THE 13th ANNUAL PSYCHOLOGY TEACHER'S CONFERENCE 2011

"A Conference Presented by Psychology Teachers for Psychology Teachers"

For those of you who haven't booked yet, the 13th Annual Psychology Teacher's conference, run by Carter Down Educational Services (CDES), is fast approaching! The 2011 conference is being held on Friday the 25th of Feburary , at Moonee Valley Racecourse.

As always, the conference organisers have arranged a fabulous array of speakers and topics to help you, the psychology teacher, navigate your way through the new VCE Study Design and much more.

Psychology in Action author, Edwina Ricci, will once again be there running a workshop on teaching psychology at Year 10 level.

The Psychology in Action Teacher Resource Book and CD offers comprehensive support to this best selling text:

The Teacher Resource Book includes:

* Answers to all activities for each chapter and all five Module Reviews of the text book
* Supplementary resources such as photocopiable worksheets for each chapter
* Spiral binding to make photocopying easy

The accompanying CD includes:

* PDF of the teacher book
* Interactive and printable crosswords
* Assessment support, consisting of editable Word versions of:
- VELS assessment rubrics to make assessing each chapter easy
- Module tests and answers

PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION SECOND EDITION IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Psychology in Action 2e has been written to prepare Year 10 students for senior study in Psychology.

As with the first edition, the book's objective is to continue stimulating student interest in some of the specialist, applied fields of psychology.

The Second Edition has retained it's introductory chapter on psychological research methods and updated the Modules we know you and your students love:

* Sport Psychology
* Clinical Psychology and
* Forensic Psychology.

The second edition also includes an exciting and engaging new module on

* Educational and Developmental Psychology.

This module focuses on issues that are relevant to early childhood, the school years and adolescence. This module covers:

* cyberpsychology
* romantic relationships
* friendships: cliques, bullying, peer pressure
* mental disorders and more!

Melbourne girl stalks American Idol

A MELBOURNE cyber stalker who harassed and blackmailed an American Idol star walked from court yesterday.

A Melbourne woman who stalked and blackmailed the runner-up in the 2004 American Idol series has avoided time behind bars.

Posing as a fan, Tanya Maree Quattrocchi then tormented Diana De Garmo, 19, via the Internet and mobile phone. Between March and June last year she rang De Garmo 369 times and text messaged her 570 times.

Quattrocchi, 21, of Oak Park, pleaded guilty today to stalking and blackmail charges in the County Court.

Judge Lisa Hannan said Quattrocchi terrified Ms De Garmo and relentlessly hounded her family and friends.

On right, Tanya Maree Quattrocchi, who stalked 2004 American Idol runner-up Diana De Garmo.
Photo: Justin Mcmanus

TWO BOYS, AGED 10 AND 11, CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER

Two young brothers, aged just 10 and 11, have been charged with attempted murder after a nine-year-old boy and his 11-year-old uncle were attacked and injured, the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK has said.

Police were called to the Brick Ponds area of Edlington on Saturday afternoon after the 9-year-old boy was found in the street bleeding "cut from head to toe".

The 11-year-old was later found semi-conscious in a railway cutting. He is critically ill with head injuries.

The image on the right shows police officers guard the ravine in Edlington where two boys were horrifically beaten Photo: GETTY

EMERSON DE OLIVEIRA ABREU: THE MODERN DAY PHINEAS GAGE!!

Emerson de Oliveira Abreu was underwater fishing off the coast of Rio de Janeiro when he fired a spear.

But instead of hitting it's intended target, his spear bounced off some rocks and pierced his own head. Mr Abreu described feeling "a sharp pain" when the spear pierced his head.

The spear entered above his left eye and embedded itself in his skull as the images from his CAT scan incredibly show.

14-year-old Ash returns home late, clammy and pale. His mum knows something has happened, but Ash can't tell her that he thinks he might have just killed someone. The consequences of reckless actions hit Ash head-on - on a day beginning ordinarily by hanging out with his best-friend Jared; and a night that made him feel second-best - when he threw that brick off a freeway overpass. It tests his friendship with Jared, his relationship with his family, and forces Ash to think responsibly in future.

This is the companion website to the textbook Psychology in Action: An introductory text (2004).

Psychology in Action is a textbook for schools (aimed at middle school students) and is guaranteed to engage ANY STUDENT in learning due to its coverage of interesting topics and inclusion of fun classroom activities .

This website is a ready-to-use, effortless online resource that provides an interactive element to the textbook. All of the material found on this site is completely integrated with the textbook contents.

Scientists Develop New Tool To 'Freeze' Crime Scene Memories

Science Daily -- University of Portsmouth scientists in the UK have developed a powerful new tool that 'freezes' the memory of crime scenes in the minds of witnesses.

The tool - a self-administered interview applied by witnesses at crime scenes - combats natural memory decay by using the latest research in cognitive psychology techniques. It 'freezes' images and details of crime scenes and perpetrators in the minds of witnesses, particularly small and seemingly insignificant details that provide major leads for detectives that turn out to be crucial in solving cases.

Dr. Lorraine Hope, pictured, has developed a method to help witnesses freeze images and details of crimes in their minds to aid in criminal investigations.

SUICIDE SYNDROME by psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

THE sad truth is that no one will ever know precisely what really lay behind the deaths of Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater as they strolled into the Dandenong Ranges a week ago.

Despite, media speculation focusing on teenage subcultures, social networking sites on the internet and even a rare syndrome of psychosis known as folie a deux, suicide is a behavioural outcome.

It is a process in which social, psychological, neurobiological and cultural variables all contribute to produce the end result.

The problem for those left behind in their agonising questioning is that these contributing factors carry unequal weight.

No single factor has been demonstrated to be necessary or sufficient to cause suicide.

Stalkers and Stalking

High profile cases of stalkers hounding celebrities frequently make headlines, but it's not just the rich and famous who become victims of obsessive harassment. The BBC in the UK recently met members of the general public, just like you and I, who became victims of stalkers. These are their stories.

DNA test finally traps architect who posed as tramp to molest girls

Detectives in London admitted this week that a psychological profile put out 10 years ago describing the offender of a string of sex attacks on young girls as likely to be a lowly paid, uneducated man living alone had been inaccurate.

An architect who disguised himself as a tramp to launch a string of sex attacks on young girls over a period of almost 20 years has been unmasked after being trapped by DNA profiling while under investigation for an unrelated minor crime.

Anthony De Boise, 58, a senior official for Wandsworth council in London, had been at large for 17 years since his first attack on a girl at a beauty spot in Surrey. Yesterday at Southwark crown court he admitted to six attacks on teenage girls, who he threatened to kill. Three of his victims had knives held to their throats during the sexual assaults.

Jailed lawyer holds key to Halvagis case

By John Silvester
September 12, 2006
The Age Newspaper

FORMER high-profile lawyer and convicted drug trafficker, Andrew Fraser, has provided breakthrough evidence that led to a man being charged with the murder of Mersina Halvagis, who was stabbed to death at Fawkner Cemetery nine years ago.

Secretly sworn statements by Fraser convinced the Office of Public Prosecutions to charge long time suspect Peter Norris Dupas with the murder.

Murderer not insane but considered a danger to society

A woman who stabbed her partner 37 times before skinning him, beheading him and baking his body parts has lost an appeal against her life sentence.

Katherine Knight claimed the February 2000 killing of her de facto husband, John Price, was not in the worst category of murder and did not warrant life in prison.

Olympic cyclist jailed for 18 months for stalking

Olympic silver medallist Gary Neiwand was today sentenced to 18 months' jail for stalking a former lover.

Neiwand pleaded guilty to stalking, theft and breaching an intervention order at the Melbourne Magistrates Court.Most of the offences happened in May after his relationship with the woman ended.

The court heard Neiwand had been suffering from depression and falsely believed she was seeing other men at the time.
It also heard that Neiwand broke an intervention order and sent abusive text messages to the woman's friends via a stolen mobile phone.

Neiwand was sentenced to a maximum of 18 months in jail.

The magistrate said Neiwand had been convicted of stalking before and his repeated behaviour was extremely serious.

Neiwand's family attended the hearing.

Neiwand won two silver and two bronze medals at the Olympics, the most recent coming at the Sydney 2000 Games, where he finished second in the men's Keirin event.

Depression battle tests young Aussie

SOURCE: The Age newspaper

Aussie golfer STEVEN Bowditch says golf is about the last thing that matters in his life as he struggles to emerge from clinical depression.

"Golf at this stage of my life is not a concern to me. It's my wellbeing off the course," said the 23-year-old from Perigian Beach in Queensland, who last week failed to make the cut for the 14th time in 14 starts in his rookie season on the US PGA Tour.

Ripper's True Identity 'Revealed'

Handwritten notes in which the police officer who led the hunt for Jack The Ripper names his chief suspect for the gruesome murders have been donated to Scotland Yard. The notes are contained within a book handed down through the family of Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, which was formally presented to the Metropolitan Police to mark the re-launch of its world-famous crime museum. In his annotations, Mr Swanson names Polish barber Aaron Kosminski as the suspect in the notorious Ripper case.

Tough times for Eminem

Rapper Eminem (pictured) has fallen into a web of depression following the death of his best friend and fellow rapper Proof and the collapse of his second marriage to Kim, according to a close pal.

New Bullock 'stalker' order

American actress Sandra Bullock has got a three-year extension on a restraining order against a man she has accused of stalking her across three US states.

Thomas James Weldon has spent three years in a psychiatric hospital, but Bullock, in a sworn statement requesting the order's extension, said she had no guarantee that he would not resume harrassing her upon his release.

At the top of their game

SPORT is big business these days, and psychologists are increasingly involved (either directly or indirectly) on the training pitch and in the dressing room. This very hands-on day of presentations and exercises, organised by the British Psychological Society, the Football Association and the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science, showed some reasons why.

David Lavallee and Beth Pummell (Loughborough University, UK) opened the day by discussing the importance of transitions in football (injuries, relocation, changes in competition level, de-selection, retirement). Lavallee reported that across 14 studies, 20 per cent of athletes experienced psychological adjustment difficulties associated with sport-related transitions. He used the 2004 Athens men's coxless four team as an example of how they succeeded in reaching their goal of winning the gold medal by coping successfully with injuries and changes to the make-up of the team. Then the audience split into groups for a case study using a systems approach to young player development.

Milat named in missing nurse's inquest

Backpacker murderer Ivan Milat may not have been the only serial killer preying on young people in NSW in the 1980s, an inquest into the disappearance of two nurses heard.

NSW Deputy Coroner Carl Milovanovich found that nurses Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balken died a few days after they were last seen at Parramatta's Tollgate Hotel in 1980.

Beckham reveals OCD battle

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is covered in Psychology in Action on pages 150-152.

Not too long ago, we broke the story of elite footballer Wayne Schwass' battle with depression. Now we also break the story of David Beckham's battle with OCD.

ON the pitch and off, David Beckham seems every inch the completely confident, happy and high-achieving global megastar, but he recently admitted his life is blighted by a psychological disorder.

Most of us can only dream about the kind of life "Goldenballs" and Posh lead behind closed doors, with their champagne on ice, caviar by the kilo and wardrobes stuffed with designer goodies.

Dad-of-three multi-millionaire footballer David Beckham seems to have life well and truly sorted.

And so his revelations that he suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) came as a shock.

Port Arthur killer 'like a zombie': mum

Australia's worst mass murderer has become an overweight "zombie" who refuses to speak, his mother and doctors say.

It has been nearly 10 years since Martin Bryant (pictured) killed 35 people and seriously injured many more during a rampage at Port Arthur in Tasmania.

In a rare interview before the anniversary of the April 28, 1996 killings, Bryant's mother Carleen says her son won't speak to her.

"Martin is like a zombie," she told The Bulletin magazine.

THE 46 YEAR PREGNANCY

In 1955, in a small village outside Casablanca, Zahra Aboutalib went into labour. Forty-eight hours later, the baby still hadn't shifted and Zahra was rushed to hospital. There, Zahra looked on as a young woman died in agony on the operating table. There was only one thing for it; she turned and fled in panic, convinced she would suffer the same fate.

Days of excruciating pain followed, and then the pains faded out. In Moroccan culture, it is believed that babies can live inside a woman's womb to protect her honour and Zahra took on this "sleeping baby" myth. Zahra cast the pregnancy from her mind and many decades passed, during which time she adopted three children and became a grandmother.

Breaking through mental barriers: Mind training for swimmers

Ian Thorpe provided a few subtle but valuable insights after his 3rd consecutive world record at the 2001 World Championships during the week at Fukuoka, Japan. I just wanted to mention these before beginning today's topic of breaking through mental barriers. After winning 200m freestyle in a fabulous tussle with his friend, the great Pieter van den Hoogenband, he mentioned how this race had been his main focus since the Olympics and that he truly believed that he would always be tough to compete against as his preparation was always so complete.