Personally, I do not like yoga that much. I have done regular yoga and hot yoga and I would much rather work out on my own or do something else. I was not concentrated and did not enjoy it. However, others love yoga and some even participate in it every day. They claim that it even can get people over depression and anxiety. That is the question I have: Can yoga really decrease depression or anxiety?

The Harvard Health Publication looked into this question deeper. Yoga moderates stress response systems so it decreases heart rate and blood pressure. The link above showed one study that had to do with your stress and another that looked at how yoga effected mood. In the first study in 2008 was conducted at the University of Utah. It included 12 frequent yoga members, 14 people with a condition called fibromyalgia which is a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain, and 16 healthy volunteers. They were gathered to study their own specific responses to pain. After subjecting them all to thumbnail pressure on different levels, the fibromyalgia participants felt the most pain at lower pressure levels than the other two groups. On the other hand, the yoga participants had the highest pain tolerance out of the three groups and on the MRI the lowest pain related brain activity. Researchers included that yoga can help regulate stress from looking at their pain responses. There could be things wrong with this study, however. They should not be comparing the yoga participants to people with fibromyalgia because they obviously will not have good pain tolerance at all, given their condition. But they were also compared to healthy people so I believe that this makes up for it. I do think that this was an overall legitimate study. Stress could be related to pain in this way because sometimes stress is painful, maybe not physically but mentally. It all depends on how well we handle this change in our body.

The second study conducted was published in 2004, had 24 women participants, and looked at how yoga effected mood and overall functioning. These women, although not technically diagnosed with depression, felt emotionally down or unstable for a previous amount of time. The participants were split up into two groups. The first group was told to take two 90 minute yoga classes for the duration of 3 months. The control group was told to maintain their daily lives and to not engage in any exercise or stress reduction activities throughout the 3 month period. At the end of the study, when measures again, the yoga group of women reported they had improvements in the areas of stress, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and overall well being. Depression had improved by 50%, anxiety by 30% and well being by 65%. Overall, the yoga group had much more improvement then the control group. This seems like a good study that had been done. It seems that the researchers were correct in their hypothesis that yoga does improve mood and depression, per say. It is good in this study that they had a control group so that way they could be compared. However it may have been a bit unethical to not allow them to fix their depression or emotional status throughout the 3 months. Both of the studies were randomized control trials.

All in all, I do believe that yoga can improve mood, depression, and overall well being. The main focus of yoga is to calm the mind and it could be a certain form of meditation. If it reduces stress, I think that all us college students should start on a regular basis!

I have always wondered why exactly thrill seekers think how they do? Why do some people get s thrill from bungee jumping while for others this idea could make them throw up? Also are there reasons for thrill seeking or are people just born into this way of life?

This is mostly based on biological behavior and what type of personality one has. Type T personality, for example, is a personality type that takes risks. They are extroverts, but while some use their personality for good, like through business deals, others use it in the wrong way.  For example, some turn out to be sociopaths and find their thrill that way. Frank Farley explains Type T personalities deeper. This personality is based off of biological forces, like how much dopamine or testosterone one has. Dopamine and testosterone both affect how much of a thrill seeker one can be and if they live on the dangerous side or not. On the other hand it is also psychological and how the person acts and takes on challenges. These people are creative and take matters into their own hands, and as I said, extroverts.

Thrill seeking can also be based off of previous experiences we have had, like being in the Army for example. Yes, people going into the Army I feel have Type T personalities in the first place but I am talking about how they are affected after coming back from war. However, others may be going into war for external reasons, such as simply wanting to help fight for our country or maybe because veterans are in their family history. But, when these brave men and women are coming back from the thrills and scariness that come along with fighting for our country, they think it is boring at home. This leads them to take frightening risks in other ways to make up for the adrenaline loss they have.  Colonel Shahbaz wants to look further into this. He wants to measure if a predisposition to risk taking is involved in enlisting in combat and if risk takers are more likely to commit suicide or die in accidents.

In 2010 a five year study (in the link above) began to find out more about this correlation. The Army and National Institute of Mental Health looked at 90,000 soldiers already at war and 80,000-120,000 recruitments per year. They distributed a study that involved questions like if they had owned a motorcycle or if they would be interested in bungee jumping. Their family background and genetics were also looked at. 79 percent of soldiers that had committed suicide had one or none deployment. To blame war itself is not logical, because their could be so many other things involved. Chance, previous psychological issues, or problems that had to do with family, for example, could play a factor. Now, I do not know how accurate this could be given it is a quantitative experiment. There are so many participants and I am sure it was taken seriously, however so many third variables could be involved. If they had taken a smaller number of participants and looked at each separately this may have been more beneficial. The Army and others involved in the set up of this experiment, claim they need to pin point the most common actions of adrenaline and let everyone know of safer things to do and how to handle their adrenaline loss.

Thrill seekers find pleasure and a sense of calmness when risk taking. Chris Carr, a sport psychologist, studied skiers that went racing down a hill at 70 mph and divers that were diving from 32 feet above water. The athletes did not mention the thrill or risk behaviors they were taking, but more the sense of calmness they felt when taking the risk.

While these studies could be convincing, I believe there needs to be more of a meta-analysis of smaller studies done. It could possibly involve how the brain is working while these people are taking risks. Or comparing how thrill seekers feel when riding a roller coaster, to people that do not enjoy risk behaviors.

Before college I never had a problem staying awake during the day. I would, for the most part, have a bunch of energy, the thought of sleeping never even occurred to me and I did not even like coffee much. Then came the craziness of college. We wake up for an 8 am, have classes throughout the day, eat lunch, more classes, maybe go to the gym, eat dinner, have a club meeting, then are studying for the rest of the night until 2 am. Then you have to wake up and do it all over again, it’s exhausting. Who wouldn’t take time to sleep if they could it’s not like were getting enough at night. Or why wouldn’t you get a cup of coffee in the morning, afternoon, and night like I sometimes do. My question, though is what is more effective for you: taking that mid day nap or downing three cups of coffee throughout the day?

The National Sleep Foundation gives a couple benefits of napping. Short naps lasting about twenty to thirty minutes are the most effective. This will provide alertness and not leave you with that grogginess if you had just waken up from a three hour nap. It will simply put you in a state where you are relax and will rejuvenate you for the rest of the day (hopefully.) The again what if you are out all day and simply do not have time to even sit down, let alone take a nap. This is where coffee comes in handy. Just stop on the way to class and grab a quick cup and go on with your day.

Here is the article I am going to be referencing in the next paragraph. It compares naps and caffeine and even gives a study to support their decision. The 61 participants chosen at UC San Diego were put through a series of cognitive tasks emphasizing verbal memory, motor skills, and perceptual learning to detect if taking naps or drinking caffeine is more effective to get you through the day. The verbal test included a memorization of a list of words, the motor skills test was tapping sequences on a keyboard, and the perpetual tests was picking targets with a background. They were fed lunch then an hour later were split up into two different groups: the nap group or the caffeine group. The people in the nap group took a ninety minute nap while the caffeine group listened to a tape during this time. When the nappers were awake, the caffeine group was split (unknowingly) in half again, giving one half a caffeine pill and the other a placebo. An hour later they were tested on the same tests again.

The results were that the nappers won! Although the people that got the caffeine pills were more alert before the test, the nappers performed the best on the verbal and motor test. In the motor skills, the placebo and nappers’ scores improved, while the caffeine group dropped. Basically both naps and caffeine are going to keep you alert but our alertness is not the same as improved memory, learning, or performance. Only naps will be able to help with that.

In that above study I believe it was affective. I don’t, however, understand why they used both a caffeine pill and a placebo. I am not sure what the placebo’s purpose was. Maybe to differentiate between both the caffeine and naps to see if these were really effective? I do think it was good that they measure the participants’ cognitive abilities before and after the experiment to make sure there was actually a change and people were not just messing around. It is interesting that even the placebo itself was increasing people’s scores more than the caffeine.

In another study, they argued that neither caffeine or naps separately were effective and that people should be taking “coffee naps.” A coffee nap is when you drink a cup of coffee and then take a nap immediately after. Most question this because everyone knows that caffeine interferes with sleep, right? Well, apparently, not if it is right before you take a nap. You must make sure that they nap is 20 minutes or less, though. Caffeine technically takes 20 minutes to kick in and hit the brain. So if you take a nap during these 20 minutes than you can expect ultimate alertness. There have been studies to support all of this data. One study looked at ten participants after riding for an hour in a car stimulus. Some took a nap or were given a caffeine placebo, while others were to take a coffee nap. The participants that took the coffee nap had fewer driving errors when they had to take another hour long car trip after. Another study states that caffeine naps can actually help you throughout a long period of time. A study done on 24 participants started when they could not sleep for 24 hours instead of taking a few short naps. After this period, half the men were given a caffeine pill and the other half was given a placebo. After this they took a nap. The half that took the placebo scored worse than their original baseline test while the other half that got the caffeine stayed the same.

If comparing these two studies, I would say if you are going for improved cognitive skills, take a short nap. Although the “coffee nap” seems effective, it stated that cognitive skills did not drop, but simply stayed the same. Simply drinking caffeine can help too in keeping you awake but just not for extreme amounts of time.

Who knew that your parents nagging you all those year to make your bed could actually affect how you feel? According to researchers, people who make their beds in the morning are ultimately happier people than those that do not. Is this true? Can doing this one simple thing actually change how I feel throughout the day?

The Today Show had an article that helped me answer this question. Starting your day off by doing this basic task is seeing you up to be even more productive throughout the rest of the day. People will think, “Oh wow that made me feel good I actually got something done. Okay might as well keep it up what else do I have to do.” Obviously how much we get done during the day usually affects our happiness. If I spent my whole day laying in bed being completely unproductive, I would feel pretty bad about myself. But if I started my day off right and made my bed, then was productive throughout the rest of the day, I would feel a lot better about myself. Charles Duhigg talked about making your bed in his book The Power of Habit. He correlates doing this with productivity. He also states that making your bed is a keystone habit because it dissolves into other habits, like getting things done.

Psychology Today notes on a survey of 68,000 people. It states that from those people, “59 percent of people don’t make their beds. 27 percent do, while 12 percent pay a housekeeper to make it for them. Here’s what disturbed me: 71 percent of bed makers consider themselves happy; while 62 percent of non-bed-makers admit to being unhappy.” This was a very general study though and not as much of an experiment. It is relating and proving more of a correlational study, given that it was a survey. However this is not that good of a reason. First of all, the survey group was so big and giving people surveys is not the best way of getting evidence, given that some may not take it seriously. Also, some of these people may just be happy people in general. That does not mean that just because they make there bed they are happy for that reason. Surveys are more correlational and prove whether that correlation is positive or negative.

On the other hand, other researchers are telling us not to make our beds. According to a study by researchers from Kingston University in England, leaving your bed messy helps to prevent the presence of allergen and asthma-causing dust mites. This experiment can be found in most detail at this link. Scientists state that mites cannot survive in warm and dry conditions, which are the conditions of an unmade bed. The main researcher, Dr. Stephen Pretlove, explains, ““House dust mites feed on scales of human skin so they love to share our beds. The allergens they produce are easily inhaled during sleep and are a major cause of illnesses such as asthma.” (cited in the last link.) A computer model was developed that looked at the changes made in households of people if they made their beds. A experiment was then developed where Pretlove put mites in 36 peoples beds. Third variables such as heating and insulation were adjusting accordingly to see how the mites react. Thankfully, these mites were put into tea bags which would give them the temperatures they needed, without escaping. These participants volunteered to participate so it was not a randomized or blind experiment trial. I do think it would have made more sense to make this randomized and have two separate groups because the results could be compared. Mites are a main source of people getting asthma, because when these mites let out their allergen it is what we consume while sleeping, and what causes our asthma.

In conclusion, if I were decided which of the two studies is more accurate I would have to pick not making your bed. This is because both started with a correlation but Pretlove took it one step further and made an experiment out of it. But I do think that both make sense. It is just whichever you prefer. So which are you going to go for? US Navy Seal William H. McCraven, however, stated in his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. “It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”

Do things that seem impossible suddenly become possible if put in a life or death situation? For example, how is it that we hear stories of mothers instantly lifting a car off of their baby that is trapped underneath? Is there such thing as this hysterical, or superhuman strength?

Hysterical strength is the unnatural and amazing strength tapped during high stress situations. It is the strength that allows us to life that car off a child. Unfortunately, since these occurrences are so rare and unexpected, it is hard to back it up with scientific evidence. Posing an experiment to find out if this strength can really happen, or if it is just by chance, would be unethical and far too dangerous. We could simply go off of the eyes of witnesses but normally the only ones are the people involved in the accident itself.

Although it would be nearly impossible (at least at the time being) to create a scientific experiment to prove this, researchers have constructed a theory on why and how this can be possible. It all comes back to adrenaline. Adrenaline’s overall effect is to prepare the body for its “fight or flight” response in times of stress or danger. It times of danger, the stressor (the sight of your child immobilized under a car) while stimulate the hypothalamus. Although this region of the brain is responsible for creating a balance of stress and relaxation in the body, when it is alerted with danger it will signal your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands will then activate your sympathetic system, which will send the body into an excited state. Now we are back to the release of adrenaline, which will ultimately create your readiness on the task at hand. You can find all of that on page two of this article. All of these changes put together will make us more agile and give us the energy needed to react in the situation we are set in. Scientists believe that we basically have this hysterical, or superhuman, strength in our body at all times. However, just picture it in a cage, trapped inside our body, waiting for the right signals to burst out and help when needed. Some also point out that we use certain muscles past their normal use when put in situations of danger.

Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a Penn State kinesiology professor, takes another approach to explaining the idea of this incredible strength. He claims this strength is not something you can acquire, and that even trained athletes can only go above 12% of their regular performance. “This parameter is not a fixed number—the more intense the competition, the higher it can go, as the brain’s fear centers progressively remove any restraint against performance.” He claims there is a limit as to the strength or adrenaline we have in any given situation, whether that be a high school track meet, the Olympics, or a life or death situation. His claim is that this hysterical strength is more related to the theory of analgesia, or the inability to feel pain. He says in the article in the link above that this cannot simply come out of working out at the gym. But, in situations of extreme pressure, like being in second place at the Olympics, or again seeing your child under a 3000 pound car, you are not going to feel the pain or strain put on your body. You are just going to do what needs to be done.

In conclusion, although their have not been controlled, scientific studies to prove this hysterical strength, researchers went into seeing the possible mechanisms to explain how this could be possible. They used the scientific method and turned their theories into hypotheses. There is not simply one answer to explain this incredible question as to how exactly this can happen. But, maybe it is something that one will never believe until put into a situation.

Some people don’t study at all. Others study just the perfect amount. However, some seem to study for test weeks in advance. Me, being one that only studies one to three days in advance, wonders if studying weeks before a test is really going to improve one’s performance that much. Can it possibly be too much studying? Or is it actually helping these people?

In my research to find an answer to this question, I came across a term called burning out. While studying, we need to take breaks and take time to ourselves or else we are going to burn ourselves out. Studying everyday for 24 hours a day is exhausting and can take a toll on the body. This may make one perform not as well on a test as they thought. We need to take study breaks, like going to exercise, have a snack, or hang out with friends. Taking breaks is going to make your brain cooperate while studying more. I think we all have felt we are going to go crazy or our brain is going to explode with information when studying for too long without taking a break. Taking breaks and getting enough sleep is only going to benefit your grade. In this aspect, overstudying can hurt us if we do not get the right amount of sleep or take breaks.

In my research I also came across a man named Nate Kornell. He argued that although late night studying will keep material fresh in your mind, and may be able to help you pass the test, if we are looking to keep the information in our minds for a while, this will not benefit us. Basically he thinks it is better to study weeks in advance, than the day before. Kornell also did research studies to prove this. Kornell states in the link above, “At some point, waiting too long [between sessions] could have a negative effect [on learning]. However, most of us space far too little. Practically speaking, too much spacing is not really a danger anyone should worry about.”

In one study, Kornell asked a group of college students to study a stack of twenty notecards that they would be tested on the next day. One half of the students studied the notecards in groups of four, with five notecards in each stack. The other half studied all twenty words at a time, giving them more spacing time in between each repeated word. The test showed that the group that kept the words in all one stack remembered the words better. It compared 49 to 36 percent. This supported Kornell’s theory that spacing out your studying can make all the difference in your grade. This was a experiment not a correlational study. He chose his two groups, however, it was not a bling procedure, because both groups knew what they were doing the whole time.

Kornell did another study to go with my other theory above, that talked about giving yourself a good amount of breaks and not just studying all the way through. This is continuing on my cited link under apa.com. Kornell worked with Robert Bjork when asking 120 people to participate in a study. They made each person study twelve artists by looking at six examples from each one of their works. Half of the participants saw all paintings in a row while the others saw them mixed up. After counting backwards from 547, which is used as a distracting task, the participants that had studied the paintings in a mixed up order remembered the paints better. Bjork says, “It could be that the mixing forces students to notice and process the similarities and differences among the things they’re trying to learn, giving them a better, deeper understanding of the material.”

Our correlation in these studies is that studying weeks in advance helps us get better grades. Third variables involved in this, though, could possibly be that mixing up the material or taking breaks in between studying can benefit us. In conclusion, from my research, I have come to believe that as long as your are taking a healthy amount of breaks and getting enough sleep, studying a week in advance is okay.

One of the most annoying things to me is when I am going a steady 65 mph on the way to the beach, then so unexpectedly, just stop. I am in bumper to bumper traffic for twenty minutes, and there is no way around it. Then, like magic, the road is totally clear and I am back to 65 mph as opposed to 10. Why do these random traffic jams happen? And how do they all of a sudden go back to completely normal?

There are many main causes of traffic jams. First, traffic occurs mostly within rush hour. Based on a normal 8:00-5:00 work day, traffic jams on major highways can start as early as 7:00 and stay that way for an hour. Then at the end of the day, during the hours of 4:30-6, traffic picks up heavily again. Personally, on my way to high school, I would plan accordingly on when the best time to leave in the morning was, to avoid work traffic. I learned if I left at 7:28, I would not hit any traffic at all; however, if I left just three minutes after, there was a possibility of me being late for school. Everyone just has to find that time that is right for them.

Second, if there was many traffic jams during this rush hour, it is more likely for a crash to happen. People get irritated and just want to get home after a long work day, and sitting in traffic is not helping that. People will try to swerve in and out of others cars who are moving at a slow pace with the traffic. When they try to get around people and beat the system, traffic accidents happen. This then leads to grabbing the attention of other drivers. For example, if someone is passing an accident, at rush hour, many cars are going to stop and look. If this is during rush hour, and many cars are slowing down to see the damage, this can cause the traffic to be backed up even more. According to the link above, construction is also a factor into traffic jams. When cars need to merge into one lane of traffic, it can also delay you getting home even more than it already has if it is rush hour, an accident occurred, and now construction all in one.

Looking for the scientific approach on why traffic jams occur, I came across an article on ZME Science by Tom Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt states, “You are not driving into a traffic jam, a traffic jam is basically driving into you.” He claims that traffic jams are ultimately our fault and gives multiple reasons for why this may be so. His main solution for helping there be less traffic is for more people to use public transportation. First, this would reduce the number of cars on the road, which would make it less likely for jams to happen. His next reasoning revolves around an experiment that proves people cannot drive at a constant speed. You can see while watching this video in the link, that at random times some jams occur within the circle of cars, merely because some are slowing down then going fast again at random times.

I believe the experiment that Vanderbilt explained, when the cars were all put in one big circle, can be a reason why there are random traffic jams, then it all of a sudden clears up. Vanderbilt also relates the “familiarity effect” to people avoiding traffic laws when close to home. For example, you are less likely to stop at a stop sign a mile from your house because you have gone through it a million times. We do not realize that our lazy driving techniques at times have a negative effect on traffic.

One more reason for traffic jams occurring randomly is related to the emergent phenomenon. This link states, “Tiny random motions can trigger large results.” These jams can just emerge randomly from a couple peoples’ tiny mistakes. Traffic jams are quite annoying, but happen anywhere. Hopefully, at least for the people reading this blog, we will become more conscious of why traffic jams happen and the little things we can do to try and avoid them.

I am sure everyone knows what I’m talking about. You’re at the grocery store and of course you go to the shortest line there is. But all of a sudden the long line next to you starts to speed up the second you get in line. So, naturally, you move to get in that line instead. Then you look over at the other line you were just in and now that line is moving fast, and you realize you haven’t moved in two minutes. “How is this possible?” you ask yourself, “Why is it the line we are in always moves the slowest?”

This has been a question that has been on my mind forever. I mean am I really that unlucky? Or is there a deeper meaning behind this? So I decided that this would be a perfect topic to write my blog on! After doing some research I found that it all starts with the Copenhagen Telephone Exchange. Back then, when phone operators were actually people and not just set up computers and had to connect phone calls manually, a man named Agner Krarup Erlang studied the ongoing problem of phone networking. According to the website in my link, he created a formula after studying a village’s telephone exchange. He calculated the fraction of callers attempting to make a call to someone outside the village, who had to wait because all the other phone lines were in use. He worked on the probability of problems with phone traffic and created the formula known for the loss and waiting time. He devised equations to calculate how many lines the telephone exchange would need if no one would ever have to go on hold. This was known as the queueing theory.

This theory that Erlang created is the main explanation for why you can never be in the fastest line wherever you are. So it goes all back to probability. If there are five lines at the store and you are in one there is only a one in five chance that you are in the fastest line. There are always annoying problems at Forever 21 at the mall, for example. There are 5 lines, but of course you got in the line where everyone in front of you is either buying twenty things or making a bunch of returns. This is obviously going to make you in the slowest line.

Then there is the store you go into that has just one line but all the registers open. Although this may look super intimidating at first, it i known to be more efficient in the end. This one line is called a serpentine line. This is actually better because if one person is taking forever, there is still six more registers open that you are in line for.

According to an article in the NY Times, researchers have found that customers think lines are actually longer than they really are. The clocks in our heads are accurate for about 3 minutes than any time after that we believe time is going on forever, when it has actually only been 5 minutes.

My take on the whole line waiting is just about patience. You would not be waiting in the line in the first place if you did not want what you were waiting for so you might as well stick it out. The human mind is going to wander and think that all other possibilities were better than the one you picked, so this is why the other lines seem to move faster than yours. I enjoyed writing this post, though, because I finally got closure on why of the topics that I have been looking for an answer for a while now.

One of the most annoying things to me is when I get the hiccups. Everyone has a different way of hiccuping, some people do not even open their mouths while other’s are loud and obnoxious. Unfortunately I fall under the loud and obnoxious category. Whenever this happens to me, I always wonder why? Hiccups are so random and I spend countless minutes holding my breath, asking people to scare me, and drinking water upside down. Do these tricks, that I’ve been doing every since I was little actually work?

According to Dictionary.com, a hiccup is defined as a quick, involuntary inhalation that follows a spasm of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the muscle at the base of your lungs. It is what helps us breathe properly, and where hiccups are originated. This spasm is created from an irritation in the diaphragm. The hiccup sound that is made is the quick closing of our vocal cords Although studies have not given an actual, definite reason as to why these spasm, or hiccups, occur, scientists have come up with some legitimate reasons that could be the case.

First, hiccups can be caused from eating too much too fast, or eating too much in general. Eating a lot can cause the diaphragm to be irritated which, as I said above, creates a hiccup. People who eat too fast, are swallowing too much air which can also effect the diaphragm. As said in the hyperlink in the first sentence of this article, people that are doing both of these acts,  can result in having hiccups for a longer amount of time, because it is double the irritation.  Second, besides just over eating and eating too fast, hiccups can be caused by what we eat. Normally spicy foods or carbonated drinks can contribute to getting hiccups also. Third, we can also get the hiccups from being overly excited or even from a change in temperature. I actually always get the hiccups if I am in a warm house over the winter then go outside to the freezing cold. It is highly recommended that if you have the hiccups for long periods of time, you should go to the doctor because they could be a sign of something much more serious.

After doing research on why hiccups occur, the remedies for curing hiccups make much more sense! I now understand why drinking water is a cure for hiccups. By drinking cold water, it will make the diaphragm less irritated and soothe it. According to page three in this article, holding your breath and breathing into a paper bag are effective because they interrupt the respiratory cycle. Being scared is just a mental distraction, that for some reason can also help with curing hiccups.

All in all my research helped me more to understand why we get hiccups and what the reasons are behind the certain things I always thought were myths. I would always have friends scare me for fun, but now I know there is a legitimate reason behind it all.

I always feel a bit awkward when my best friend is going on about how cute some guy is and I just have to sit there because I don’t agree. Has this ever happened to you? Why is it that I think brown hair guys are attractive, but other girls only like blondes? Or why is it that I think Ryan Gosling is so cute, but my friend, Anna, doesn’t think so and would prefer Justin Bieber.  I have alway been curious as to why some people are attracted to some, but others are not.

First, I went out to discover why people are attracted to certain people.  We are attracted to people in two ways: by their physical appearance, and their personality.  There are a number of different things that factor into someone being physically attracted  to someone.  There can be the way we process different faces.  If people’s brains find faces that are easier to process, it will make them more attractive. However, the ease of processing a face is linked to my overall question.  People relate processing a face quickly to its familiarity to them.  This is one reason why different people find some attractive. People that we are around often or see often we find more attractive than those who are complete strangers.  Dr. Tamsin Saxton did a study on the influence of familiarity.  He found that girls that went to an all girls school were more attracted to feminine-looking faces.  The majority of guys, on the other hand, that went to an all-boy school, were more attracted to masculine looking males.  Their preference of girl did not change, however, was the same as boys at coed schools. I related this idea of familiarity to how people that are in relationships with others at times find that person more attractive than when they first started dating. Another way of physical attractiveness is if someone is similar to you are someone close to you.  In my Child Psychology class my senior year, we learned that girls are more likely to marry someone that looks similar to their dad, because that is what they were used to.

Now I will cover the other part of attractiveness: personality. Personality is highly linked to physical attraction.  Whether a person has a positive or negative personality can affect their physical attractiveness. In a study done by Viren Swami, it was shown that personality really does matter.  Men were to rate the pictures of women’s bodies, while half were given their personality traits, the others were not.  It was shown that the men that were given the women’s personality traits rating women of all different shapes attractive and based their thoughts more off of positive personalities. The conclusion was that people with positive personalities are more attracted to others that were the same way.  On the other hand, when it comes to relationships there may be some differences.  For example, some girls like very sweet and funny boys that will always be surprising them with cute things. But, other girls would rather have a mysterious boy that keeps her guessing and does not like lovey-dovey things done to them.  This is related to us being attracted to familiarity and someone with the same ideas and personality as you.  If you don’t like lovey-dovey things and neither does your boyfriend, then you’re set! But girls that love to be surprised with cards and stuffed animals all the time, would find this person less attractive.

In conclusion, there are two ways in which people are found attractive: physically and personality wise.  One’s different view on each of these categories will at times be different than others, even their best friends! This is the reason why some people find some attractive, while others are not attracted to them at all.

Especially through the last couple of years, I have tried to be very focused     on my nutrition and the things that I am putting into my body.  The backs of food labeled “Nutrition Facts” have always caught my attention and recently many menus are putting the number of calories under each item of food.  As many I am sure know, obesity is an ongoing problem in the United States and something that I personally believe should be fixed.  Not only are more than two-thirds of American adults obese, but also children are starting to become obese as well. However, it is known that fixing this problem will not only change your weight but also have effects on certain mental issues too. The problem lies way beneath the number of calories we consume.

As said, Nutritional Science involves not only the effect that different foods have on metabolism and disease resistance, but also how people react when different kinds of foods are put into their bodies.  The question I pose, is do different foods actually have different effects on moods and behaviors?

Not only will choosing to eat different food increase your mood, but obviously change your dietary habits in a positive way.  First, we can talk about carbs.  While carbs are not the best for you all the time, we need carbs for the tryptophan, because when that enters the brain, serotonin, which is a mood regulator, will work its magic. Tryptophan  is the key ingredient to making serotonin. Serotonin has major affects of our calmness and sleepiness and would not exist without tryptophan. Second, as everyone I am sure is aware of, a eating breakfast in the morning will have an extreme amount of change in your mood for the day.  You will be more energized if you simply cook up an egg white omelette in the morning before going to work or school.  Third, while some fats obviously are not good for us, others like omega-3 and omega-6 are essential.  These are known as polyunsaturated fats and can be found in things like fish, nuts, and seeds. On the other hand, we need to cut out the amount of saturated fats that are put into our bodies.  These are the “bad fats” like meat, seafood, and dairy.  We must keep our saturated fats to a limit.  However, the goal with trans fat foods is to eliminate it altogether.  These are your processed and fried foods.

Finally, although focusing on what you are eating is extremely important, focusing on exercising is also very important with weight loss and your mood! Especially being here at Penn State and my work load has changed drastically, I have been running to relieve my stress.  In Cameron Diaz’s Body Book she states that exercise increases your mood and actually gives you more energy.  You are more open minded after exercising and it relieves stress!

The main point of this blog was that eating healthy and exercising will not only change your weight, but also your mood! However, if you have certain cravings do not ignore them.  This will just lead to overeating later which defeats the whole purpose. Everything in moderation! WE ARE… lucky to not only have numerous fitness opportunities here at Penn State but also many different healthy food options surrounding us.

Hey everyone my name is Sarah Pettoruto and I am from Newark, DE.  I am a freshman here at Penn State and I already love it here! I am currently in the Division of Undergraduate Studies but am looking to go into Communications.

I am taking this course because I needed a science to take and this was the one that sounded the most interesting. In high school I took biology, chemistry, anatomy, and physics and anatomy was the only one I actually enjoyed. When I saw that this was just a general science class and you did not have to be in a science major or have any background in science at all, I knew it would be a good choice!

I am not interested in many science classes so I did not think that a science major would be the right course for me to take.  I was also not too good at any of my science classes in high school. But from going to the first day for this class, it totally interests me and I knew I picked a good course to take.

During the summer going into my senior year I went to Italy with some people from my high school and it was the best 10 days of my life!

Here is a picture of the Coliseum in Rome.

This is a link to my favorite Taylor Swift music video.