by Joye C. Anestis, M.S.
While an avid Internet user for years, I still consider myself to be a technology neophyte. Case in point, Monday night I began to brainstorm this post & inadvertently published my rough draft to the website. My apologies to those of you unfortunate enough to open the site while that was the leading topic - I'm sure it was confusing (& I'm sure it'll happen again).
My emerging technology infancy is such that I consider Psychotherapy Brown Bag (PBB) to be my first real venture into the blogosphere. Before undertaking this project, I read a few blogs sporadically (i.e., when I remembered that they existed) but never commented on one, wrote a post for one, or even really understood what they were all about. When I began to immerse myself into the blogosphere (I find that word really fun), I discovered a lot of interesting things. So for all of our readers who consider themselves emerging technology neophytes as well, I thought I would write about the cool things I discovered - especially quick & easy ways to keep up with research in clinical psychology without leaving your web browser.
1) "I can't remember to keep refreshing all of the websites to see if they've posted anything new": The most important technology facet I learned about is feed subscription. Before PBB, I wasn't a very reliable blog consumer mostly because I forgot to go to the website & look for new posts. What I discovered is that almost every news source on the internet has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to (you can find them by looking for the orange logo - see it to your right on PBB next to "Subscribe in a reader"). By subscribing to a site's RSS feed, & then subscribing to a feed reader, you can get information from 100s of websites (blogs, newspapers, etc.) all in one screen. I use Google Reader because it's free & because I use Google for almost everything else in my life. Within Google Reader, I can get updated headlines from People.com & the New York Times Health section alongside the latest articles published in JAMA & Archives of General Psychiatry. This is a valuable resource for keeping current with the latest clinical psychology research. Most empirical journals have a feed you can subscribe to & when a new issue is published or a new study is posted early online you get an update in your reader. Some sources only provide the article title, others give you the full abstract or a some other summary. It varies greatly. But by subscribing to a feed, you can gather as much in-depth information as you want - & you won't miss out on any important empirical research! Here's just a sample of some journals that have feeds: Science, Journal of Abnormal Psychology (actually all of the APA journals), International Journal of Eating Disorders, and Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice. And when you're setting up your reader, don't forget to subscribe to the PBB feed!
- if you want to learn more technical information about RSS feeds, check out this really handy New York Times article: "Fine-Tuning Your Filter for Online Information."
2) "That still seems complicated. I mostly use the Internet for e-mail.": Have no fear, if you don't want to subscribe to a new online service or aren't interested in learning about RSS readers, but you still want to research updates, many journals, blogs, & other news sources will send you e-mail updates. For example, APA PsycALERT allows you to pick favorite APA journals & then will send you an e-mail when they release a new issue. Blogs (like PBB) will send you daily summaries of the previous day's posts if you subscribe to them via e-mail.
3) "Isn't blogging pretty self-indulgent?": That's definitely what I thought when I began really exploring the world of blogs. In fact, I prefer to call PBB an e-magazine instead of a blog for this very reason. What I discovered: sure, some blogs are rather self-interested...but there are hundreds of blogs out there that serve as legitimate sources of information. You can get tips on the best tomatoes to grow in a container garden, what's the best wine to serve with chicken tikka masala, or an update on the theories of non-suicidal self-injury (shameless self-promotion). Several prominent clinical psychologists maintain blogs - Dr. Leahy (see his awesome PBB post on financial worries) blogs at PsychologyToday.com, offering self-help CBT for anxiety and worry. I'm really enjoying Jonathan Kaplan's blog on mindfulness. Blogs do appear to be an exciting way to disseminate therapy skills, as well as learn about & discuss new trends in therapy, so I am embracing blogs as a way to further educate myself (& the world), in a new & (usually) easier to digest format.
4) "I only use Facebook for high school reunions.": Although originally, most of us used social networking sites like Facebook to reconnect with old friends, they are quickly becoming a source for professional networking. If you are a Facebook subscriber, you might be amazed to discover what kind of information you can gather there. For example, I was recently made aware of the Preacher & Hayes Facebook group for statistical mediation analysis. Joining this group provides a direct forum to get advice about mediational analysis & other statistical conundrums. The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies has also recently entered the Facebook world, & the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline maintains a Facebook presence. And don't forget that PBB is on Facebook, too!
And so ends my brief discussion of how to make the Internet work for you - by keeping you updated with findings & trends in the empirical literature. I'm positive there are many other ways to use the Internet to connect with new empirical research in clinical psychology. Do you know of any that I have not yet discovered? Do you have any thoughts or tips on the information above? If so, please comment on this post, so we can all benefit & discuss. Happy browsing!
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