Hawking Wares at a Psychological Convention
For the past four days, 14,000 psychologists and other health professionals have been exchanging research papers and attending workshops the American Psychological Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C. It's not all purely academic, though: There's a commercial side, too.
JOHN YDSTIE, host:
And now for some inside-the-Washington-Beltway analysis. For the past four days 14,000 psychologists and other health professionals have been exchanging research papers and attending highly technical workshops at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association. It's not all academic, though. There's a commercial side, too. In an exhibit hall the size of three football fields, vendors are selling everything from textbooks to worry beads. We sent NPR's Joanne Silberner over to the Washington Convention Center, and she found the conventioneers well-schooled in the ways of the market.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
JOANNE SILBERNER reporting:
We're passing booths. A lot of them have little candy bowls out front to try and draw you in. Well, here's a woman in a dark purple suit with a button around her neck.
Dr. EILEEN KENNEDY-MOORE (Psychologist): Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore.
SILBERNER: And you are by training a?
Dr. KENNEDY-MOORE: Psychologist.
SILBERNER: You've got a six-inch-diameter button in letters that anybody could read without glasses. It says, `Ask me about my book.' So, OK, tell me about your book.
Dr. KENNEDY-MOORE: It's a self-help book for kids. There really are 12 ways that children can ask for attention.
SILBERNER: Why'd you start wearing this button?
Dr. KENNEDY-MOORE: My publisher was thrilled that I was coming to APA, and we discussed various options, including sandwich boards. But I said I wouldn't be able to sit in sandwich boards. And we discussed a T-shirt. By comparison, a button that's almost as big as I am seemed like a good option.
(Soundbite of music)
SILBERNER: We're going around the exhibit and getting a sense of what's going on, and you have something unique. And I'm wondering if you can tell me what you have here.
Unidentified Man #1: TheraSound is music that you use. We work with creating chord structures that rise and fall in particular rhythms. And as this music rises and falls, the body becomes entrained and starts breathing in time with the music.
SILBERNER: You seem very calm.
Unidentified Man #1: I am.
SILBERNER: We are going to look for stress erasers, say, biofeedback stress reduction techniques.
Unidentified Man #2: Just put your finger right on top of the finger sensor. So now the device is booting up. You see these triangles appearing?
SILBERNER: Mm-hm.
Unidentified Man #2: The secret is you're going to inhale until one of them appears, and then when it appears, you're going to exhale as you slowly count to four, OK? Now inhale until the next one appears, and exhale slowly as you count to...
SILBERNER: One, two...
Unidentified Man #2: Oh...
SILBERNER: ...three, four.
Unidentified Man #2: ...as you silently count to four. Have you ever noticed that the time that you're most worried, you have your thoughts flooding your mind, it's the hardest time to ever use a relaxation training technique?
Unidentified Man #3: It's not available until September 30th.
SILBERNER: I think I'd better go to the massage booth.
It sure seems like a lot of these exhibits have to do with stress. And leaving, I'm a little bit stressed 'cause we're walking right past the shiatsu reclining chairs that hug you and massage you, and I don't have time to do it. Joanne Silberner, NPR News, Washington.
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