This is your first Topical Blog. Topical blogs will allow you to learn and write about topics that interest you, be project oriented (something to do and report on), or focus on particular topic in motivation and emotion.
For your first one, I'd like you to browse the blog contents of our Motivation website. You can navigate by clicking on topics that interest you in the right hand column under 'categories.' This isn't about jumping to one topic and writing about it. Most of this assignment is about spending some time reading blog content (say at least 30 minutes).
Then, as a comment to this post, tell us about 3 or so topics you found interesting, and then report in detail about one particular post that you read.
Have fun!
I chose to blog about the Eating and Hunger category. The main reason this caught my attention was because it talked about eating disorders, obesity and other health related topics. This is a subject that I can deeply relate to and eventually would like to help others in the future that are struggling with body image whether it is through counseling, teaching, or training.
The first topic that caught my attention was about “good vs. bad carbs”. This caught my attention because it seems to be what a lot of people are talking about. New Year’s resolutions are still going strong and many people are focusing on working out and eating healthy.
The second topic that caught my attention was about certain foods triggering emotions. This makes sense because if you are eating a lot of junk food that is highly processed and robbed of nutrients and minerals, you are going to feel like crap. I try to stick to a pretty natural diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, and grains, although, I hardly ever eat protein or dairy. Having a well rounded meal three times a day, every day, can be tricky. Especially if you have a hectic lifestyle, as many college students do.
The third topic that caught my attention was anorexia. The article “Learning to Live with Anorexia” was very emotional for me to read. When I was reading about her experience in Junior High and High School I felt like I was reading about myself. Fortunately, I was able to learn healthy coping mechanisms before attending college and living on my own. Hannah says “you can’t lose what you learned” and that could not be more accurate. When you have anorexia, you have it for life. It becomes something you live with, but you learn how to maintain and control those feelings. I have read many articles and books about anorexia, and this article was one of the most well-written ones I have come across.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html
The link above is to a video about recent advances in science and technology. Michael Specter is speaking about how many people today want to go back to a “simpler time”. I can relate to this because I often feel the same way. It would be nice to not be glued to my phone, constantly checking facebook, “pinning” ideas on Pinterest, and staying connected to people I care about via internet. It seems too easy and less genuine. However, today people are living longer, have more money, and have access to all sorts of medical care. The world is more advanced than it has ever been. Yet the United States rate of vaccinations given in a year has been decreasing. People in other countries are still dying from diseases that children in the United States no longer get vaccinated for. I find this to be very hard to believe. Especially with how common it is for people to travel the world. Just because there has not been a case in the United States in “X” amount of years does not mean an outbreak couldn’t happen tomorrow. You never know what could happen and not taking proper precautions seems ridiculous.
Explore Response
1. The first area I concentrated on was the music category. One article particularly stimulated my attention, literally. It describes how music may be used as a tool while studying by increasing attention and retention. At first, I thought that was contradictory of every time I tried looking over notes before a test while listening to All That Remains. However, the trick is to select music with around sixty beats per minute, activating the right brain while the left brain concentrates on studying. Baroque music is ideal for studying, not only because it tends to have sixty beats per minute, but it is also ordered through repetition and patterns. Needless to say, the rest of this blog is being typed with Mozart playing in the background.
2. I love researching the connections between biology and psychology (which probably explains my areas of study at UNI). So, naturally I looked into the biological categories and spent some time going over topics that jumped out at me, which leads me to my next topic. Here is a rhetorical question, who here likes making out? Everyone, duh. That’s because we get rushes hormones released that make us feel good. Another fascinating reason is communication. Females get a sense of which males can help them produce healthy offspring, and males can estimate female’s fertility levels.
3. I figured the health category would have some descent tips or revelations useful in my own life and although I found some, what interested me most was something that didn’t involve me, but was nonetheless unexpected. People tan to look nice, but at some point it may be more about feeding an addiction than looking good. Studies have shown that people addicted to tanning are usually addicted to some other drug-related behavior. Tanning also gives one a feeling similar to a high.
4. The post I want to go into more detail about describes how our diets influence our emotional states, because it addresses a major problem in our society. Non-nutritional foods such as fast-food or junk food have their benefits in that they are convenient, cheap, and tasty. Personally, I remember stopping by McDonalds after football games in high school more than the actual games themselves. However, the satisfaction from eating these is short-lived, and the eater experiences anxiety shortly afterwards. This anxiety is the result of the preservatives from the food, and likely psychology factors such as guilt or depression. Furthermore, obesity and depression rates have been rising in a similar fashion, and thus are likely correlated. As suggested by the post, psychological tactics may be used to prevent the over-consumption of these foods. For instance, behavioral psychology can be used to change people’s diets through positive reinforcement, social psychology can encourage exercise habits, health psychology can address tips to stay healthy, and motivation and emotion can be used to set goals and redirect their emotional outlets to other (healthier) activities besides eating.
1. I started looking at the “Sport” category because I love sports and work with the UNI softball team and I loved reading the “NBA Player's Performance Enhancing Behavior: Chewing Straws?” post because I feel like I can relate to it because I sort of do the same thing, but I like to always have my hands busy, whether it’s playing with a pen or highlighter in class or video games, I feel like I always have to be doing something with my hands or I lose focus on things.
2. The second category I looked into was the “Television” category because I enjoy watching TV when I can fit it into my schedule. I enjoyed reading the “16 & Pregnant, Why do I continually watch?” post because I can relate to feeling the same way. Whenever I am at home and my mom and sister are watching the show or Teen Mom, I have to sit down and watch. Why? I don’t know, I think it’s because I started off watching them when they were first having their kids and now I want to see how they are after a couple years.
3. The third category I looked into was the “Social Networking” category because I have a Facebook profile, which is probably why I like reading the “Does Facebook make you happier?” post because I feel like Facebook can make you happier, but I feel it can also make you depressed because people can say what they want and you may see something you didn’t to see.
The post that I would like to go in depth about is the “Self-Efficacy, Confidence, & Ali Farokhmanesh” post in the “Sport” category. I remember sitting (and then standing) in my kitchen at home watching this game and can’t believe what was really happening. Now, I understand that UNI had had a wonderful year and that this UNI was extremely good, but I didn’t think that they would win, so I didn’t advance them in my NCAA Tournament Bracket (oh do I regret that still to this day). Everything that the author put into his post was spot on about this UNI team. They didn’t care who got all the glory, and I guarantee now that nobody cares that it was Ali that took that shot, as long as they got the victory at the end of the game they were happy.
The first topic I looked over was Stress. I chose to look into this topic because what college kid is not experiencing stress, or even just any given teen/adult in the world. It was interesting to read up on a bunch of the studies that people have done over stress, and happiness. One of them stated that increase happiness decreases the chance of heart problems. Even if someone is not actually happy, just acting in that manner still decreased the chance of heart problems. It also went into discussing how it satisfies psychological needs, which seems like a topic we will be discussing later in class.
Another topic I looked over was “sex and mating behaviors.” I thought I’d just give it a look through and found that everyone’s posts were very different. Some blogs were about relationships, while others for more into the sexual topics. One article that I thought was extremely interesting was explaining how a new study explains that women who have unprotected sex are less likely to be depressed and want to commit suicide. This topic relates to what I am currently learning about in a couple other classes this semester, so I thought I’d read on. It states that the semen provides the women with additional hormones, which increase mood. This just made me think of junior high/high school, and even personal wellness, when educators say ALWAYS use protection when being sexually active to prevent pregnancy and STD’s, which I totally agree with!! Yet, this article may persuade others to do the opposite!
The third topic that I went into looking at in more depth was the eating disorders category. I find this topic quite interesting because I have known people personally, like good friends, who have suffered from eating disorders, and they still blow my mind. Multiple people talked about the “Pro Ana” websites and communities. It just blows me away knowing that there are sites out there promoting eating disorders, which can be extremely dangerous, and even deadly! I decided to just look up the number of deaths that are related to eating disorders, just to see. According to the Eating Disorders Recovery website, 5-10% of individuals with eating disorders die within 10 years later, and the mortality rate is 12 times higher for individuals with eating disorders. From this, I don’t understand how there can be websites that support this, and HELP you become a better at
The post that I would like to mainly focus on is the fitness section of the blog, because surprisingly I am one of those ‘weird’ people who enjoys working out and doing certain fitness classes (if I ever have time!). There were not many posts on fitness, but I thought they were all interesting. They were about things anywhere between drinking flavored water, to watching the Olympics. The post that really caught my eye was talking about the dangers of drinking flavored water. I thought this was interesting because I am literally OBSESSED with flavored waters (black cherry to be exact:))! In this blog there was an excerpt from the motivation and emotion book that stated how much flavored water can be dangerous because people could exceed the right amount of water that should be drank in a given day, which could result in some real problems, including death (crazy!). The statement said “a sweet taste offers a high incentive to value for drinking, and human beings drink excessively and sometimes consume dangerous amounts.” This relates to me because even though I do not mind drinking normal water, flavored water tastes so much better to me, and now I am thinking about it, I drink flavored water someone excessively. I also thought this article was interesting because in most people’s minds water is completely harmless (which honestly it is if you drink the normal amount), but to hear and see how water can be “deadly” is very bizarre! I guess I will be now watching the amount of flavored water I consume every day.
1) The first topic that caught my interest is the topic of body modification. I took behavior modification and so i find this topic interesting. I am also using my Behavior Modification techniques to modify my body towards being healthier. I particularly enjoyed the article about the actress who started in precious and about how people will over look her talent just because she is obese. I also was reading the topic of the school that requires your BMI to be thirty. i have mixed feelings about this, I like to idea of having that motivation but I don't like the idea that it could cause problems mentally for students like body image issues.
2) The second topic I found interesting is the dysfunctional/maladaptive behavior. I am curious as to what these individuals do and mostly why this people do these things. This is the essential part of motivation. What causes this maladaptive behavior. The post about motivation to the extreme made me curious. That is a good example about what i am curious about. Why did this women feel the need to do this and what kept her behaviors persisting.
3)The final topic i found interesting is the topic of art. I love to draw and the article about the protest for arts funding surprised me. I have always detested that lawmakers are cutting budgets for arts education when clearly the data shows that arts are important to keeping kids in school and helping them do better.
The topic i would like to discuss in more detail is Body Modification. With anorexia a big of a problem as it is I would have hoped that it would have been more publicized and better understood. In this society we value our looks and especially our weights. Things like magazines and TV shows are only furthering the problem of these eating disorders.
1) The first topic that I read about was why people run marathons. I could kind of relate to this topic because I ran cross country and long distance track in high school. Marathons obviously involve way more running than both of them but they are relatable. I like how the article talked about why people have different reasons to run a marathon. To me, intrinsic motivation seems to be the best kind of motivation when it comes to a marathon because you have to be very dedicated to finish. The extrinsic reasons for running a marathon are good and everything, but motivation from within is the best kind. I find the part about people running marathons for religious reasons to be surprising. I had never heard of that before until now.
2)The second topic that I read about was the article on The Buried Life. I am very familiar with this show because a couple of buddies and I would watch it whenever it would come on and we would discuss what our goals in life are. I haven't really come up with a bucket list in life but I have some ideas on what would be on it. Right now I am not motivated enough to do any of them now but I am hoping one day to do a lot of them. These four friends want to do everything on their list in a very short amount of time and I don't know if that is a good idea. I would not want to do all of my list at one time because once you have completed it what else is there to look forward too. These four guys are obviously very motivated to do their list though.
3)The third topic I read about that I found interesting was the one about Batman. I found this one interesting because I have seen the movies and I am familiar with the storyline. I liked this article because it talked about who the real man was, Batman/ Bruce Wayne. The documentary sounds very interesting and I may have to watch it sometime. When watching the movies, I want to think that the real identity of him is Batman and not Wayne. Bruce Wayne is kind of portrayed as a jerk figure in the movies and Batman is obviously portrayed as a hero. I never thought about it before but Batman is a very complex psychological character.
The article that I would like to go more in depth with is the one about the motivation of athletes. Because I am a huge sports fan, I find anything that relates to it to be very entertaining. I've always wondered what separates the good athletes from the great ones. The reason for this is because of motivation. Some athletes are more motivated than others to be above and beyond as good as they can be. Just look in the professional ranks. There are some players in these leagues that have the talent to be the best in their respective league. They might be able to jump higher, run faster, or throw a ball further but that does not mean that they will pan out. I also found the part where it talked about why some males run and why females run. I would think that anybody running to stay in shape is not as good of a motivation as being competitive when you are a professional. Competitiveness and motivation are very similar. To be as competivive as you want to be, you must be very motivated.
1) I read a blog about the MTV show “The Buried Life”. The writer of the blog suggested that the men in the show were not motivated to do the items on their list so that they can simply say they have done that, but rather they have a need to achieve. Being a fan of the show myself, I agree. Though it is a TV show, and there is the possibility of deception, it truly seems that the stars of the show actually care about helping other people along their journey of accomplishing everything on their list.
2) Next I read the article “Do You Enjoy Fear?” It discussed possible reasons for why people enjoy watching scary movies. This interested me because my best friend loves watching scary movies and actually gets irritated when I refuse to watch them with her. She is able to watch them right before bed and have no problem sleeping, where as I can watch simply a trailer for a scary movie hours before bed and have bad dreams. Of the possible reasons suggested for why people enjoy those types of movies, I bought most into the idea that it is because they received both positive and negative emotions simultaneously. The negative emotion would be the fear itself and the positive emotion would be happiness that they got scared.
3) The article “Why Women Love Gay Men” caught my attention because my roommate always says she wants a gay best friend. The blog seems to suggest that women have fun with gay men is because their brains are actually very similar. They are much more able to relate to each other because of this. Also, certain topics are not so sensitive as they would be with a straight man.
For reasons unknown to me, I am very interested in emotions. After watching the show “Lie to Me” which is based on Paul Ekman, a famous facial expression expert, my interest peaked in the area. I would like to go more in depth about a blog I read in the Facial Expressions category about a woman with a disease called Moebious Syndrome. They syndrome makes her unable to move her face and even blink her eyes! Incapable of expressing any emotions by using their faces, the woman and other individuals with Moebious Syndrome have learned to express their feelings using gestures and body positions. The blog suggested that people suffering from Moebious Syndrome might actually be able to read others’ emotions more easily because they can recognize the body positions and gestures as well as the facial expressions. Reading about the disease made me think about what I would do if I met someone with Moebious Sydnrome, and having no knowledge of their disease, began to speak with them and observed no facial expressions.
There was a blog post titled Does football lead to teen alcohol consumption that I found to be interesting. The main point of the post was that being involved in a contact sport does not lead to the behavior of teen drinking. I found this article to be interesting because in my high school, there was a strict policy on athletes and alcohol consumption and I didn’t understand why that didn’t apply to the entire school body and supposedly it was due to the stereotypes placed on athletes.
Another post that I found interesting was one about flash mobs. I found this to be interesting because it was about how psychologists and police are paying more attention to flash mobs. Curfews have started to be enforced and studies done on people who participate in flash mobs and I don’t understand the big deal. All it is to me is a bunch of people working together and having a little fun but evidently to others it is a much more serious thing.
The post that I found the most interesting was Men are from Mars in the Sex and Mating Behaviors category. We’ve all heard this phrase before and this post criticizes the basic details of the book by John Gray. In the book Gray talks about the basic outline for how a woman should communicate with a man. I could tell after reading the original post that the writer was a female because I understood the basic details of the book, as did someone who commented. The book was not meant to be sexist its just that the way it was phrased was a little strange. When the author of the book said that women should only speak for 2 minutes, he did not mean only talk for 2 minutes. What he meant to say was give the man some time to chime into the conversation. As a man I know that women who don’t stop talking can be a little overwhelming. Give us a little time to register what has been said so it doesn’t just fly out the other ear. Another guideline of Gray’s book was to provide few, if any, details. The comment by Brett summed that up pretty well. In his comment he provided an example of a friend who had a baby. His female friend asked him how much the baby weighed, the time of birth, and every other little detail and the man replied, “I think they named her Sophie”. Don’t expect men to know or care about all the details because that just isn’t something that we think about too much. I found this post to be the most interesting because it really shows how much men and women differ and how some things can be translated differently to the other sex.
1) The first topic that I found interesting was a post under the category of culture. It was the post involving children blaming their parents for their hardships in life and how that is not a productive way of dealing with these problems. I think that this is a strong message to take away because many individuals look for a scape goat or may carry much pity for themselves, but it truly is not healthy, nor productive. Another interesting point brought up was that overprotective parents could harbor social phobias within their children. It is something to me that seems very obvious. I think more parents now are so worried about protecting their children from everything that they are not allowing their children to actually experience life.
2) The second topic I read was under the category, personality. It was about baby names and their meaning. I have always found names to be intriguing because my sister and I both were given not so common names at the time we were born. My name is Mara; I haven’t run across too many others in my life with the same name. My mom wanted my name to be something unique that wouldn’t be heard every day. Many of my friends have common names that I even have multiple friends with the same name. It is interesting to think that the parents when naming them may have a different motivation to name them the name that they did. I also learned in social psychology that names could actually have an affect on other individuals’ judgment of that one person.
3) The final article that I will go into more depth about was found under evolution. It focuses on our hidden bias with out-groups. It uses the social identity theory to support the idea that we somehow fear others that are not like ourselves. Through evolution, it is believed that we wanted our genes to be passed on to our offspring. To do this we needed a mate who is also similar to us, which would form in-groups. It is theorized that all of us are born with a genetic preference or bias toward our in-group. A psychologist formed a test called the IAT that compares to concepts, people, etc. and pairs them with negative and positive words. Through the use of timing the subjects’ response, they can gauge what your preference is. I experimented with the website, which is (The Implicit Association Test). I did the test that focused on presidents. I don’t believe it truly picked my preference, but instead pointed out my inability to switch to a new task after doing a different one previously for a long amount of time. It was interesting though and I would suggest others to try it out for themselves.
1) The first category I read was about depression. I enjoyed reading about depression because I can't believe how common it is in today's world. It's quite sad to think about, because they're many reasons why adolescents can fall into depression.This article states that girls have a higher chance of becoming depressed. Every girl can relate to how difficult it is to manage and get used to our changing bodies and hormones but some people do not deal well with change. There are also many factors adolescents can not control such as; divorce, death and moving. These factors alone can be very difficult to go through.
2) The second topic I chose to read about was self esteem. I thought after reading about depression I would read about self esteem because to me, I believe they are related. The article I really enjoyed reading was an article about body image. Most women have a negative body image about themselves, and I'm not the exception. I wish our society wasn't so into thinness being cute because being too thin is very unhealthy. Even the most confident women have issues with self esteem. A lot of it has to do with our body image and that effects us in other parts of our life as well. I like how the author of this article compares her least favorite body part to a relationship. She stated how she tried to educate it, embrace it and like most women, erase it. I found that to be pretty amusing. Although, most people have body image problems, I wish we could all feel more comfortable in our own skin.
3)My third article I read was called dating behaviors. I found this very interesting to me because I just recently started dating someone. A few of these articles were funny but there was one that stuck out to me and it was talking about Sandra Bullock. It talked about how she thought Jesse James was someone he really wasn't. At least that's how I saw this article. Jesse was married to a women in the porn industry and to me that just means I would never want to be in a relationship with him but Sandra must of saw something different. This article really focuses on Jesse's past and all the signs Sandra should have seen but what if she didn't know anything about his past? What if he lied to her about his past? There are many things that would go wrong and especially if you want to trust the words coming out of your significant others mouth. Dating can be a very awkward thing and at the beginning you might not share everything about your past so there are many reasons why she might not have seen this coming. I feel bad for her but it goes both ways. Cheating is part of our society.
The article I want to focus on the most was part of the depression articles that I read. I learned something in this article that I have never heard of before. I had no idea that doctors are using anesthesia in some depression patients. It sounds like it is a very new discovery and this is a very new concept to me as well. Anesthesia is only used in patients who didn't respond to any of the other treatments of depression. They have said that it is healthy if used in moderation so I feel like patients shouldn't get used to this because they are still learning the long term effects. One part the was very interesting to me was that patients get immediate results. Their signs and symptoms of depression go away right away. That is very relieving for them as they have tried numerous treatments and have failed all of them. I think, although,this anesthesia treatment might not be here forever, this is a good step to find other treatments that could help the more severe cases of depression.
1) I started off by looking at the Body Modification category with an article about weight and Hollywood. This article focused on actress Gabourey Sidibe, who recently starred in the film "Precious." It is unfortunate that a person's weight determines what kind of roles he or she gets in movies. I understand what is meant by this but it discriminates against so many people. Hollywood encourages society to believe in their "movie magic" but doesn't actually portray reality a lot of the time.
2) Under Biology, I found an article discussing Kathleen Bogart and her life with Moebious. I have never heard of this disorder before but it is interesting to think about . Kathleen has partial facial paralysis, meaning she can blink her eyes and form a slight smile, but other than that, her facial muscles don't move. I can't imagine the struggles she went through learning how to identify expressions on others AND how to reciprocate the expression back in another way. Even after mastering it, someone unknown to the disease may be thrown off or be uncomfortable because they can't see any recognition of emotion on Kathleen's face. This topic I find astounding and wouldn't mind doing more research on and see how they compensate for the lack of muscle movement.
3) The last topic I found was Color Assignment. This website discussed why people choose certain colors and what emotions are associated with those colors. This was interesting to me because I have always enjoyed decorating and putting together color combos. One of my high school art teachers explained the meaning of each color. For example, green is relaxing and welcoming, red tends to make a person anxious or irritated, yellow is happiness and so on. Color Assignment gives in depth information on colors and emotions and presents them in a very reader-friendly way.
In more depth topic: I would like to expand upon the article discussing moebious. This is a neurological disorder causing facial paralysis. What I found extremely intriguing was that those diagnosed with this disorder are still able to interpret other expressions. Researchers have done studies trying to answer why this happens and experts say that a large part of it is because of social interactions and facial mimicry. Another part of it suggests that the brain acts in another way or compensate to recognize expressions. I think this is a start to helping what Bogart called, "social awkwardness" when others don't know how to react. I am interested to see what we learn about in this class that will relate with this situation.
1. The first topic that caught my attention was under the mood category of emotion. The blog post talked about how we can stop thinking negatively and start thinking positively. This was interesting to me because it closely resembles meditation practices; that you must be aware of your thoughts, then either change or dismiss the. The point here is to recognize that we are thinking negatively, then change our thinking to something more positive in nature, thus reinforcing the positive thinking. Something that you said in class also came up in this blog; that we must learn and accept our own failures in order to succeed.
2. Another topic I sought out was under the music category. The blog on the power of music was very inspiring for me. I love to listen to music while studying, exercising, and even sleeping. But after reading this i learned that different music is better in different situations. Such as for studying, it's best to listen to classical music (which i'll admit i'm not listening to) because it helps focus your attention more on the work by using both sides of the brain.
3. The last topic I'd like to mention that I found interesting was under the category of Drug and Alcohol use. The blog talked about the effects MDMA, or ecstasy, has on the brain. I didn't know much about this drug before reading this blog post, but after reading it left me with more questions. First it describes how ecstasy used to be used as a form of treatment before becoming a category 1 drug. They listed the many effects of the drug, such as feeling happy, reduced anxiety, empathy, and a sense of wellbeing. Then, it states that extended use is harmful because it depletes the serotonin in the brain creating the "hangover" affect, which may cause depression and/or dependence. The question asked was why people would want to take this drug knowing the consequences. I have the same question, but also, if a person knowing the positive effects and consequences and also suffering from anxiety and depression was suddenly handed this drug from a friend, the motivation seems clear on why they would take the pill. Vs a person who doesn't suffer from depression, its clear their motivation for not taking the pill.
The article I would like to go into more detail about, is one I found under the neurology category titled "Brain Surgery Boosts Spirituality". I found this article interesting because religion and spirituality has been perceived by either you believe or you don't. Scientists studied patients brains who underwent surgery to remove brain tumors in the parietal or frontal lobes. They found that patients with lesions on their parietal lobe had a greater self-transcendence compared to the patients who had lesions in their frontal lobe. Specifically, in the left inferior parietal lobe and the right angular gyrus, which isn't surprising it would be there since those areas control how we perceive our bodies in relation to the spatial world. Although, their findings surprised me that they could pinpoint the exact location of spirituality in our brains. It seems it would have to take workings of other areas to truly grasp it. Everyone has this, so how come some people tap into it better than others is my main question. At the end of the article, they stated that this study has opened the door to further investigation on this topic, and i cannot wait to learn more about this.
When I began to look at the categories to peruse my options I found myself struggling to pick only 3 that sounded interesting because motivation and emotion is the profession I'm looking to pursue. As a sport psychology major I am focused intently on the mental aspect of the game. Many different studies have been done entertaining the idea of music's effect on sports and so the first area I looked into was the music section. Even though most of the articles were more focused on the relaxation side of music I found it very useful for study advice. In particular the article discussing the baroque music that achieved a 60 beat per minute count. It intrigued me that this music enticed both the left and right side of the brain. I figured if it could help you study and think clearer why couldn't it help you think about your game plan as well. I found my connection to sports. Next I obviously looked into the sports section and found mostly things I was already aware of as I do a lot of reading to keep updated on the new developments in technique and research. However, an interesting point that was made in an article that I had recently heard in a sports psychology class only a week ago was this; Most professional athletes don't play their sport because it is extremely fun for them. This sounds so wierd but, but does hold some truth to it. Many athletes are pushed through pain, stress, and defeat, not fun things. Their love of competition or teamwork is something that drives them to pursue glory. For my last set of articles I decided to take the road I don't usually travel like sports psychology and I went down the relationship and dating road. I was very intrigued at the articles I found about approaching someone to start a conversation or an article that defined ten bullet points to check off when evaluating a relationship you are in. Being in a relationship myself I carefully read the checkpoint list and thought about their relativity to my own relationship and I was very pleased to find that I checked out on all ten points. I find these articles more of a "just for fun" read and they lived up. All in all these categories proved helpful to me and I was thoroughly impressed with the work done and look forward to creating my own in the near future.
1. The first topic I found interesting was under the stress category. This blog post was about Type A personalities and how it can affect ones mental and physical health. This post caught my eye because I am a Type A personality. People with this type of personality are always in a rush, impatient, anger easily, talk fast and just always thinking there is something to get done. This post mentions that Type A's are usually always stressed on some level, that they usually put on themselves, but this excessive stress can cause health problems as well as sleeping and anxiety/OCD problems.
2. The second post that I found to be interesting and applicable to my life was found in none other than the procrastinator category. This post was about how to beat procrastination. Being a college kid who is working two jobs and still wants a social life, procrastination tends to be an everyday war. This post talks about a website that has three steps to help beat procrastination. One is to recognize you procrastinate. Two is to figure out why you are really procrastinating, are you overwhelmed, disorganized, is the task really hard? or are you a perfectionist? The third step is to motivate yourself, make yourself more organized, use a planner, lists etc. The most important thing for me to do is to do the hardest tasks first. Since those are the most stressful (usually) doing them first and getting them out of the way can help reduce stress and prcrastination with the rest of homework
3. The third topic that grabbed my attention was under the obesity category. This post talked about how many women have an inner fear of getting fat and tend to react to overweight women worse than men. This statement shocked me at first, but than when I thought about it I understood more. Women are more critical of themselves and we can be catty and judgmental of others as well.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/feel-eat/story?id=4387456
The above link is under the diet category and is called "You Feel What You Eat, Certain Foods may Have Driect Impact on Emotional State" I chose to go into detail about this post because the popular trend is for women to diet and to be such a small skinny size. This article talks about how to keep a balanced diet and what is involved in one. The main point to the article was that while your mood affects what you eat, what you eat definitly affects your mood. By eating greasy, fatty foods it can make one feel worse than before. I found this article and post to be the most interesting to me because mood disorders and eating disorders are very prevelent in our society today. Mood can be affected by teh foods you eat. Who knew you could have some control over what types of food you eat?
Throughout browsing the categories I looked into Exercise. This first sparked my interest because I am one of those crazy people who love to exercise! I wanted to see if I could learn anything new and exciting to keep me motivated! I found the blog about 7 ways to make working out interesting because I didn’t think that coffee beforehand would be good for people. I also enjoy working out during the late evenings and it said that it is best to work out in the morning, opps! I do enjoy listening to music while working out and instead of a breath mint I usually chew mint gum. I tried to take the quiz to see what workout color I am, but the results wouldn’t show up for me. I’m not pregnant now but I hope one day to start a family so I also enjoyed the article on working out while pregnant. Since I am in relatively good shape now it will be easier to exercise once I become pregnant. And I need to look into yoga and more walking instead of intense workouts I do now so I don’t put stress on the baby inside of me when that day comes.
After learning more about exercise I decided to check out the dieting category because I consider myself wonderful at working out, but I eat all the time! So basically I just work out so I can eat all that I want. If I ever wanted to lose weight I would have to try to diet. Diet combined with exercise is the way to lose weight and I have the exercise part down. I found some of the same information I already knew; how I should eat whole grain and wheat bread instead of white. I need to eat more fruits and veggies. This would take some self-control for me because those things aren’t necessarily my favorite. But I did find out what Sensa is, I always see commercials for it and have always wanted to know what it does. It is something that a person sprinkles on their food and it makes it lose its flavor in hopes that the person will not enjoy the food as much so they limit their eating. It seems to be successful for the most part but I love the taste of food so much I don’t think I could do that!
The last thing I looked into was the money category, because being a very budgeted college student I want to gain some insight. I mainly found out that I need to be positive and know that if I work hard things will work out for me and the money will come. But the one blog I did enjoy reading was that Smart Women Marry for Money. The title made me giggle. But the message was very true, that marriage is like a cooperation. Many divorces do happen today because of added stress at home because of limited funds. It is sad but true that sometimes having money can elevate stress. This blog said that women look for a man with a plan, aligned financial values, and a man motivated by money to create the life they want. Sad but true, I do believe this happens a lot more than we think, women marry for money not love because it’s the easier life route.
The first topic I looked under was Body Modification. It seems to me that most people, in some way or another, are looking to modify their bodies regularly. This could be through tattooing and piercing, hair cut or color changes, or things like trying to change one's silhouette. The post that caught my attention most, and the one I'm choosing to focus more on, was "Weight and hollywood".
I loved the movie Precious. It was phenomenal and Gabourey Sidibe was outstanding. Her character development was amazing, and I would thoroughly enjoy seeing her in more movies. But, as the post said, it's going to be very hard for her to find roles in mainstream films. Overweight actors and actresses do find roles, but attention is drawn to the fact that the character is heavyset. It seems impossible for Hollywood to produce many movies where the main character looks different than your average movie star without making a huge fuss about it. In the real world, people come in all sorts of sizes, but media world is full of tiny people. Overweight people looking for a place in that world have to work extra and be even more motivated to put the effort in to prove that they're just as valuable regardless of their size. Gabourey was clearly motivated to do her best for the movie, because that kind of work doesn't come from somebody who isn't trying as hard as they can.
I also read the post "Motivation in High Risk Sports" in the personality section. I love rock climbing, particularly lead climbing, where falling means you'll drop anywhere from a few feet to 15 feet. It's terrifying, but the rush is addicting. However, I never would have classified it as an extreme sport. Same goes for skiing and kayaking. They're just fun for me, and I agree with the article that my major motivation is to master them. They're hard, so I want to become good at them. Outside of my sports, I'm generally an extremely cautious person. I'm scared of everything: spiders, sudden loud noises, centipedes, heights, deep water, the list goes on. But put me on a rock face and I'll stick my hand right into a spider web if it's the only good hand hold I can reach. Mastering the climb takes precedence, and I'll have time later on the ground to freak out about the bugs. My motivation to improve has more energy than my motivation to avoid getting a little bloody and coming in contact with creepy-crawlies.
The final topic I read about was crime, since I'm taking a criminology class this semester. The post I read most into was the "Teens and Digital Disrespect" entry. It creeps me out that the more ways we invent to communicate, the more ways people have to hurt each other. I like to think that I'm not inherently mean or vicious, so it's really hard for me to understand what would drive somebody to be so horrible to somebody else in every way they can. Texting, internet bullying, face-to-face bullying, I just don't get it. I'm hoping that we'll learn a little about what motivates people to hurt each other. I keep hearing that "the anonymity of the Internet/texting/etc" can help to bring out the worst in people, but I hope to learn whether that's really true.
Explore
I looked under addiction first because I personally find this behavior interesting and I don’t really understand how it works because I take the view if you want to quit something just do it and I don’t really understand the whole I need steps or a support group thing. Once I started looking through it however it not only talked about alcohol or smoking (which I thought were the main ones) but it talked about caffeine and studies done under the influence of it and how it can affect a person. I found this interesting because I’m a big coffie drinker and even though I don’t think of it as my addiction I would never give it up.
Another topic I looked under was health and I found the Placebo blog interesting because they talked about a study done on “mind-set matters”. In this study two groups got the same amount of exercise and did the same amount of work throughout the day and the “placebo” group was constantly told they were getting so much exercise and that they were healthy and at the end of the trial period they were. They had lost weight, had less percent body fat and had even decreased their blood pressure levels. I found it amazing that just by positive thinking a person can physically change and be healthier.
My favorite article or the most interesting to me was the Kissing=FUN!!! blog. I found it under finding the perfect mate tab and then scrolling down. It talked about how the hormone levels are affected during kissing and how being in a long term relationship can decrease stress because the cortisol(stress hormone) levels decrease with time with regular kissing. It also talked about how men during French kissing can tell how fertile a woman is by how much estrogen is in her saliva, even though this is all being done in the subconscious through evolution. Men also experience a hormone called oxytocin which is a bonding hormone so I guess if you kiss your man a lot he’ll like you more or stick around longer. I found this odd and funny, yet strangely it makes sense and is probably true.
The first topic I chose to look at was “Work”. I found a blog on extrinsic motivation at work. It provided a link to an article that went in depth into ways of extrinsically motivating employees in the work place. The three main ideas in extrinsic motivation included the following; a bonus plan, opportunity for growth, and recognition. I’m currently a sales lead at a clothing store so I found these tips to be very relatable and beneficial. Motivation is always something our management team is working on. We have a bonus plan set up by corporate but sometimes that just isn’t enough. Opportunity for growth is constantly being reminded to the girls. Becoming a sales lead is what many of our consultants strive for. Through coaching and recognition (for example, a shout out in our communication binder) the girls improve their skills daily.
The second topic I looked at was Happiness. I find myself to be a pretty happy and upbeat person the majority of the time. However I have those days where it just seems nothing is going right. The blog “8 Things you need to stop doing to be Happy,” gave some awesome tips for those down days. The advice given included; doubting yourself, looking for answers, procrastinating, blaming someone else, judging others, waiting to live, needing reasons to be happy, and caring what others think. I think waiting to live was the statement that hit me the most. I see myself and my other peers in college constantly stressing about balancing work, school, and a social life. Now is the time for all of us to be forming relationships and making the most of every day. I myself am guilty of turning down plans just because I have to work the next day. Learning to balance it all is a tough job, but something that will be rewarding now and in the future.
The third topic I looked at was “Decision Making.” As a college student I am constantly making huge life decision all the time. Planning on graduate school in the near future is my current issue with “decision making.” I looked in depth at the blog titled “Why your Goals are not Working.” Planning ahead is my middle name. I want to know what I’m going to be doing in June when it’s only January. Naturally goal setting is something I do literally every day. Unfortunately a lot of these goals are very long term or just unattainable because I set too high of standards. The article provided gave some great tips on setting reachable, realistic goals. According to the article 80% of the reasons why goals are not being met come from inside the person. It’s important to focus on one area or one goal at a time. Overwhelming yourself with a total life change is not going to get you very far. Set smaller goals with a six month time period. Be realistic about goals; don’t choose goals that are setting the stage for failure and then disappointment. Be responsible for the goals you set. Treat them as though they are a commitment to a relationship. If you aren’t constantly working on it and giving it attention the goal will eventually be out of site. Remember that challenges help us develop and become a better person.
The first article I read was the blog on Hope. Hope is such an interesting motivator and emotion that people cling onto in their most desperate times of need. Hope drives people to try to succeed and also tells people that things can happen, even when you least expect it. In my opinion, Hope is an extension of faith. When people have nothing to believe in anymore, they often cling to their God. And if people don't believe in a god, then they often cling to hope. Either way, people often cling to things that they can not see when they don't know what else can help them in their darkest hours. Personally I am a religious person and often times when people talk about hope in the religious community people often say "put your hope in Jesus" or "Jesus is my hope." I think that hope and religious are pretty interchangeable depending on your personal belief system.
The second blog I found interesting was "The 5 things that will improve your happiness." It seems that people are always trying to find that next thing that makes then happy. I am believer that money can not buy happiness, this blog supports my particular views on happiness. I think the little things in life make us happy, and all too often people over look the special things that make life so grand. 1. Be grateful 2. Be optimistic 3. Count your blessings 4. Use your strengths 5. Commit acts of kindness -these five things can truly make you happy if you just acknowledge them. Simply counting your blessing and appreciating the things that you have can really make someone happy with the life they live. I really enjoyed reading this blog and think that it totally holds true.
Lastly, the blog I found the most interesting to read was Teens and Digital Disrespect. While looking over this blog, it reminded me of a Lifetime movie I watched last weekend. And as silly as Lifetime movie can be, they hold some pretty sad truth to them. The movie I watched was called "Sexting in Suburbia" and it was all about digital harassment through text messaging and the internet. A high school girl sent a naked picture to her boyfriend and one of her friends found it on his phone. Out of Jealousy she sent it to someone else and it spend like wildfire. Unfortunately, often times in schools harassment is due to jealousy and kids are just plan mean these days. The girl in this movie ended up killing herself because she lost her friends, her place on her sports team, and her scholarship to college. As much as it as her fault for spending the picture of herself, it was truly awful how the kids in her school harassed her. The saddest part about all of it was that since the bullying was done on the computer, the kids made fake names and accounts to doing the bullying so no one got in trouble for it. The anonymity of the internet, pre-paid cell phones, and other miscellaneous technology makes it impossible to even catch the people hurting others. Unfortunately, parents are sometimes involved in the cruelty that occurs.
1) The first topic I chose to look at was “Work”. I found a blog on extrinsic motivation at work. It provided a link to an article that went in depth into ways of extrinsically motivating employees in the work place. The three main ideas in extrinsic motivation included the following; a bonus plan, opportunity for growth, and recognition. I’m currently a sales lead at a clothing store so I found these tips to be very relatable and beneficial. Motivation is always something our management team is working on. We have a bonus plan set up by corporate but sometimes that just isn’t enough. Opportunity for growth is constantly being reminded to the girls. Becoming a sales lead is what many of our consultants strive for. Through coaching and recognition (for example, a shout out in our communication binder) the girls improve their skills daily.
2) The second topic I looked at was Happiness. I find myself to be a pretty happy and upbeat person the majority of the time. However I have those days where it just seems nothing is going right. The blog “8 Things you need to stop doing to be Happy,” gave some awesome tips for those down days. The advice given included; doubting yourself, looking for answers, procrastinating, blaming someone else, judging others, waiting to live, needing reasons to be happy, and caring what others think. I think waiting to live was the statement that hit me the most. I see myself and my other peers in college constantly stressing about balancing work, school, and a social life. Now is the time for all of us to be forming relationships and making the most of every day. I myself am guilty of turning down plans just because I have to work the next day. Learning to balance it all is a tough job, but something that will be rewarding now and in the future.
3) The third topic I looked at was “Decision Making.” As a college student I am constantly making huge life decision all the time. Planning on graduate school in the near future is my current issue with “decision making.” I looked in depth at the blog titled “Why your Goals are not Working.” Planning ahead is my middle name. I want to know what I’m going to be doing in June when it’s only January. Naturally goal setting is something I do literally every day. Unfortunately a lot of these goals are very long term or just unattainable because I set too high of standards. The article provided gave some great tips on setting reachable, realistic goals. According to the article 80% of the reasons why goals are not being met come from inside the person. It’s important to focus on one area or one goal at a time. Overwhelming yourself with a total life change is not going to get you very far. Set smaller goals with a six month time period. Be realistic about goals; don’t choose goals that are setting the stage for failure and then disappointment. Be responsible for the goals you set. Treat them as though they are a commitment to a relationship. If you aren’t constantly working on it and giving it attention the goal will eventually be out of site. Remember that challenges help us develop and become a better person.
The first category I looked at was Biology, because I'm a biology major I thought I would find an interesting blog related to the health field. The blog that I found to be most interesting was about an article called "Expressing Emotion without Facial Expressions". This was a very good blog that talked about a woman with Moebious Syndrome. This is a rare disorder in which the woman had no control over her facial muscles. She had no ability to display her emotions to other people through facial expression. This woman adapted by learning different ways to express her emotions with her body gestures and the tone of her voice. Communication with others would be quite difficult, especially when they aren't used to being around someone with Moebious Syndrome. I couldn't imagine the struggles she has had to face in her life. The things most people take for granted, she hasn't had the luxury to have.
The second category that I looked into was sports. There were a few interesting blogs, but the one that I found most interesting was the one covering the article "When Does Motivation Outweigh Emotion". This was a moving article about a woman who lost her mother two days before she was supposed to compete in the Olympics for ice skating. She still competed and did very well. The blog had mentioned being motivated enough to temporarily overcome your emotions. I thought that was a very interesting concept. It wasn't that she wasn't upset about losing her mom, but that she had set out to do something, and I'm sure her mother would have wanted her to still compete. I will think of this article next time I don't feel like going to taekwondo and hapkido. My motivation should surely be stronger than my desire to go home and sleep.
The next category that I found interesting was Health. There were some very good blogs, and with me being in the health field I can always use more insight. The blog that I really could relate to was about the article called "Exercising on Work Days". I can definitely relate to this article, because I always feel better when I exercise during the day. I definitely agree that it makes people happier, more productive, and has both physical and mental benefits.
The final topic I found was under the category of emotions. Love...how can I resist. The blog that I found the most interesting was about the article "Is He The One? 10 Signs To Tell If He's Mr. Right". This was a blog that talked about the ten things people should look for in finding their perfect match. Some of the items include that they get along with your family and your friends like him. Also, if he listens to you and shares the same values as you and is trustworthy. The fifth item listed was that he is someone you would want to be friends with. I like this because when I ask people who have been married for 30 years or longer how they have managed to stay married for so long, the main thing that I hear is "He's my best friend." The seventh item on the list is that he makes you feel special. While some people may think this sounds silly or unimportant I truly believe this is a very important value to look for in a man. The world may think you are just another girl, but your man should think that you're one in a million. Why else is he with you? Another sign listed was that he is trustworthy and willing to talk about the future. I believe that these are also very important. The final sign they listed was that he loves you for who you are. While I do agree that these signs are important, I don't think that these are the only signs or that if one of these are not the case in your relationship it's a deal breaker. Relationships are a lot of work, but I would like to think that if the two people truly do love eachother, they can make it work.
1) The first topic i looked at was addiction, and i found an article titled Driving Under the Influence of... Caffeine. This article caught my attention because i depend on caffeine to get me through my busy week, since i have classes everyday, and also work every night. Since i drink a lot of Mtn. Dew and take medication for common aches, pains and the occasional headache that have caffeine in them. The article talked about a man who had actually hit 2 students on the campus of Washington University while he was all "wired" on too much caffeine. The article said that too much caffeine can have the same effect on you as too much alcohol, when it comes to operating a vehicle. I wonder how much caffeine i actually consume in a given day, especially when i make long road-trips.
2) The second topic i looked at was Drug and Alcohol Use, and i found an article that caught my eye because of prior research i have done for other classes. The article was MDMA's Effects on the Brain. This article was quite interesting because it provided me with some facts that were new to me even though i have done previous research on the subject. It said that before it was a schedule 1 Drug, MDMA was used in psychotherapy, couples therapy and to treat anxiety disorders as well as clinical depression. MDMA has incredible effects on the brain with just one or two pills. With such a low dosage, you might think that it would not produce a hangover. However, the excess release of the serotonin causes the brain to become depleted of key transmitters. This excess serotonin is what gives the user the "hangover" effects that they may even experience for several days after taking the drug.
3) The third topic i looked at was Music, and that is because music is a HUGE part of my life. I always have music playing no matter what i am doing. Even when i am sitting at my house watching TV, i still have music playing in the background. The article was titled The Power of Music and it talked about how listening to Baroque style music will activate both sides of your brain to maximize learning. I listen to all different genres of music when i study or do homework, but i have never listened to Baroque music. The article said that listening to music while studying does guarantee that you will remember the material better. Music stimulates the other side of your brain so that your attention and retention is better and more active. The article says that Baroque and Classical era music is best to listen to because the beats and rhythm is based on math. Makes sense to listen to music based on mathematical measure when studying, especially subjects such as math. The thing i found the most interesting was that in the 70's teenagers would bring raw eggs to concerts and by the end of the show they would have turned into hard boiled eggs because of the high shrill frequencies of the concert.
1.This first topic I read about focused on the importance of facial expressions. The article talked about something called Moebious syndrome. People affected with this condition are unable to move their faces, which results in no facial expression at all. What I found most interesting about this article was the approach the writer chose to take. Instead of talking about all the different facial expressions that are used in everyday conversation, they emphasized the importance of facial expressions by discussing what happens when they are not present.
2.The second article I read was in the crime category. The author of the article talked about a case involving an American woman who became willing to commit crimes as part of a Islamic extremists group. Her only connection with this group was interaction that took place over the internet. The main point of this article was asking the question why. Why was this woman willing to risk her freedom and her life for this group? I really enjoyed reading the author’s break down of most of the woman’s behaviors.
3. The third article I found interesting was called “Getting the Girl- the First Conversation”. I enjoyed this article because of the content but also because of the honesty of the writer. He lists five things to do/not do during the first conversation with a girl. As I read through them, I found that I agreed with his ideas. He made some very interesting and true points about the first conversation.
4.The article I found most interesting was a response to Jesse James cheating on Sandra Bullock. The first point the author makes is Jesse James’ past. Before marring Bullock, he had cheated in his previous marriage. He also seemed to have something of a record of hooking up with strippers and women in the adult film industry. The author makes it clear that she is not making negative judgments on those who work in that industry; she is just stating the fact. She also sites a textbook section about personality behavior. The author of the textbook talks about the different motivations people have for engaging in potentially negative behavior and what makes them continue the behavior. Since this article was written, Jesse James has once again been in a committed relationship, and has once again cheated. Based off the information given in this article and using Jesse James as a case study, I think it is safe to say, once a cheater, always a cheater.
'Love' was the first topic that I chose for my category. I take a high interest to 'dating' relationships and why or what causes people to cheat on their spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend because of seeing my parent's divorce along with other failed relationships. After skimming the article about Sandra Bullock's husband cheating on her with several women and paying others to not sue him for sexual harassment actually left me feeling bittersweet about the article because I as well have been cheated on and lied to be a once thought-to-be faithful companion leaving me confused, hurt, and embarrassed; I can also relate to Sandra Bullock and other women who have dealt with infidelity and know I am not alone when it comes to this type of situation. I also have been interested in researching if Humans are really capable of being with one mate for their entire life span or have a want/need to be with multiple partners.
The second topic I looked over was Evolution which attracted me because I have always questioned religion, not God. I have never found myself to fall into a religious category that I agree with a hundred percent and when I was given the information about Darwin and his discovery of Evolution; I was hooked. I have never considered myself a very religious person, but I also have never considered myself to not believe in God. I am not saying that Evolution should cross out religion, but it is the second biggest step into understanding why Humans are on Earth and where they come from scientifically. I think that Evolution holds the truth in our species' growth, and religion holds truth in our species' faith along with destiny.
The third topic I chose was Sexual Mating Behaviors. It is very rare for species to fall into the category of being able to feel pleasure from a mating selection; Humans being one of those species. Sex is a huge part of any human life as well as finding the right mate to carry offspring with. Our sexual mating behaviors have been discovered to be highly unique, intertwining with love and cheating as mentioned above. I have high hopes that someday I will be a Marriage Counselor and will be able to understand more of this area when dealing with infidelity or sexless relationship issues.
The most interesting topic I discovered was Anger. Anger is probably the most personal category that caught my eye because I have past experience with Anger issues. The article “Anger Management for Children” helped explain that the best time for anger management is during childhood. That way the child learns the correct capabilities of how to react to an angry situation and what can be done in place of a tantrum, fit, etc. I started dealing with anger when I was around eight years old until I was about thirteen years old, never having anger management care. According to the article that if a child learns to deal with his/her anger calmly, that they will have a more peaceful future series of reactions to difficult situations. Also, that if the parent ignores the child’s tantrums and fits, the child will learn to realize it is not the way to get attention. When my mom would ignore my anger, I used to think she did not care, but over time I learned that her ignoring my anger tantrums caused me to realize that they were ridiculous and I never felt better about my situation after reacting like so. I should have gone through therapy for my anger, but instead I taught myself at a pre-adolescent age to deal with my anger in a calmer way by counting down by ten or by screaming into a pillow until the moment passed. Today I now know how to deal with difficult situations in a more positive way and have never felt better. The article’s advice to parents states that they should ignore the anger, but always show love outside of that and acknowledge their child that they are not the only ones who can get angry. My mom did an excellent job of this for no matter how angry I ever became and how much blame I would put on her for something, I always knew I was loved no matter what.
The first topic that caught my eye way the post, “The Biggest Loser's Dirty Little Secret,” found under the exercise category. This got my attention because having watched a few episodes I had suspected the fluctuations in week to week weight might be due to dehydration and not eating. If some the contestants did not use these tactics, it would be hard to explain some of the weekly weight gains. If a contestant showed a weight gain even with diet and exercise all week they show would attempt to shrug it off as muscle gain. It is physically impossible to even gain one pound of muscle in one week let alone several pounds. The source of this article is a celebrity gossip rag so I would not say it is the most credible source.
The second article I read was “Does Football Lead to Teen Alcohol Consumption.” As suspected the title was misleading. The source article is also begging the question by asking if sports increase risk of drinking. Turns out studies have found the two are correlated with no evidence given of casual direction. Only post hoc conjecture is given by the experimenters and so-called experts.
The third article I read, “NBA’s Player’s Performance Enhancing Behavior: Chewing Straws?” was picked out of sheer curiosity and entertainment. I follow a lot of sports but had not heard of Caron Bulter having this problem or his being banned from chewing straws during games. It’s always interesting to see the odd things people get in the habit of doing and after a while the behavior becomes an addiction, even if there is no straightforward addictive quality about the behavior.
I choose the article, “Can Testosterone Therapy Make You Feel Younger?” and its corresponding link to a Mayo Clinic source to write in a little more detail. The article and the link covered the basics, explaining what testosterone is (a hormone) and that in men with age comes a steady decline in testosterone levels. The fact is that we have been able to artificially boast testosterone levels for quite some time. No controlled long term studies have been made yet. Lower levels of testosterone are linked several problems such as depression, increase in fat, loss of sexual function, and diminished energy and strength.
There has been a recent push in advertising to men to consult their doctor if they feel like they have severely diminished testosterone levels and given it the name “low T.” Of course boosting testosterone is not a cure all fountain of youth as with taking these medications comes side effects. Also, if you take artificial testosterone, your own bodily system stops producing it at the levels it once did because it recognizes the increased levels from outside sources and ceases production.
It is debatable that this is just a natural function of aging versus a medical issue that needs you to seek treatment. I think this is a issue that will be with us for some time as most men do not want to loss strength and energy with age. I am guessing as with most medications and treatments, some people with benefit from it in moderation, some with see no difference, and some will have side effects negating any perceived benefit.
The first topic which initially caught my attention was the section of Body Modification. I found it interesting that most people within these blogs seemed to relate back to their body as well at some point within their post. I do believe with many of the posts, I was quite interested in the “Women’s Internal Fear of Gaining Weight” blog. As a Psychology and Sociology double major my area of interest is the female fat body and the regaining of the word fat. I disagree with some of the ideas presented in the blog because thought research on the Fat Movement I advocate for acceptance of diverse body sizes. We are so motivated about being thin as women because we are constantly bombarded with images, ideas, and perceptions from other industries (dieting) that we need to be thin. While body modification has many different angles I really enjoyed reading about the blogs about changing the body size to follow culturally created social norms. There were other categories which also could be interrelated and correlated with the idea of body modification but I think the naming of this category intrigued me because I was not exactly sure what was going to be presented.
The second topic of interest was mate selection; the first article which I saw began with the statement that every girl has this dream to be married. I agree that the majority of women in the Midwest community have a strong desire to marry and have a family. Once again we have been socially constructed that the heterosexual marriage and children is the “correct way” to be happy, but as we know sexuality and gender are becoming more fluid concepts in the academic and personal communities. This initial thought process I have when I am reading other blogs seem to be the critical analysis and opposition of what other students are saying. I agree and have a vast majority of interest in what is being said but I like to think of the other side.
In the mate selection section I found “Kissing Fun” to be very interesting. I was not really aware of how much kissing meant in the physical sense. The levels of estrogen and testosterone can be measured through the swapping of saliva, was a new fact for me. I also agree for me personally the idea of engaging in sexual activity with a partner without kissing seems very weird and ‘impossible’ for me, kissing is very intimate for me. Many of us have also heard of “bad kissers” or have been the “bad kisser” and if we have experienced this it seems our desire to be with the person may decrease. Kissing seems like such a simple part of relationships but it seems this physical action between two people may develop more of a connection and help a relationship.
Love is the third topic which I found interesting blogs in. The three topics which I have chosen seem to correlate with each other. They all have to deal with the perception of oneself and then our motivation to become involved with a person we find attractive. Our emotions involved with mate selection and the person we desire may motivate us to act. “11 Items that Kill Intimacy” was the article and blog I found very interesting in the Love section. As I was reading through this I could not help but evaluate my own relationship with my partner and was internally trying to motivate myself not to have certain behaviors in our relationship. But then I think of the social context in relation to motivation and a relationship and these 11 items, being able to resist having a certain behavior may be more difficult in certain social situations.
The French “Oral sex” Anti-Smoking ad caught my attention by the picture alone; as I’m sure it did too many. I am a little torn between this on whether it is right or wrong. My first thought was that it is really disturbing and I can’t see how exactly it relates to smoking. This is very controversial, because many people could be offended by just looking at this picture. With that in mind their advertisement purpose could go both ways. It could have a positive or negative feedback. I’m sure it received both, however they are probably more concerned with the statement it made and if they think it made a difference. Their target audience is clearly teens, because they don’t seem to think that any other ad made a difference. What I would like to know is why they thought this one would make a difference. Looking at it from a teen’s perspective, I think they would just laugh about it and want to show their friends. I personally don’t think they would take it seriously and stop smoking. Some people may think that it is promoting sex and smoking. With the increase in sexual activity at younger ages, I don’t think the humor in this ad would be effective.
Learning to Live with Anorexia interests me because no matter how much I have read about this disorder I have never been able to understand it. I know that they have body dysmorphia, and that when they look in a mirror, they don’t see a bony 85 lb. girl, they see saggy skin and a bulging belly. The ironic part is that the only reason they have those issues is because of their disease, and the more they do it, the worse it gets. What disgusts me is that there are Pro Ana websites. These websites are filled with advice to those with eating disorders. Such as, tell your parents you are a vegetarian and that’s why you won’t eat meet. They are filled with ways to avoid people asking. They give you answers when someone asks you why you are so skinny. As if the media hasn’t fueled the need to be skinny enough. I truly feel bad for anyone that has this disorder, and I wish there was more we could do for them. It seems even the best treatment centers don’t have an answer.
I decided to go into detail about the topic “5 Things That Will Improve Your Happiness” because I have a personal testimony to add to it. When you look at these five things it seems like common sense, but if that were true why isn’t everyone happier? I chose to look further into this topic hoping to get some perspective because I deeply need to improve my happiness. I am currently taking 20 credits this semester in order to graduate in May because a UNI employee was reading my degree audit wrong and telling me false information. Of course I was mad and now that I am in the middle of organizing these 8 classes and an independent study, I feel even more enraged and exhausted. On top of my school situation, my fiancé is in Afghanistan and I am constantly worrying about his safety and when he will call me next. Yet I have been trying to use these 5 strategies to improve my happiness even before reading this article. I am extremely grateful that my fiancé came home for Christmas and that with our technology today I am able to communicate with him. In the article, it said that “count your blessings” doesn’t really count because it is too similar to be grateful, however, aren’t they all very similar? When using your strengths, such as humor to make others happy; isn’t that similar to committing acts of kindness. What is the definition of committing an act of kindness? From my personal experience in the past two weeks alone, I can say that I have done all of these strategies in some small way. As I said before I am grateful for the ability to communicate. What will get me through this semester is optimism, because I keep telling myself that the hard part will be over in May and I can finally start my life. Anyone that I have been in contact with, I have expressed my gratitude for their time. I think this falls under making others happy. Even if it is just to show them they are appreciated. The other day dropped their bag and everything came tumbling out, and yet I was the only one to help out of a room of 30 people or more. However, what I don’t understand is that this title is very deceptive. It states that these 5 strategies WILL make you happier, if that is true, why am I not happy?
The first thing I found interesting to read about was the article about structure procrastination. I jumped right away to reading this because I am a procrastinator. One of the most useful and truthful to me part of this article was that procrastinators usually are not couch potatoes who sit and do nothing. Instead we make a list of importance and do the most important things last. This is so me! I am never sitting around doing nothing, but instead of doing my homework, which is due in an hour, I am cleaning my kitchen. This needs to be done but not this second.
I also loved reading the article someone posted in the dieting section about SENSA. I had to laugh because one of my good friends I would say is addicted to weight loss products. She is always there to try the latest and greatest and whether or not it is working, the first few days she says this is the right one for me, I love it! I tell her all the time if she would just add exercise and portion control to her regimen she wouldn’t need to waste her money on these products, but she says she doesn’t have time to exercise, its just really her lack of motivation. She wants to lose the weight but not do the work. Just tonight, she told me she was going to try SENSA. Haha.
The third section I had fun reading about was the category on Love. I just recently got engaged and am in the middle of planning a wedding for September and it seems like since our engagement, its been like the beginning of our relationship all over, all excited and happy I enjoyed reading one of the posts about 10 ways to tell if he is the one. I am happy to say I could say yes to all of them, especially since were getting married in 7 months!
The article I read the most into was about how to put negative thoughts behind us. I have a friend that I love to death, but every time I talk to her she is complaining or talking negative about things that either happened so long ago that someone shouldn’t dwell on, or things that are completely out of her control that someone shouldn’t even talk about since nothing can be done. The article stated some good key facts. It said f you give attention to negative thoughts, they will get stronger and stronger. This is so true, people get so worked up just talking about these thoughts, and the more they talk, the more upset they get. In order to break the cycle, shift your focus to something positive. The article went on with 20 tips to overcome negative thoughts and there were a few I am going to tell her about. They include just reading positive quotations, and really working on never saying negative things in conversation, even if it is a positive conversation, cutting out the negativity completely. Smile more, it always helps. If you are having negative thoughts about someone, think something positive about them, there has to be something. Take a nap, read an inspiring book, or help someone. These are all things that make it tough to stay in a funky mood.
http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/01/23/tips-to-defeat-negative-thoughts/
The main category I chose to blog about was crime. The main reason it caught my eye is that crime is always around us but we are not always aware of it. Either we choose not to see it or we are so comfortable in our surroundings we don’t think anything will happen to us.
The first topic I read about was driving under the influence of caffeine. I chose to read this one mainly due to the fact that I myself drink some caffeine here and there to stay awake on those long nights of studying. With most of the American population drinking and running off of coffee and energy drinks, can one person drink so much as to get “intoxicated?” As I read more there is such a thing as “caffeine intoxication.” Were an individual can experience nervousness, excitement, or rambling flow of thought or speech. That got me thinking, after two regular sized energy drinks and one king size, I myself have experienced that excitement, rambling speech and, in more severe cases, a loss of sensation in my left arm. For most people they build up a tolerance and drinking 200mg of coffee a day is just bringing them back to a functional level.
The second topic that caught my eye was teens and texting. It’s a common and growing trend of communication that involves little to no effort. At the same time can be used to bully others in ways such as; “sexting, constant messaging, spying, digital disrespect, and cruelty.” With a simple click of a button, anyone can be a victim. Now that younger and younger kids are getting cell phones, it’s easy to start and spread information around that can cause teen violence, self-esteem and psychological problems.
The third topic was about joining gangs. What cause people to join in the first place? Without reading anything my first response was to get a sense of worth or to be part of something bigger. Everybody wants to be part of something to get noticed and show what they are made of. Some join to keep from getting bullied by the gangs themselves or for protection from the other gang, a typical human response of survival. Another reason is one many of us are either grateful for or might take advantage of, which is the sense of having a family. Joining a gang allows them to feel that close bond that a family might have of watching your back.
The last thing I read about and would like to know more on is flash mobs. An innocent act of performance art where people linked through social-networking such as texting would get together in public places and perform. Or at least that’s what it was like a few years ago, now its groups of rioting teens that brake into fights, injure onlookers that might be in their way and over all scaring city residents. What has caused their behavior to change to valance, some say it’s due to the fact that there just isn’t enough after school programs because of budget cuts. That doesn’t explain none mob related violent activity such as the game “Catch and Wreck,” were kids go and find a homeless person and beat them and then take their belongings. What is driving these kids to do this kind of behavior? Some people are asking if it’s more of a race and class thing, for most of the teenagers that take part are of a black origin and/or poor neighborhoods. So could it be an environmental issue? I’d like to find out what is driving their behavior and is the government really helping by forcing more laws?
The category that I choose to focus on was the Crime category. This has a lot of interest to me because I want to be a police officer after I graduate from here.
The first post I read was about student safety. I think this article was a good thing to bring up. It was very informative about how to find out about certain services offered here at UNI that will help ensure people are making it home safely in the dark, weather related announcements, and crime statistics. The more the public is informed about, then the greater their awareness about everyday dangers will be.
The second post I choose was about how people are joining gangs for love or because they're in fear of their lives. I will also choose to go more in depth with this topic. Basically, it all comes down to people missing something in their life. People often join gangs because they are missing the 'normal family' structure. The normal environment that we should all be able to grow up in offers us love and protection from outside harm but we all know this doesn't work out for everyone. So, the people that are missing love from others seek out to be 'affiliated' with something. This something turns out to be a gang in this case. Fear and anxiety are also motivators for someone to join a gang. People may live in environments where other gangs could be threatening them and they could decrease this danger with the protection of another gang.
The 3rd and final post I reviewed was the motivations behind assisted suicide. This really just talks about how people should be prosecuted if they are persuading or pressuring someone to kill themselves for one of two reasons. These reasons are that the person will receive some sort of inheritance/asset or because they don't like the individual. Despite all this they draw a fine line on the actions of a family wishing to end the pain and suffering of a dying relative.
1. The first topic I read about was about a rare congenital condition known as Moebious syndrome, which a neurological disorder that leaves people with facial paralysis. Thus, the people who have this condition cannot convey the way they are feeling through facial expressions that many people rely on to communicate with one another. To express how they are feeling they generally rely on using body language and vocal cues. Before extensive research was done, many doctors and other researchers believe that people with Meobious syndrome would be unable to read other people facial expressions and understand what they might be feeling. However, they have found that to not be true and have learned that a different part of the brain allows people with this syndrome to be able to read other’s expressions, but their 6th and 7th cranial nerve prevents them from expressing themselves with facial expressions.
2. The next topic I was interested in about deep conversations and happiness. The belief is that if one can have deep conversations with others whether it be one-on-one or in a larger group the will be happier. However, how does one do that? Well, according to this article, “A Guide to Having More Meaningful Conversations,” people need to be focused one the groups as a whole and finding mutual information to talk about. If people aren’t willing to open themselves up that leads someone to think that they aren’t interesting and they will criticize themselves. Which then puts a damper on other potential conversations with people. So, if they would like to build relationships with others and have a good conversations they should also be willing to put their trust in other people because that builds up their confidence, and it will be the other party to feel more confident as well.
3. The third topic I looked into was about how names fit in with personality traits. I found this topic to be interesting because no one usually thinks about his or her name really having much of an affect on his or her personality, but it does. Based on what your parents named you, may be based on the way you will be raised. Parents usually name their child based on family names which shows traditions, but parent also name according to what sort of personality traits they would like to see in their children.
The topic I found most interesting was the first one I talked about. I have never heard about Moebious syndrome before, and I thought it was such an interesting topic because I can’t imagine not being able to convey the way I feel without facial expressions. Along with facial expressions, people who have this syndrome are also unable to suck, blink their eyes, and their eyes can only move laterally which limits them even more. So starting at a person’s birth this may limit their parents because many parents rely on the facial expressions of their children to meet their child’s needs. Therefore, people who work with those with the disease and the people who have it must rely on reading body language, gestures and voice a lot to understand how one is feeling. As of today, there is no known cause for what causes Moebious syndrome, and it affects less than 1 out of 100,000 people, and there is no known cure or medicine that helps those with the syndrome. For more information you can go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06mind.html?sq=emotions&st=cse&scp=4&pagewanted=1.
I chose to read and blog about the sex and mating category because this was the most interesting to me
1. The first article I read was Men’s Faces and Female Attraction. The article briefly explains that women find men’s faces attractive on two different levels; sexually and nonsexually. The latter is a basic attractiveness of the face due to symmetry, but according to evolutionary psychology the former relies heavily on hormones. Women tend to be sexually attracted to men with strong cheek bones, full lips, and a square jaw because these features indicate higher androgen and therefor testosterone levels. In theory a man with more testosterone is more aggressive which causes him to be a better protector and hunter. In puberty a strong dose of hormones changes children’s faces. The effects of this hormone surge historically directed women to a better mate. In modern times this effect still lingers.
2. The next blog I read was in response to an AskMen article giving tips to have a successful first conversation with a potential mate. It was called Getting the Girl – The first conversation. It gave 5 steps to avoid stumbling through the conversation, often times as a result of nervousness. The steps seemed straightforward and common sense. Don’t talk about exes, don’t talk about money, be sincere… the usual. It was geared towards men, but the advice was universal; relax, be genuine, and don’t give too much. I’m a firm believer and a little game playing. You have to be genuine, but you also have to hold back quite a bit, leaving the other person wanting more.
3. The third article I read was about addictive and antidepressant qualities that semen may possess. The article explains that women absorb hormones in semen through their vaginal walls during unprotected sex. These hormones increase mood and could possibly cause a chemical addiction. I read a couple other articles relating to the subject because its fascinating and kind of funny. What’s incredibly interesting is that research supports that semen absorbed through the vaginal walls encourages ovulation! Also lesbians do not experience the McClintock effect. (Menstrual synchrony amongst close women) The main difference between homosexual and heterosexual women is exposure to semen, so it’s possible that women’s pheromones which cause the McClintock effect are affected by semen. I also began to wonder if birth control had an effect on semen’s antidepressant effects. Haha, I can’t wait to tell my boyfriend about this research.
The first topic I read about and found interesting was in the Money section entitled "Marrying For Money". I found this person's point of view to be quite unique and certainly something we don't think about every day. However, when you really think about this topic, it is probably more often than not a true statement to say that many people, not just women (as this blog focused on), are concerned with the benefits they can aquire when entering into a marriage. Marrying for love isn't always the case anymore.
The second topic I found intriguing was about Sandra Bullock and her (then) husband Jesse James, involving infidelity, under the Love section. the author brought up the point that past relationships have a way of resurfacing in subsequent ones. The blog described James' former women with whom he was involved and how they were all a certain "type", namely strippers. the implication was that Bullock should have known what she was in for because of James' past. I find this a bit outlandish. Obviously the couple felt something for each other and it was enough to marry, so infidelity most likely stemmed from other problems in the relationship, not from him being a "habitual offender".
The third topic I would like to elaborate on was involving teens who cause purposeful injury to themselves. One article described such behaviors as cutting that kids do to themselves. i realize there are many reasons behind individuals doing this, but I will never truly understand the fascination. I knew someone who did this and she descibed it to me as a sort of relief. It seems to me that there are other, more safe ways to achieve this.
A topic I would like to discuss more in depth is under the Depression section of the Blogs. One specific area I read about was that of teen girls and the high rate of depression. The blog described how girls strive to achieve a certain image today due to media and models and society's idea of a beautiful woman. we are programmed to learn that if you aren't skinny, with the perfect facce and hair, then you aren't considered attractive. The article states that depression is much higher in girls than in boys, most likely because of the extreme pressure females have to look a certain way. It really is sad. These girls have such a low self-esteem and some are even suffering from disorders stemming from their depression such as bulemia and anorexia at very young ages. I think pushing the "bad" aspect of these disorders isn't the way to go. I think the education needs to stress the fact that there are more than just a few ways to describe beautiful. These girls' self-images need to be boosted so the need to be skinny arises less.
The first post that I read, that I will primarily focus on was about an article that discussed the motivation behind running a marathon. I found this interesting because I enjoy running and I would really like to do a marathon someday. It was interesting to see that the finishers were primarily intrinsically motivated which makes sense because it needs to be personally important to an individual to have a strong motivation to finish. It makes sense that people who are extrinsically motivated such as weight loss would be more likely to not finish, because they could get 15 miles and feel accomplished enough but not have the desire to continue more because they have already lost weight and they are tired. If an individual runs a marathon because of the approval of others they may not want to follow through because they may not have enough motivation to finish and find a more motivating way to get approval. The article also talks about individuals starting to run for one reason and then the motivation changes, which happened for me. I began running my freshman year of college and I hated it but I ran because I was training for a triathlon. I began to enjoy running the more I did it, and now I consider it my primary sport (as opposed to biking which formerly was) because I really enjoy running.
The second post that I read was about why dogs make people happy. I chose this post because I have 3 dogs at home that I am very attached to, and I feel like they really do make me happier. There were many arguments as to why dogs make people happy. One reason is because they give unconditional love to their owner. If someone has a bad day they can come home and their dog will happily greet them, which can be really important for some people, and help put them in a better mood. There are also goals to achieve through owning a dog, such as teaching them tricks can help an owner to find satisfaction from achieving these goals.
The final post I read was about procrastination. I am writing this post at 10 pm on the day it is due, so clearly this is something that I find myself falling into a lot. I am also a peer academic advisor in my dorm and I put on programs to my residents about not procrastinating, but I still continue to struggle with it. One thing that was interesting to me that it said most procrastinators are not perfectionists, however. I am perfectionist, so this is different for me. It also said that individuals are more likely to do something if there is a sense of urgency, which I agree with because I don’t feel motivated to do things until I see a deadline. Procrastination is a result of motivation deficiency, and when the motivation isn’t there it can be hard to actually accomplish your goal.
The first post that I read, that I will primarily focus on was about an article that discussed the motivation behind running a marathon. I found this interesting because I enjoy running and I would really like to do a marathon someday. It was interesting to see that the finishers were primarily intrinsically motivated which makes sense because it needs to be personally important to an individual to have a strong motivation to finish. It makes sense that people who are extrinsically motivated such as weight loss would be more likely to not finish, because they could get 15 miles and feel accomplished enough but not have the desire to continue more because they have already lost weight and they are tired. If an individual runs a marathon because of the approval of others they may not want to follow through because they may not have enough motivation to finish and find a more motivating way to get approval. The article also talks about individuals starting to run for one reason and then the motivation changes, which happened for me. I began running my freshman year of college and I hated it but I ran because I was training for a triathlon. I began to enjoy running the more I did it, and now I consider it my primary sport (as opposed to biking which formerly was) because I really enjoy running.
The second post that I read was about why dogs make people happy. I chose this post because I have 3 dogs at home that I am very attached to, and I feel like they really do make me happier. There were many arguments as to why dogs make people happy. One reason is because they give unconditional love to their owner. If someone has a bad day they can come home and their dog will happily greet them, which can be really important for some people, and help put them in a better mood. There are also goals to achieve through owning a dog, such as teaching them tricks can help an owner to find satisfaction from achieving these goals.
The final post I read was about procrastination. I am writing this post at 10 pm on the day it is due, so clearly this is something that I find myself falling into a lot. I am also a peer academic advisor in my dorm and I put on programs to my residents about not procrastinating, but I still continue to struggle with it. One thing that was interesting to me that it said most procrastinators are not perfectionists, however. I am perfectionist, so this is different for me. It also said that individuals are more likely to do something if there is a sense of urgency, which I agree with because I don’t feel motivated to do things until I see a deadline. Procrastination is a result of motivation deficiency, and when the motivation isn’t there it can be hard to actually accomplish your goal.
The first topic I chose to look into was goals under planning behavior. I was interested to see if people had posted anything on different ways to use goals or to create them. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed to see that the majority was about stuff I already knew in making a goal specific, measurable, etc. Maybe I’ve read to many magazines or done to many goal-setting sessions for different jobs. The different blog posts that were relevant to goals specifically just reinforced what I already knew.
Another topic I read was love under emotions. I read all of the articles under this topic. What I found kind of funny, however, was that almost every blog post was similar to, if not the same as an article I would’ve read in Seventeen or Cosmopolitan. To me this just shows what topics women find most interesting and feel the need to read the most on. I do find it interesting that women read so many articles on relationships when, I feel, you really just need to learn most of it through experience and trust your gut.
The other topic I found interesting was body modification. I enjoyed the fact that the blogs were each a little different. There were a few on body image. However, there was also one on Lizardman. There were some on pro-anorexic communities and some on how family support can help children lose weight. One that I found really fascinating was the blog on Lincoln University in Pennsylvania that requires you have a BMI of 30 before you can graduate. It is a new and different idea that I had never heard of or thought about.
The blog post in particular that I would like to discuss was under dating behaviors. It was a blog called Kissing = FUN!!! The title just caught my by surprise which then made me want to read the post. I don’t know what I was expecting when I began reading it, but by the end I had learned something new. It was fascinating just to learn about the chemistry behind kissing and the effects that it can have on your emotions. I didn’t realize that kissing can actually decrease cortisol which then decreases your stress levels. It was also interesting to read about how saliva contains testosterone, which is why most men initiate “French kissing” as the blog put it.
1. The first article I read was entitled "Expressing Emotion without Facial Expressions". The girl in the article has a rare condition called Moebious syndrome. She is unable to adjust her facial expressions because she does not have control over her facial muscles. I thought this article was interesting because the author stated that we mimic the facial expressions of the person we are having a conversation with. I had not thought of that before because my own emotions can clearly be determined by the look on my face. Without the ability to make facial expressions, the girl developed nonverbal cues, such as body language, to express herself.
2. The second blog I read was entitled "Does smiling make you happier?" This got my attention because I am interested in how to improve happiness and I love smiling. The author talked about the facial feedback hypothesis and stated that we do not smile because we are happy. But, we are happy because we smile. There are some days that smiling helps me feel better, but there are others that it does not. When it does not help boost my mood, it is usually because I can feel the "fakeness" of my smile. If I am in a neutral mood, however, smiling makes me happy.
3. The third article I read was entitled "Talk Deeply, Be Happy?". The small study that was done showed that individuals who had deeper and a larger number of meaningful conversations throughout the day and less "small talk" were happier. Similarly, those that had fewer meaningful conversations and more "small talk" were not as happy. The author suggested that the reader make an effort to have one deeper conversation every day and see if that affects their happiness. The connection and bond shared through a deep conversation fills psychological needs of companionship, belonging, and understanding. Personally, I feel happier after I have had a deep conversation.
4. The article that I want to talk more about is entitled "You Feel What You Eat-Certain Foods May Have Direct Impact on Emotional State". I was interested in this article because I am an exercise science major. This article stated that fast foods temporarily make you feel good but quickly reverse their effects. The author brought up the point that we often eat to make ourselves feel better, but we end up eating foods that make us feel worse. If we make a better food choice, it would actually help us feel better. The problem with that is not knowing which foods would help to elevate mood. Salmon is always brought up as a good brain-boosting food. I really wish I liked fish!! I focused more on foods that I enjoy. Milk and almonds are good food choices when feeling stressed or anxious. The calcium found in them calms the nerves. They also contain an amino acid that helps in the production of serotonin. This leads to an elevated mood. Chocolate is also a mood-booster! Dark chocolate provides the most benefits, but should be consumed in moderate amounts. Too much or too little can affect a neurotransmitter. An elevated level of this neurotransmitter is connected to schizophrenia, where as a low level is connected to depression. When balanced, endorphins are released in the brain that lead to feelings of attraction and giddiness. In addition, dark chocolate improves cognitive function.
The first category I read was the topic of relationships. I found the topic of relationships to be very interesting. Relationships are a huge part of life. People need to develop relationships with other people. Relationships are required in order for business aspects of life and emotional. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we need people in our lives.
The second category I found interesting is personality. I find personality to be interesting because personality makes people unique. Some people are shy and introverted while others are very outgoing and extroverted people. Our personalities are a huge factor in determining what we do or don’t do. I read a blog post about names about how parents choose their child’s name based on their predicted personalities. I found this to be interesting how a name can have an effect on personality.
The third category I found interesting is sports, since I find my watching ESPN every day or checking the score of a basketball game. I really enjoy watching sports. I read the blog The motivation of athletes based on the article ‘Defining motivation” I liked how they talked about what factors motivated athletes to compete and improve their skills.
I find relationships to be so interesting because there are so many different types of relationships. Relationships are so complex, I find it fascinating. We create relationships on social networks such as Facebook, twitter or dating sites. I think it’s interesting how the process of meeting people has evolved. I liked reading the blog “true love, how to find it” based on the article I’m a hopeless romantic so I like reading about love and people’s different views and opinions of love and relationships. The articles talks about being able to instantly fall in love. It talks about how we can instantly experience other emotions, so why is it that we can’t experience love instantly. This article really had me thinking. I personally don’t believe in love at first sight. But this article made me believe that maybe it is possible to experience love instantly if it’s possible to experience other emotions right away.
1) The first topic I browsed was about Sex and Mating behaviors. This caught my eye because I've always had an interest in the way people interact in a "romantic" sense, whether it's how we attract others, why we're attracted to certain people, or the science behind kissing. I read one article in particular about kissing and in it they discussed a study in which women were asked to smell the shirts of men and pick the one they liked the most. The interesting finding was that they picked the shirt that belonged to the man who had different major histocompatibility complex (MHC) than them. Studies have shown that people with different MHC stand a better chance of producing healthy, robust offspring.
2) The second topic I browsed was the Health category. I am interested in pursuing a career in the Clinical Health Psychology field so I find this category to be very interesting. Since I am always interested in healthy lifestyles and improving the healing process I found an article about how having a puppy can provide health benefits. It discussed that the companionship of a puppy has been linked with lower blood pressure. Just another benefit of owning a dog!
3) The third category that I browsed was Emotion. Let's face it, we're all human, we all show emotion. To not show any interest in emotion would be, dare I say...not human? Numerious articles really caught my attention in this category. One of which was about Moebious Syndrome. People who suffer from Moebious Syndrome lack the ability to show emotion on their face due to paralysis. They cannot smile, frown, blink, or even roll their eyes. These are such basic signs of emotion we don't even think about them. Because they cannot show emotion they cannot mimic another person in conversation like we often do without thinking about. This makes it difficult for them to communicate and makes the other person think they do not care or lack sympathy. There are other ways for these people to communicate their emotions: they do so by their tone of voice, body movements, and even their laugh. This article really made me grateful to be able to smile when I'm happy, frown when I'm sad, or roll my eyes when I'm annoyed.
-As much as I am interested in Health, I found myself most drawn to the Emotion category and didn't want to stop browsing to complete my blog (hence why I'm submitting this at 11:15 pm). Perhaps it is because emotions are so easy to relate to or simply because my curious mind always wants to know "why".
I read the article, "Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message." I have been in flash mobs before and they are suppose to be for good fun and to promote or tell about something. I was shocked that the innocent dancing of flash mobs have been turn violent. In downtown Philadelphia, a group of a hundreds of kids assaulted innocent bystanders, vandalized property, and fought with each other. Police thought they need to enforce curfews, parents be responsible for their kid's actions, and kids need to be involved in after school activities.
The next article I read was "Room Color and How it Affects your Mood." I was surprised that the color red created such negative emotions. Red evoked feelings of rage and hostility while crimson makes some people feel irritable. I feel like I should not paint any of my walls in red or crimson. I was also surprised that in baby rooms that were painted yellow, babies cried more. Yellow also creates feelings of frustration and anger. This through me for a loop because yellow is suppose to be a happy color. The emotions for the rest of the colors were described as usual.
In the article, "Music and the Brain", it talked about the benefits of listening to music. The article also talked about the famous Mozart Effect. I've learned about the Mozart Effect before and I find it quite interesting. Because of it I listen to Mozart when I study. Listening to music in 60 beats per minute can increase learning. They conducted a study and the group that listened to Handel's Water Music in the background while studying performed better on tests and recall. Music also influences plants and animals. Plants grew better, except when they were played rock and acid rock. Animals performed better. Hens laid eggs faster and cows produced more milk.
The last article I read was "Seeking Emotional Clues Without Facial Cues." I was intrigued how someone could show emotion without facial expressions. Before this article, I had never heard of Moebius syndrome, a rare congenital condition that causes facial paralysis. It must have been hard for Kathleen Bogart to not be able to share feelings with other people. People with Moebius syndrome were able to correctly identify emotions three-fourths of the time. Which is the same amount as people without Moebius syndrome, so being able to identify emotions is not the problem. Individuals with Moebius syndrome are unable to mimic back facial expression, the eyes do not blink, the irises only move up and down. They are unable to move side to side. The cause of Moebius syndrome is unknown and effects less than one in 100,000 children at birth. Moebius syndrome starts in early childhood. People with Moebius syndrome can express their feelings by using eye contact, hand gestures, posture and voice tone. Bogart has different laughs to express her feelings. I cannot fathom not being able to use facial expressions to show my feelings. So many emotions are expressed, even if slightly on the face. But Moebius syndrome also shows that other people are able to read emotions with tones and gestures.
The first article I read was "Getting the Girl"- The First Conversation. It was taken off of askmen.com and used to show men how not to commit several "faux pas". I found this article interesting because I find ways to approach women interesting. There were several tips included on how to approach women and how to hold their attention. According to the article leaving on a high note in the conversation motivates the female to want to contact the male. Little tips like this are helpful to men everywhere.
The second article dealt with comptetitive sports specifically football and its correlation with alcohol abuse. According to the study done by ABC, researches found that men who participated in these comptetitive sports were more likely to develop violent behaviors that stemmed from the glory, power, and special behavior they were acustomed to by society. Our school had specific rules outlining the repercussions if caught participating in underage drinking. This stopped very little of my teammates from drinking. I do think there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and teens who are in competitive sports. The violent behaviors of these teens may be linked to the heightened testosterone level.
The third article was about controling emotional outbursts. One principle the study found is that a person's arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is. For example if someone who you've had a bad emotional experience with enters the peaceful room the other individual is in that individual will become aroused. The study pointed out several bad coping strategies such as over eating and substance abuse. It also listed positive coping strategies.
The fourth and most interesting category I found was the one labled Procrastination. It seemed to call out my name when I was skimming through topics. I read the blog about Facebook users doing worse on exams and recieving lower letter grades. Being an avid procrastinator and sometimes the reason being Facebook I found this article to be useful. According to one researcher people are getting on Facebook as opposed to studying. Besides stating the obvious it brings about the question as to why? Are people choosing to find some kind of connection with others online instead of studying? Are we looking for instant gratification when we log on to see if anyone has messaged us or tried to befriend our profile?
As a comment to this post, tell us about 3 or so topics you found interesting, and then report in detail about one particular post that you read.
I thought that the article "Expressing Emotion without Facial Expressions" in the Facial Expressions topic was interesting. Through disease or injury, some people can't make any/affect-appropriate facial expressions; how does this impact how they perceive and express emotions?
The article "People happiest during weekends: Study" in the Hobbies topic was also interesting, as it seems like one of those "No sh*t?" research studies. I'm curious though, whether the results would be reversed if we worked only 2 days per week. (Probably not: I was Weekend Shift supervisor for a company and worked only 3 days per week, and it damn near killed me.)
I looked through the Culture and Evolution topics and saw that this article was cross-posted, so I thought that was a sign that it might be interesting:
Why We Fear the Unknown
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200305/why-we-fear-the-unknown
This article purported to discuss the nature of xenophobia, but twisted it into a screed against racial discrimination - which, I think, actually proves the point that the authors of the original study being discussed were trying to make: consciously or not, we all identify the Other in terms of us/them, resulting in myriad in-groups and out-groups.
So by identifying others as racists, I am conferred morally superiority; which means my group is better than yours. Right?
A couple of different racial profiling and face-recognition studies were mentioned, as well as the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII. The author pretty much out-and-out decries this behavior as nothing more than race prejudice.
(I think it bears pointing out that the article was published in early 2002, in the atmosphere of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.)
The question is raised that this may, in fact, be an evolutionary behavior; yet this explanation is quickly dismissed, as "that is too hard to prove."
If we're talking face validity (and we certainly appear to be), then it seems reasonable that organisms feel kinship with those that are more like themselves than with those that are not: it would be a good way to ensure that you were passing on your genetic material. And certainly there are anthropologists who can attest that remote tribes practice the same in-group/out-group behaviors, without ever having seen people of different races than their own.
I also believe I have read that our ability to learn how to distinguish faces pretty much shuts down after the age of about 7 weeks - so whether your caregivers were of multiple races/ethnicities or limited to only people who look just like you, those are the only kind of faces you will recognize after you are 2 months old. Does that mean that 2-month old infants are racists? The author apparently thinks so.
The author concludes the article by discussing a researcher who claimed that the worse she made people feel about the results of her "racial profiling = race prejudice" test, the more they tried to compensate and redeem themselves in later tests. To the author, this is a laudable achievement. But to me, it just seems like they were still trying to fit in with the in-group, by currying favor with the authority figure (the researcher).
After some browsing I came across an article titled “Movivation to do the extreme” which discussed a middle aged woman who had adopted some jihadist principles to the point that she was willing to kill a man that she knew nothing about and had no personal conflict with. The student writing the article discussed from what he could gather from the article that she may have felt a need for affiliation and was determined to accomplish a long term goal commitment with many other mini steps in between to internalize her long term goal. Now from what I know about the information we’ve been provided with in the textbook thus far this kind of makes sense but I’m sure we will learn about affiliation, long term goals, and internalization later in the course.
A second topic I came across was “Do you enjoy fear?”. This one caught my eye because I HATE horror movies. I can take a guy running around killing people with a chainsaw or even a messed up man kidnapping people and making them “play a game” so that they appreciate life, but what I cannot stand are horror movies that deal with ghosts and demonic influences. Nope, wont do em! Regardless, of what I think the author of this post was looking into why people like horror movies. One source suggested that horror films are another kind of fictional setting which people often prefer to reality…eh, okay I guess that makes sense…but who wants to escape from reality to watch that kind of violence and be scared? Doesn’t appeal to me. Another one of her sources suggested that when we are scared there are positive emotions that are experienced along with the scared feeling…something like a sense of relief. Her last source suggested several reasons including people enjoy assessing the level of threat in the movies, it gives them a sense of control over their own emotions, and something with our amygdale, which I have no idea what that is. In the end it was a short but sweet article that was demonstrated motives behind a, at least to me, very odd behavior.
In order to get away from the scary topic I just discussed I clicked on the happiness tab and found a post titled “Can deep conversations lead to happiness?” This one peaked my interest because I honestly just like to talk about deep things with people much more than shoot the breeze and talk about meaningless topics. One of the biggest things I like to talk about is how people are doing in life, hobbies, and Jesus so I was interested in what this article would have to say. What the research study she looked in to found was that when people have in depth conversations with others it causes them to think about the world around them and impose meaning on a very unpredictable world. It also helps us feel closer to those around us, thus building interpersonal connections. In a study, the happiest person found had twice as many in depth conversations while the lower 1/3 who engaged in primarily small talk were the unhappiest. This article and research shows a personal applicability to my own life. Yes, it does agree with habits and beliefs that I already uphold, but I think it will be interesting to put the rest up to a test.
“Explore”
I picked three very interesting and applied topics to explore for tonight’s assignment. They are:
1) Exercise
2) Procrastination
3) Work
The articles on exercise were very helpful and gave some good tips on how to create and implement an exercise program. One of the main points I found was that you should focus on finding your exercise preferences and give yourself adequate rewards for following through with your goals. I took the quiz on the article, “8 Colors of Fitness”, and I found that I am a “Blue Harmony” exerciser. This means that I like to have clear goals and an objective, keeping a commitment is important to me, and I like to record my progress. I found these quiz results to be fairly accurate of my personality type, and I plan on trying to implement them in my exercise routine. Another tid bit of information that I found interesting was that one article said that drinking caffeine prior to a workout actually helped decrease post-work soreness. Since I am a coffee-addict, I found this encouraging.
The second topic I choose was procrastination. I will admit that I tend to procrastinate which has lead to far too many stressful nights. I found the articles to be helpful on this topic as well. A one of the articles, “Overcoming Procrastination”, professor Clarry Lay defined procrastination as “a temporal gap between intended behavior and enacted behavior” (full article link: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm). One interesting point that the article made was that people often procrastinate due to perfectionism or feeling overwhelmed. This is often the cause of my procrastination, so I found this to be encouraging since I can understand my behavior more. Some tips that they gave were to make up your own reward (I would like to point out that this is a recurring theme here), hold yourself accountable by enlisting a friend, break down large tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks, and for people like myself who get overwhelmed, they recommended that you complete smaller tasks first to get momentum and then start on the larger tasks. These are all very helpful tips that I will need to remember the next time I find myself unmotivated to start an assignment.
The last topic I choose to research for this assignment was work. I choose this topic because in my brief experience in the work field, I have noticed a lot of issues related to motivation in the lower class workers, such as myself. I have found that when workers are not properly recognized for their hard work or when there are no pay raises, motivation drastically decreases. One blog post mentioned a Harvard article that stated that three things must be met to promote motivation in workers: achievement, equity, and camaraderie. Some other factors that help increase motivation are paying according to performance, networking, and praising those who are performing well. Another article said that Americans often feel “trapped” in their jobs dues to limited opportunity for advancement (full article link: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5289.html). I found this information to be enlightening, and it seems to me that this type of research has the most applicable consequences to the non-academic world since the majority of our lives are spent working. I am very interested in this topic and I might need to consider pursuing this field in graduate school as an industrial/organization psychologist or social psychologist.
1. I am a junkie for leadership opportunities and getting involved. In high school I was in 17 extracurricular activities my senior year alone. I was an officer in several of my organizations, president of my 4-H club and a state officer for FCCLA. I’m still incredibly involved in college and I am an officer for the UNI chapter of NSCS and involved in many different clubs, organizations and groups. Naturally, the topic of leadership drew my attention. I read the blog titled The Buried Life, Not Just an MTV Show. It caught my attention instantly as it talked about setting goals that one wishes to accomplish before death. I could totally relate. I literally have the words “Carpe Diem” tattooed on my body! I think it’s awesome that they made an official list of life goals. I really want to watch the documentary now. I have a high level of achievement just like them and the six dimensions of psychological well-being: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth are extremely fascinating to me. I can relate as I use them in my self definition.
2. The subject of Relationships and Dating was interesting to me as well. I like how it pointed out how much technology plays a role in today’s dating scene. There have been incredible changes since the days when my parents and grandparents dated. It’s interesting to look at the social effects that might come from technology and the roles it plays in dating and relationships. The whole dynamic of having human contact with one another is not the same. It’s wonderful to think about the positive and negative effects of technology in dating and what’s interesting is that both arguments are incredibly convincing.
3. Self-Esteem was an interesting one for me to look at as I sometimes get overwhelmed and struggle with this. I great up in a house that wasn’t incredibly supportive of me or my goals and dreams. I have struggled with self identity and as I struggle with seasonal depression, my self-esteem sometimes takes the biggest toll. I had a poor relationship with my mother growing up and I really found the points that the post made about family and mothers and their relationship to the child’s self-esteem. I felt like I could be proof to the assumptions and data displayed in the post. I also like that it pointed out that we develop our identities; we are not simply born with them.
I also was most intrigued by the title ‘Hormones’ I thought that it would be an interesting on to explore and I did find one of the articles to be attention grabbing. I was most interested by human’s ability to stay calm in the face of fear. After clicking on the link to the Psychology Today Article “Strange Calm in a Sea of Danger” I was instantly blown away by the way fear hormones work in life threatening situations. This man was attacked by a grizzly bear and by most accounts he should have been dead, yet thanks to the work of noradrenaline in his brain, he was able to remain calm and save his life and his daughters by jumping off of a cliff. It’s incredible how much a person can go through to survive when faced with fear and certain death…all thanks to hormones like noradrenaline. I read this post in depth and thoroughly enjoyed it!
I wasn't sure if we needed the titles of the specific posts that we read but looking back I saw that some people put them, so here are mine:
1. “The Buried Life, Not Juan an MTV Show”
2. “Dating Sites”
3. “Self-Identity Problems”
Interest: “A ‘Deer Hunter’ Moment”
The first blog that caught my attention was about an article called "Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect" by Alia J. Crum and Ellen J. Langer. The research articles' focus was on the placebo effect and if it can affect the mind. In order to test the hypothesis they designed an experiment that randomly selected female house cleaners and room attendants into two groups. The control group was not told anything and they continued their daily routines. The experimental group of women were constantly reminded that they were getting a lot of exercise during their work days. Both groups did the same work for a four week period. After four weeks the women in the experimental group reported feeling much healthier. They even showed weight loss and a decrease in blood pressure and body fat. I find this quote by W. Clement Stone fitting, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
The next article I read was called Motivation to Run a Marathon. In the article it said that many people run marathons but not everybody finishes. The article said that the motivation behind running the race can affect the performance. Most the people who finished the marathon were influenced by their own intrinsic motivation. They put the time and effort into the training to finish the race. I found that article very interesting because someday I would like to challenge myself on a mental and physical level with running a marathon.
1. Dating Behaviors.
People use dating sites to find their special someone and people have mixed feelings about it. It has now moved to social networking sites. Some have success, while others don’t. One article talked about how she didn’t expect the first few to be all it took to meet Mr. Right. I feel she had a very realistic view, so this helped her in the long run. She figured that on in-person dates you don’t get what you expected most of the time, so why should you with online dating. She is now married to a man she met online. However, more articles showed the negative side. The profile of their date wasn’t honest or there wasn’t any chemistry. Overall, not what they expected the date to be.
2. Body Modification
It’s very sad how much being thin is so important. An article explains that it is likely a control issue when a person is anorexic. They don’t feel they have control over anything but their weight or eating habits. Society makes women feel the need to be ultra-thin to be accepted. This causes health issues though. If woman, or men, just focused on actually eating food that is good for them, being healthy, and exercising regularly, they would not be harming themselves. They would have a more positive mind set and focus on being healthy, which would inturn help them to lose weight.
3. The topic I would most like to focus on is Self-Esteem.
Marketing is using guilt as a way to persuade consumers to buy their product. People feel guilty for not looking sexy for their partner, not buying the best foods for their child, or finest toys for children. When they fall into this guilt, it lowers their self-esteem to think they aren’t doing the best they could. Self-esteem comes from past successes and failures.
The article about running a marathon intrigued me. They found that the people who lost, did so because they were in it to lose weight. The self-esteem issue here is that the runners thought they could do it and lose weight but set themselves up to fail. Not only did they not lose weight, they lost a marathon. not helping so much on thinking highly of themselves.
Another article explains that plus size women don’t enjoy shopping. They wish to look like the underweight models, and their self-esteem lowers when they can’t find the cute outfits skinnier woman have. I agree that if plus size clothes were more attractive, this would help with them feeling beautiful.
1. Dating Behaviors.
People use dating sites to find their special someone and people have mixed feelings about it. It has now moved to social networking sites. Some have success, while others don’t. One article talked about how she didn’t expect the first few to be all it took to meet Mr. Right. I feel she had a very realistic view, so this helped her in the long run. She figured that on in-person dates you don’t get what you expected most of the time, so why should you with online dating. She is now married to a man she met online. However, more articles showed the negative side. The profile of their date wasn’t honest or there wasn’t any chemistry. Overall, not what they expected the date to be.
2. Body Modification
It’s very sad how much being thin is so important. An article explains that it is likely a control issue when a person is anorexic. They don’t feel they have control over anything but their weight or eating habits. Society makes women feel the need to be ultra-thin to be accepted. This causes health issues though. If woman, or men, just focused on actually eating food that is good for them, being healthy, and exercising regularly, they would not be harming themselves. They would have a more positive mind set and focus on being healthy, which would inturn help them to lose weight.
3. The topic I would most like to focus on is Self-Esteem.
Marketing is using guilt as a way to persuade consumers to buy their product. People feel guilty for not looking sexy for their partner, not buying the best foods for their child, or finest toys for children. When they fall into this guilt, it lowers their self-esteem to think they aren’t doing the best they could. Self-esteem comes from past successes and failures.
The article about running a marathon intrigued me. They found that the people who lost, did so because they were in it to lose weight. The self-esteem issue here is that the runners thought they could do it and lose weight but set themselves up to fail. Not only did they not lose weight, they lost a marathon. not helping so much on thinking highly of themselves.
Another article explains that plus size women don’t enjoy shopping. They wish to look like the underweight models, and their self-esteem lowers when they can’t find the cute outfits skinnier woman have. I agree that if plus size clothes were more attractive, this would help with them feeling beautiful.