With Thanksgiving upon us, the Christmas season just around the corner and end-of-term exams rapidly approaching, this time of year can be a stressful period for many people. Is the thought of hosting a family dinner putting you on edge? Are you stressed out about money issues? Do you have loads of last-minute assignment to finish but no time to finish them?
Discover ways that you can lower your stress levels this holiday season.
Photo courtesy Rich Legg/iStockPhotoThe holidays can actually be a great time to tackle some of the stressful issues in your life. While this is certainly a busy time of year, finding new ways to cope with stress means that you'll be able to enjoy the holidays even more.
No matter what type of stressful issue you are facing, there are some great tips and resources out there that can help. Elizabeth Scott, About.com's Guide to Stress Management, has some excellent ideas for dealing with stress this holiday season. First, start by signing up for her free holiday stress relief email course.
If the impending end of the semester is stressing you out, here are a few great resources to help you prepare for your exams and finish those research papers.
Definition: A hypothesis is a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. A hypothesis is a specific, testable prediction about what you expect to happen in your study. Read more...
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Image courtesy Piotr Bizior
Do you think that psychology is just for students, academics and therapists? Then think again. Because psychology is both an applied and a theoretical subject, it can be utilized in a number of ways. While research studies aren't exactly light reading material for the average person, the results of these experiments and studies can have important applications in daily life. Learn more by checking out this article on some of the best ways to
apply psychology in everyday life.
Teachers, students and researchers in a wide variety of fields rely on the guidelines established by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. What happens, though, when the style manual itself contains errors?
Learn more about important errors and corrections in the new APA style manual.
Photo © American Psychological AssociationSince the recent publication of the sixth edition of the APA style manual, the publishers have issued numerous corrections to the first printing. The corrections include five pages of content and example errors, four pages of "nonsignificant typographical errors" and several corrected sample papers.
APA style is used in psychology as well as other social sciences including education, economics, sociology and nursing. For psychology students, it is essential to have an error-free copy of the publication manual to refer to when writing psychology papers.
In order to deal with the issue, the APA Style website contains a list of frequently asked questions about the corrections. Individuals who purchased a first edition copy of the APA style manual can download a PDF file containing the corrections, or obtain a printed supplement to the book via the APA Service Center.
In addition to these options, the APA is also allowing anyone who purchased a first-edition copy to exchange their book for corrected copy up through December 15, 2009. Visit the APA Style website to learn more about your options and the corrections.
One Space or Two?
One controversial change in the sixth edition of the APA style manual is the switch to requiring two spaces at the end of a sentence instead of just one. According to the APA's style blog, "...this new recommendation will help ease their reading by breaking up the text into manageable, more easily recognizable chunks...APA thinks the added space makes sense for draft manuscripts in light of those manuscript readers who might benefit from a brief but refreshing pause."
The change has stirred up some debate among students, teachers, scholars and the writing community. According to Mignon Fogarty of Grammar Girl, placing two spaces at the end of a sentence was a good strategy back in the days of typewriters and monospaced fonts because it helped give readers a visual break. "When you're typing on a computer, most fonts are proportional fonts, which means that characters are different widths. An "i" is more narrow than an "m," for example, and putting extra space between sentences doesn't do anything to improve readability," Mignon writes.
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