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How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2008/02/19/smart-women-marry-for-money-and-heres-why/

I was interested in finding a good article on "Gold Diggers" but found this article about why women marry for money.

Having a marriage is like having a business.

"It's like running a corporation. A business venture. You have to go into it knowing that it could fail or it could succeed beyond your wildest dreams and make you rich... If the employees don't share the vision, believe in the vision and work together, the endeavor will fail. Some businesses will get rich. Some will barely make ends meet. Some will never make a dime. The money does not measure success. The sense of accomplishment will come from the daily struggle... the love of what you do, working together day in and day out."

A lot of marriages end in divorThe reality is that personal finance issues are the leading cause of divorce and in order to live happily ever after, you must be on the same page as far as your finances are concerned.

The article goes on to talk about why smart women do marry for the money which includes

-A man with a plan

-Aligned Financial Values

-.Motivated by Money to Create the Life They Want

I chose this article to show how a women has psychological needs to have a fulfilling/ the life they want. These type of women have a high need for autonomy because they want what is best for them. Reeve (2009) states that autonomy is the psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one's behavior (p.146).

Do you think these facts would make you change your perception about marrying for love or money? Or what are your morals before and after reading this article? 

John's video (proposing the questions)

Hank's video (responding)

Here are two Youtube videos of two brothers. One proposed the question, "what is your ultimate concern" the other replied. Just a heads up if you watch the video...they sort of talk about a lot of other things leading up to the excitement of "ultimate concerns", but all in all they are pretty decent videos.

What I took from the videos:
Just think for a minute: What would you die or kill for?  Is there really something in your life that is that important?  At what point in your life does something become that important?  John has a child and at this point in his life his new baby is his ultimate concern...making sure that his needs are met. (Well that sounds familiar doesn't it; babies have needs too, they just can't satisfy them by themselves!!)

A response from the brother, Hank, proposes some interesting questions in response to the initial questions.

What are you concerned with at all, don't limit it to just the ultimate concern.

What I think is neat is how he explains how there are boundaries (visually I imagined a circle) of things you would die for, things you would fight for, things you care at all about, and finally things you just don't care about. 

This then brings up that maybe something like maybe your own child is something you "would die for", but then the stranger-mom at Wal Mart has a child that is in the area of "things you don't care about".  They are both babies but there is something different about your baby that makes it so much more important to you than the stranger's. 

And for each person this will be different, so what is your ultimate concern? Or, what do you care about, or don't care about? 

When these are defined in our own life we may start to realize our motivations and maybe even goals.  We know from class that we all have physiological needs. Those are obviously of some concern to everyone, and they will be satisfied in much the same way. Then there are psychological needs and social needs and whatever our concerns in this world are will affect those needs. 

Take the concern you thought of from above and apply that to a psychological or social need and how that would have an impact on our behavior in order to satisfy that need.  

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/07/23/who-uses-internet-dating/

With the many advertisements for online dating services like eharmony, matchamaker, and match.com, the online dating industry is obviously doing quite well. Having never considered it myself and not having any friends who have used it,I have always been curious, what personality traits does a person need to possess to be motivated to use this service? Do they fit a specific psychological profile or have a similar set of needs?

According to this article there is a specific psychological profile for users of on-line dating services. They surveyed 3,345 people, both men and women using various questionnaires and psychological measures. Researchers found that more sociable people tend to use internet dating services than those who are less social. This finding was shocking to me; I consider myself very social, outgoing and have many friends with the same characteristics who have never even considered trying it. These findings really defy the stereotypical image of internet daters as lonely and socially anxious.

Perhaps it comes down to geography, and we haven't been exposed to the level of acceptance and commonality of internet dating, though I doubt this will last for long. Researchers have found that using the internet as a means of finding a prospective mate is no longer thought of as unusual. This study is also not unique, previous research has all came to the same conclusion.  Now on-line dating is just another tool at the socialite's disposal.

It also says that while more social people may be the majority of users, not all social people consider this. High-self esteem individuals who value intimate relationships as a key element in their lives are just as likely to use these services as a low self-esteem person who does not view romantic relationships as an important part of their life. Low self-esteem individuals who only put some value on these relationships are less likely to use the services. Here is an excerpt from the findings:

"If the success of romantic relationships is the domain of self worth, one may try to increase the prospect of success and avoid failure in romantic relationships. In the context of Internet dating, when sociable people consider romantic relationships to be an important domain for self-worth, those with high self-esteem will be more likely than those with low self esteem to use Internet dating services.

The reason is that when sociable people consider romantic relationships to be an important domain for self-worth, those with high self-esteem will find it comfortable to present themselves to a multitude
of anonymous people, whereas those with low self-esteem will be more likely to experience a higher level of stress just thinking about disclosing and promoting themselves on the Internet. Less confident individuals may not want their negative self-views publicized or viewed by others.

To reduce such negative feelings and protect their self-worth, those with low self-esteem will adopt avoidance strategies and distance themselves from Internet dating services."

 

So gone are the days of old where internet dating was only for nerds and desperate people. There is actually an interesting article about the science behind these websites as well. It can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/internet/18shortcuts.html?ref=technology

This article is pretty generalized and I would like to have more information. The original article is cited at the bottom and definitely something worth looking into.

Advertising is a pretty manipulative business.  All kinds of industries use language, images, commercials, etc. to influence our emotions and motivate us to NEED their product or service.  While the United States is somewhat strict about inflammatory advertising, especially concerning hot topics (i.e. Tim Tebow's abortion commercial during the Superbowl caused quite a stir), France is much more liberal.  First, go to the following site and see what side of the fence you land on: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/french-oral-sex-anti-smok_n_474909.html

The issue at the heart of this controversey is teenage smoking. In France, 33% of the teens smoke.  The anti-smoking agency's motivation behind this is they are trying to extinguish or at least reduce this behavior. General advertising efforts solely commenting on health and dying hasn't elicited the type of reaction anti-smoking agencies would have liked. So this was there behavioral response to that antecedent.  From that, there has stemmed many emotionally-driven responses.  Obviously, the sexual connotations are driving this debate of whether or not this ad should be pulled. Pretty funny though because all this controversy by the opposition has made this ad tremendously popular and famous within France and obviously around the world as it has made it into a college classroom in the Midwest.

Personally, I think the ad is provocative and thus powerfully effective. This will undoubtedly grab the attention of youth emitting this addictive behavior. Consequently, the message will get across to these individuals, positively reinforcing the ad company's behavior of producing ads such as this one. It's ingenious really as controversial ads always seem to get more attention than they would have if the opposition kept its mouth shut. It's a pretty crazy behavior modification tool within the marketing business really as their extrinsic motivation to gain attention by producing this controversial ad proved to be a stimulus for discussion and smoking awareness (response).

While I do not smoke, I do wonder within the context of our class whether smoking is a physiological need or a quasi-need?  Is it possible for a quasi-need (a situationally induced want) to turn into a physiological need over time as one continues to smoke? (physiological need:  biological need within an organism orchestrating brain structures, hormones, etc. to regulate imbalances and necessary well-being)

In class we began discussing other movies that may be a good fit for understanding different types of motivation and emotion.  This weekend I caught the movie "Enough" on TV.  I have seen this movie many times before, and each time I see it becomes more and more interesting.  There are many different things from the text that are shown in this movie.  I won't go too much into depth so that I won't spoil the movie for those of you who have not seen it, but it can be watched on youtube, if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAdBSxZ9XQ

The most obvious example of motivators in this movie is fear and need for survival.  The first time we see true fear from Slim is when she catches Mitch cheating on her.  She eventually stands up for herself, only to get pushed back down after he punches her in the face.  This is when she really sees that Mitch is not the man who she thought he was.  The violence progresses throughout the movie, escalading to the point where Slim feels that her life is in danger. Slim is terrified that her husband is going to kill her, so she is forced to find a way to get away and survive.  Slim is forced through many obstacles to avoid her abusive husband.  These situations alone are examples of physiological need for survival.  A need is something that is necessary for life (Reeve, 77).  In this case, getting away from her husband is necessary for life.  She also has to save her daughter, Grace.  This is another example of a physiological need to protect her offspring.  Reeve also discusses how "damage can be to the body, so motives arise from physiological needs to avoid tissue damage and to maintain bodily resources...Damage can also be done to one's relationship to the social world, so motives arise from social needs to preserve our identities, beliefs, values and interpersonal relationships" (Reeve, 77). Both of these factors take place while Slim is fighting for her life.  Throughout the movie, Slim has her friend reminder her that it is her primal right to protect herself and her offspring.  This is the same bases that are discussed in the text book.  Slim has perceived that her life is in danger, and this motivates her to make big changes in her life.   We see how strong her drive to save her life is when she moves across the country, changes her hair, and attempts a new life. In the end, her drive to save her life and her daughter is so strong that it causes her to do the unthinkable.

Mitch, the husband, has an intense need for power.  His ongoing violent tendencies and actions show how his need for power overrides all of his other needs.  He thrives on power, which is why he needs to control Slim, as well as all of the people around him.  The first example of this is when he approaches the stranger and asks to buy his house.  Mitch threatens the man, saying that if he doesn't sell the house Mitch will make his life miserable. These same situations continue to happen and get increasingly violent throughout the movie. Mitch goes through the stages of power (impact, control, and influence) many times throughout the movie (Reeve, 195).  Mitch creates impact the first time he hits Slim.  He shows her that he has power over her through force and violence.  He creates control when he continues to abuse her without any sense of guilt or regret. When she escapes, he attempts influence when he tries to transfer his power over those involved with Slim (her friends who help her escape and the man who she confides in and hides at his house).  He influences these people by threatening them and sending men after them to scare them.  He is extending his power over them even when he is not there, by instilling a sense of fear in both Slim, and the people who she comes in contact with.

 

I got a puppy last summer, and it has been the most fun, loving, and rewarding experience I have ever had!  My mom actually read this book (100 Simple Secrets Why Dogs Make Us Happy: The Science Behind What Dog Lovers Already Know) and recommended I looked at it.  As I was glancing through the pages, it was really funny how much sense the book actually made.  Having a dog gives us a sense of belonging, love, companionship, and even achievement (when training and raising a dog).  Dogs also provide a constant motivator to get off the couch and play or go for a walk (for me at least).  I know that I also feel obligated to her to make sure that she is healthy and happy, which also fulfils my affiliation need. Although this is generally intended towards humans, I think that someone can definitely benefit from having a dog.  I have also learned in past classes that many therapists recommend getting a pet to their patients of depression or anxiety disorders.  Pets provide a sense of stability, and also can provide and endless amount of love and friendship. 

Having a dog can fulfill many of our psychological needs.  When training a dog, it presents a challenge to be overcome. Our desire to do well in training our dog can fulfill the need for achievement (Reeve, 175).  Succeeding in training your dog can be the most rewarding experience, creating a large amount of positive reinforcement and increasing the likelihood you will continue to train the dog.  Setting goals in training can also increase motivation to continue training (Reeve, 184). Having things in mind such as "I'll have my dog potty trained by the fall" can increase your motivation to work with your dog.  When your dog starts to understand the training techniques, it reinforces your behavior and increases the sense of achievement.

Another area were having a dog can fulfill psychological needs is affiliation and intimacy (Reeve, 192).  Establishing a good relationship with your dog can be very rewarding.  Dogs can provide constant, unconditional love when they have a strong bond with their owner.  Although affiliation is rooted within the fear of rejection, affiliation with your dog can start to calm those anxieties and create a more relationship oriented life style.  Dogs are also less likely to reject their owners, so someone with a high need for affiliation would likely have a good relationship with a dog.

The need for power may also be accomplished through owning a dog.  The leadership (Reeve, 196) that it takes to own a dog is crucial in training and maintaining a healthy pet.  Teaching the dog things that they can and cannot do is something that can create a very power-related relationship between the owner and the dog.  Dogs see everything as a power-related situation (this is why many times dogs can have problems with aggression if they feel they have power over the house or over other people, in the dog world it is referred to as "dominance") It is the responsibility of the owner to make sure that the power does not shift from the owner to the dog, or serious aggression and misbehavior problems can occur. With the power safely in the owner's hands, the relationship between dog and owner can be a very positive one.

The book also discusses how people with pets tend to live longer, happier lives than those who choose to live pet-free.  Here is a description of the book, which touches on many of the things that we have discussed in class (such as exercise to reduce stress, as well as communication).

From Harper Collins.com:

"Why do people who have dogs live happier, longer, and more fulfilling lives? Sociologists and veterinarians have spent years investigating the positive effects that dogs have on people's health and happiness yet their findings are inaccessible to ordinary people, hidden in obscure journals to be shared with other experts.

Now the international bestselling author of the 100 Simple Secrets series has collected the most current and significant data from more than a thousand of the best scientific studies on the profound relationship between humans and our canine companions. These findings have been boiled down to the one hundred essential ways dogs positively impact our lives. Each fact is accompanied by a inspiring true story. If you love your dog, and science tells us that you do, this book will inspire and entertain.

·  Communicate Better: It sounds odd to say a creature that communicates with barking and body language can have such a profound effect on human communication. But by providing a common point of reference and concern, dogs help us to feel a connection to other humans. That connection makes us feel more comfortable communicating with each other. When meeting a new person, the presence of a dog reduces the time before people feel comfortable while talking with each other by 45 percent.

·  Live Longer: There is perhaps no better gift that dogs offer us humans than this simple fact. People who care for a dog live longer, healthier lives than those who do not. On average, people who cared for dogs during their lives lived 3 years longer than people who never had a dog.

·  No Monkey Business: Primates are genetically more similar to humans than any other creature. But try to tell a chimpanzee something and you will be hard pressed to get your message across. Dogs are uniquely attuned to the messages we send. Dogs study humans and have evolved to build social skills that help them to function around us. Dogs are 52 percent more likely to follow human cues such as pointing toward a source of food than are primates.

·  Around the Block: Good habits are often misunderstood as difficult or unpleasant chores. But there is tremendous value in the simple act of taking a walk. Walking not only burns calories, it also decreases stress. Having a dog means regularly talking walks - it's something you do for your dog but in truth your dog is doing for you. Dog owners walk 79 percent farther in an average week than non-dog owners."

Are there other ways that dogs can help fulfill our needs?  Is it selfish to think this way? What are some other motivators that people may have to own a dog, or any pet?

I have always wondered why people lie, and today I had someone Facebook message me with a lie/rumor about someone I know. I know research says that everyone lies, even white lies count! And It is also stated that we learn to lie from a young age, yet when does this become a problem?

In this article Why Do People Lie? it mentions why people lie, what they lie about, and how to tell if someone is lying. It also talks about how it is easier to lie to a loved one, then someone they are just an acquaintance with. Now this didn't fit my situation, so I kept reading, and found this article Reasons People Lie had several reasons as to why people lie. One reason is to spare humiliation of ourselves or someone else. They used the example of telling someone that they did look good in a dress, when really they did not. Another reason is to be in good standing with friends or even to gain control. There is always the reason for a person to lie in order to avoid punishment, anger or fear, and some even lie to achieve recognition. Now I don't know if any of these reasons technically fit my situation, however they are quite interesting. I know that I have given some white lies in order to avoid hurting someone, however I do believe that the truth is better than any lie, but like it says above, everyone lies.

As I was thinking more about my situation, I feel like this person who lied is lacking in some social needs. According to our textbook it states that social needs arise and activate emotional and behavioral potential when need-satisfying incentives appear. Maybe its possible that in this particular social situation, their anger gave them incentive to behave by spreading lies, in hopes to change their current social situation, and thus to satisfy their social needs. In this case their social needs may include having power over the situation, or achievement. I feel like achievement would be a social need, because they are trying to achieve a certain role in their social atmosphere.

What are other reasons that people would lie? What are reasons that you have lied for in the past?

Autonomy is an essential psychological need, and the three parts of autonomy described in the book are perceived locus of control, volition, and perceived choice. I was doing some random YouTube browsing as most of us do, and I ran upon this video clip of George Carlin (Yes, he is a comedian so keep that in mind) commenting on the choices we have in our society:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt49DsfKDMc

The text discusses how under the "Conundrum of Choice" section regarding autonomy that certain choices may not actually satisfy our need for autonomy. It is usually choices that are "either-or" choices (essentially forcing one) coming from an external source that fail to meet our need for autonomy rather than choices about our actions that are self-generated (unforced) and meet the criteria of what is important (values,goals,interests) to us.
Do choices we make every day, or even larger choices provide us with opportunities to meet our autonomous needs, are they meaningless, or do they meet our needs even though they are meaningless?
I think the most glaring example of an 'either-or' choice that fails to satisfy the need for autonomy mentioned in the video (I took the easy way out) is with our political system. In most elections the options are 'Republican' or Democrat'', each of which carry their own set stances on certain issues, some of which you may agree with and some you may not. Voting for a candidate from a "Third Party" (reminds me of race identifications of White, Black, and Other) is a good way to throw your vote away. This seems to be a reason why a lot of people (young people in particular) fail to engage in our political system seeing it as pretty much pointless.
I can think of other examples, but I'll toss it to you guys...Anyone have an example of some 'either-or' (or either-or-or-or-etc, but are all qualitatively similar) or 'meaningless' choices we have that actually have important consequences?

Recently I discovered a website that posts videos from "Ignite" events.  In these events speakers are given 20 slides and 5 minutes to make their point.  Their slogan is "Enlighten us, but make it quick."  There is a video posted the is titled "The Psychology of Incompetence"."  You can watch the video at:  http://igniteshow.com/videos/psychology-incompetence.  

NBA superstar and Dallas Maverick's player Caron Butler has an addiction. Actually he has two of them.  For his most recent addiction, the NBA has now gone on to ban this behavior during games due to safety concerns.  What is it you ask?  Has to be something performance enhancing or drug related right? Actually, the NBA has banned Butler for chewing straws during the game, of which he goes through at least 12 a game--60 per day!  Talk about quite an oral fixation.  This got me thinking, why does he do this?  There's obviously a reason for this behavior.  Well Butler stated in his blog that this habit calmed him down, especially helpful during NBA games I imagine.  His motivation for this behavior was to satisfy his physiological response of stress and anxiousness.  Arguably, this was a performance enhancer of sorts for him.  It'll be interesting to see how much the extinction of this behavior will affect him.  Looking back, this behavior could possibly be correlated/as a consequence of his first habit:

In summer 2009, Butler blogged on NBA.com that he had lost 11 pounds just by giving up his daily "addiction" of drinking at least six 12-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew.

"I was going through withdrawals," Butler said on NBA.com. "... Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew [were] the roughest two weeks of my life. I'm talking headaches, sweats and everything."

Like the straws became a psychological need and fixation, Butler had conditioned his body to the physiological extremes with his habitual caffeine intake.  It had really become an addiction. 

It will be interesting to see how Butler's behavior will be affected by the NBA's banning of chewing straws during games.  Will he take up another habit to help calm him down?  We'll see.  Here's a link to a video clip and article discussing the situation.  It's funny to watch the video and see all the fans and radio broadcasters who came to the game chewing straws in support of Butler's behavior.  It's also interesting to note in the sportsnation poll that 54% of people in America enjoyed chewing on straws...:

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba/news/story?id=4945104

A few summers ago, I had the opportunity to intern in Denver, Colorado at an organization called TASC.  TASC is a diversionary program for juvenile delinquents.  Here, I came into contact with numerous individuals - the majority of whom were involved in gangs.  This is also when I became more interested in gang involvement, especially among adolescents.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100222/sc_livescience/5thingsthatwillmakeyouhappier

 

 

I'm not sure if anyone else has seen this article, but it is about 5 things that will supposedly make a person happier. In short, they are...

 

1. Be grateful

2. Be optimistic

3. Count your blessings  

4. Use your strengths  

5. Commit acts of kindness

 

     Although this first one is rather obvious, there is some merit to mentioning it. I believe that trying to get into the habit of putting a positive spin can make life more enjoyable, but as we have read, each person has homeostasis level that will be resistant to change. (The researcher here seem to admit that people generally have certain dispositions and stable personalities throughout their life, but they argue that a significant amount of happiness can also be attributed to pro-active approaches to increasing one's happiness.) In any case, I suppose making an active effort to appreciate what you have may cause at least a minor increase in feelings of happiness.

 

Being Grateful  - One rather interesting note is that this finding of the study is largely based on an activity where people wrote letters expressing gratitude. In case you are thinking there might be a confound, such as relatedness or affiliation playing a role, I thought of that as well, but it was found that there was an increase in happiness even if people did not actually send the letters out.

 

Be optimistic - In the study, researchers actually had participants visualize "an ideal future" which included imagining having a loving, supportive partner and a great job. I am not sure if this strategy would necessarily lead to long term happiness though - the researchers did not mention whether or not this was exclusively short term happiness in their summarized report. The reason I say this is because I think over time significant cognitive dissonance would arise (people could become delusional) if there is a strong focus on a "perfect" life. If interpreted this way, this finding would actually seem to be in contrast to the first. If you are being appreciative of what you have, you will not be constantly focusing on the perfect, ideal life. I have heard that some studies have found striving for excellence can be much better than striving for perfection. I know the "being optimistic" strategy could probably be taken on a more moderate and healthy level, but I think the activity the researchers used does not necessarily seem healthy over the long term.

 

Count your blessings - I do not believe this one merits any further discussion because this "additional" finding seems to be very similar to "being grateful." In fact, there is no separate research mentioned for this in the article.

Use your strengths - The participants in the study (that contributed to this finding) focused on strengths such as using humor to increase others' happiness. I think this is perhaps related to competence, achievement, and relatedness - all concepts that we have recently mentioned in class. Being able to successfully use's one's abilities to accomplish a goal would lead to feelings of competence and achievement. Having someone identify with your achievement (in this case humor)

Commit acts of kindness - although we have not yet talked about pro-social very much in this class, this finding makes sense, and I think it also has something to do with relatedness.

So in my B-Mod class, there has been some blogging about superstitions.  It's a pretty sweet topic I think, especially concerning why we are motivated to have these irrational beliefs  even though today, even in the age of reason, we "know" they are pointless.  Personally, I am very superstitious.  I wear a rubber band around my left wrist for good luck, have lucky numbers (surprisingly I'm intrigued by the #13), and in football, I always wore the same shirt under my jersey.  In the video below,

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/deadliest-catch-sig-on-superstitions.html

Capt. Sig Hansen from Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," discusses the superstitions of fisherman at sea. It's pretty incredible how superstitious they really are. He talks about all kinds of weird things he has become accustomed to that have come a part of his life. He realizes that these are just associations that elicit a rewarding feeling of safety and probably bring him no real good fortune (even though there are some that say you create your own luck), but as he states in the video, he will even go as far as turning the boat around to satisfy this target behavior of his. These superstitous items allow Sig to emit behaviors such as comfort and joy as bad luck or misfortune while fishing at sea would prove aversive to him and his crew. As he states, they have been raised or conditioned to behave this way--whether it's not allowing bananas or horseshoes on the boat or stepping onto a boat with the correct foot. At some point during their adventures or experiences, Sig must have been positively reinforced (perhaps by catching more fish)and associated this behavior with some material object (like his erasors, post-its, or a fishing lure necklace). As he states, they have been conditioned as time passes to check for these superstitions and if everything is not in place,  psychological hell breaks loose on the boat. Here is a good example from the clip to explain why the shipmen were motivated to continuously behave the superstitious way they do:

The antecedent would be the previously demonstrated superstitious behavior of fishing at sea without allowing any suitcases on board

Thus, their behavior-->which was to force the Discovery Channel crew to unpack their cameras and leave their suitcases on land

As a consequence of their positive experience at sea (no misfortune) Capt. Sig and crew are reinforced for their superstitious behaviors of not allowing suitcases aboard. Thus superstition remains unbroken, actually reinforced, and conditions same behavior to be repeated.

In a sense, these superstitious behaviors give them a sense of control over their otherwise uncontrollable environment.  Mentally, Capt. Sig and crew need these objects to satisfy their emotional needs as well as physiological needs (such as cortisol/stress), as the superstitions/charms act as a coping mechanism/calming effect. 

The article below is an interesting article which argues that superstitions might actually have a natural evolutionary bias towards superstitions which help our survival:

"Hood claimed that superstition is a product of evolution, having evolved as a way of generating theories about the way things work when they cannot easily be seen or proved. It helps us adapt and stay safe, as well as providing a welcome sense of control. In the modern era, we know that some beliefs are really just nonsense, but the foundations of science itself were built on mankind's ability to reason intuitively."

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2008/do-we-have-a-natural-bias-toward-superstitions/


What do you guys think of superstitions? What are some that you have?

I was at www.askmen.com and saw this title for an article, so I couldn't resist.

As it's part of askmen.com, the article is geared towards providing advice for men - in this instance, particularly straight men.  The article is examining the traits of gay men and why straight women love the gays so much for them.  They talk about clothing style, physical fitness, sensitivity, faithfulness, and fun.

Most heterosexual men's fashion is based on three things: sneakers, wrangler jeans, and a t-shirt.  And while this is fine for us men, women are typically more sophisticated.  They want to be able to talk about their outfits, hair, skin care, etc.  Who is going to provide more to a conversation on hair, a straight guy who puts on a hat until it lies flat, or a gay guy who can compare and contrasts features of different products?

It's harder for women to maintain a set weight for various reasons - partly because their bodies are continuously preparing itself to hold a child each month.  As the article says, " [in] many instances, gay men simply take better care of themselves than we do . . ."  Their gay best friend is, however, someone who will tell them the new ways to lose weight or who will go to the gym with them.

 

The website tells how an article by the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 describes how heterosexual women's brains and homosexual men's brains are similar - making it more likely that their brains function the same way.  This would explain one reason why gay men tend to be more willing to talk about their emotions than we, heterosexual men, are.

 

Faithfulness is yet another quality that women love in their gay men.  They don't have to worry about the man leaving them for another woman.  It removes a deep-seated insecurity.

 

And lastly, gay men are just more fun.  They can comparatively talk about sex with women and give them tips from a guy's perspective on what feels good without being embarrassed.

 

This can all be explained with a simple answer: the psychological need for relatedness.  Gay men can just relate to straight women on levels that straight men cannot.  However, this is NOT an excuse to not try.

 

As my mom always says, "try walking in the other person's shoes for a while."  If we straight men try this, I'm sure we can all relate to females much better and avoid unnecessary arguments - because sleeping on the couch sucks!

 

http://www.askmen.com/dating/curtsmith_300/332b_why-women-love-gay-men.html

We talked about testosterone in class and how it affects sexual behavior, aggression, etc. In this article it discusses the benefits and risks of testosterone therapy and the question of whether or not it can make men feel like they did in their youth. Testosterone does a lot for men: helps maintain bone density, muscle mass, sex drive, sperm production, etc. But around the age of 40, men start producing less and less testosterone and therefore, may feel like something is changing in their bodies. Although it's unclear whether naturally declining testosterone produces symptoms for men, it has been seen that men with diseases that lower their testosterone have seen such symptoms as decreased sexual function, increase in fat mass, memory loss, mood changes, depression, etc. I have read some text refer to the decrease in testosterone as a man's menopause. The article recapped that studies have found that testosterone therapy is able to restore testosterone amounts to that of a youthful man, but it is unclear whether or not it there is any benefit of doing so. While there are benefits to testosterone therapy there are also risks: increased balding, acne, enlarged breasts, fluid retention, etc.

Here is the link to the two page article:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/testosterone-therapy/MC00030

The common stereotype of fraternities and sororities is that they are organizations based purely one common goal, drinking as much as you can. Over years and years of this stereotype being glorified by movies like "Legally Blonde" it has become harder and harder to squash this image. A link on the Greek Life homepage of the Ohio Northern University website has finally started clearing the air and labeling the benefits of Greek life. 

As a college student sleep is at a premium. I am often up very late studying for a test, writing a paper or doing some last minute homework. But usually when I lay down to fall asleep everything that I need to get done that week is racing through my mind. So when I saw this article, I was intrigued, because I thought that other people could also use some tips on getting better and more sleep.

1.      Set a specific bedtime

2.      Get ready for bed well before your bedtime.

3.      Make your room very dark.

4.      Stretch

5.      Keep your bedroom a little chilly

6.      If your mind is racing with worry, make a list of everything you need to do the next day.

7.      Tidy up your bedroom

8.      Exercise.

9.      An hour before bedtime, avoid work that requires alert thinking

10.  Slather myself with body lotion.

11.  Put on socks if my feet are cold.

12.  Yawn.

13.  Tell yourself, "I have to get up now."

14.  Give up, and re-frame your sleeplessness

I found some of these tips helpful, and others are not realistic for a college student. Number 9 would never work for me because I am pretty much studying or doing homework until I go to sleep. Number 6 is a very good idea that I may try though.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-happiness-project/201001/fourteen-tips-getting-more-sleep-and-why-it-matters

 

http://www.themedguru.com/20100114/newsfeature/people-happiest-during-weekends-study-86131803.html

I found this article to be rather interesting, the study suggests that weekends have a significant effect on the body. Researchers suggest that, "simply being in charge of your own day, spending quality time with family, provides better mood, greater vitality and (fewer) physical ailments from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon."

 

While the results of this study are probably to be expected - most people are visibly happier on the weekends -  it is interesting to hear about what they believe specifically causes physiological changes, such as hormone release, and a more positive attitude overall.

 

They attribute some of these changes to higher feelings of autonomy. At first, I wondered if this effect was mainly seen in those with relatively low paying jobs (those with consistently low autonomy throughout the week), but the effect was found regardless of occupation, age, gender, or relationship status.

 

I actually found it very interesting that even those with high status jobs experience this effect on weekends. I have generally thought that workers with high status already tend to have significantly higher levels of autonomy and leisure, so the presence of the weekend would not make as much of a difference to them. According to this study, I may be wrong.

 

 I wonder if another reason for this affect is that people are often able to rest more on weekends. In BioPsychology I remember the author (John Pinel) mentioning that over time people can gradually reduce the amount of time they sleep to as little as two hours per night with only minor effects, but I have not yet looked at the studies on which he based those statements. I wonder how much of a role (perhaps 2 additional hours) additional sleep can play in improving one's mental and physical condition. I find studies involving sleep to be among the most interesting, and from what I have read it seems like much more research needs to be conducted in this area.   

 

Another question I have is, "Why don't the effects seem to carry past Sunday afternoon?" I suppose the answer may lie in their original report, but if it does it would be rather odd for them not to have included it in the article. I have often heard people say that they will be revitalized and refreshed for work after the weekend, but in my experience I'm not sure people tend to be any better or any worse at their jobs whether it is a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. In any case, I think some of the questions that arise from this article merit further research.