make sense.”

So to sum up my VERY long comment, I think it does take all 3 points to be an expert (at least in the professional/academic world, which might carry over into the blogosphere too).

(1) “I think some amount of time spent apprenticing and learning, as well as doing, should be part of the qualification (to become an expert).” (Lorelle VanFossen)

(2) “[B]eing an expert, is defined as knowing more than someone else, period.” (Jim Kukral) Here, I would say that with experience also comes the “wisdom” that you can’t learn overnight. So I would balance the someone being an instant expert and temper that with Lorelle’s “apprenticing, learning, as well as doing” advice.

(3) “[Y]ou wanna be a White House Correspondent? Act like one…the “expert” secret sauce is in the quality of your observations and how well you express them.” (Chris Baskind)

I think the point is also that no matter how much of an “expert” a person is or claims to be, there is ALWAYS something MORE he/she can learn.

So let me now turn around and ask the readers:

“What Makes Someone an Expert? What are the characteristics that make a person qualified to be called an expert?”

• Research between 1911 - 1999 and beyond concluded that there is no evidence for retaining kids [Holmes, 1989; Jimerson, 2001 in Anderson, G., Whipple, A., & Jimerson, S. (2002)].
• In fact, studies showed negative effects on children [Jimerson, 2001 in Anderson, G., Whipple, A., & Jimerson, S. (2002)].
• Retention was found to be one of the most powerful predictors of high school dropout, with retained students 2 to 11 times more likely to drop out of high school than promoted students (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• It does not matter if the child is retained early (kindergarten through 3rd grade) or later (4th through 8th grades), across the studies, “retention at any grade level is associated with later high school dropout, as well as other deleterious long-term effects.” (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• It’s estimated that over 2.4 million (5-10%) students are retained every year in the U.S. (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• Retention has been on the rise for the past 25 years (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• Retention is estimated to cost over $14 billion per year to pay for the extra year of schooling (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• Surveys of children’s ratings of twenty stressful life events in the 1980s showed that, by the time they were in 6th grade, children feared retention most after the loss of a parent and going blind. (Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002).
• The study was replicated in 2001, 6th grade students rated grade retention as the single most stressful life event, higher than the loss of a parent or going blind (Anderson, Jimerson, & Whipple, 2002).
• The highest retention rates are found among poor, minority, inner-city youth. [NASP, Position Statement on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion.]

“There are multiple explanations for the negative effects associated with grade retention, including: 1) the absence of specific remedial strategies to enhance social or cognitive competence; 2) failure to address the risk factors associated with retention; and 3) the consequences of being over-age for grade, which is associated with an assortment of deleterious outcomes, particularly as retained children approach middle school and puberty (stigmatizing by peers and other negative experiences of grade retention may exacerbate behavioral and socio-emotional adjustment problems).” [NASP, Position Statement on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion.]

References:
Anderson, G., Whipple, A., & Jimerson, S. (2002, November). Grade Retention: Achievement and mental health outcomes. Communiqué, 31 (3), handout pages 1-3.

Retrieved February 2007 at http://www.nasponline.org/communications/spawareness/Grade%20Retention.pdf

National Association of School Psychologists (NASP): Position Statement on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion (2003).

Retrieved February 2007 at http://www.nasponline.org/about_nasp/pospaper_graderetent.aspx