"Μαθαίνοντας την Επιστήμη μέσα από τo Θέατρο‏"

Η Science View διοργανώνει μία νέα, πρωτοποριακή δράση σε συνεργασία με το τμήμα Φιλοσοφίας, Παιδαγωγικής και Ψυχολογίας του Εθνικού Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών, με τίτλο «Μαθαίνοντας την Eπιστήμη μέσα από το Θέατρο».

Πριν από το επόμενο Μαθητικό Κοινοβούλιο της Επιστήμης που θα διοργανωθεί την άνοιξη του 2016, η Science View συνεχίζει τις εκαπιδευτικές της δράσεις με το «Μαθαίνοντας την Eπιστήμη μέσα από το Θέατρο». Στη συγκεκριμένη δράση μαθητές Γυμνασίου και Λυκείου καλούνται να δραματοποιήσουν επιστημονικές έννοιες και γνώσεις που προέρχονται από την ύλη που διδάσκονται στα σχολεία.

Η δράση αφορά σε σχολεία της Αττικής. Οι μαθητές θα δραματοποιήσουν όσα διδάσκονται στο σχολείο, μέσα από ένα μη δεσμευτικό σενάριο με τον τίτλο «Παράλληλοι κόσμοι», το οποίο περιλαμβάνει πέντε θεματικές ενότητες/πράξεις και αφορά τα επιστημονικά πεδία της Βιολογίας, της Αστρονομίας και της Φυσικής.

Θα δημιουργηθούν ομάδες εργασίας (σεναριογράφοι, ηθοποιοί, μουσικοί, χορευτές, σχεδιαστές σκηνικών και κουστουμιών, παραγωγοί βίντεο) οι οποίες θα έχουν πρόσβαση σε επαγγελματική καθοδήγηση (σκηνοθέτες, ηθοποιούς, σεναριογράφους, μουσικούς). Οι μαθητές μπορούν να συμμετέχουν σε παραπάνω από μια ομάδες, βάσει των ενδιαφερόντων τους.

Τουλάχιστον ένας εκπαιδευτικός ανά σχολείο θα είναι υπεύθυνος για το συντονισμό των εργασιών. Οι εκπαιδευτικοί μπορούν να ενσωματώσουν τις εκπαιδευτικές δραστηριότητες στα αντίστοιχα μαθήματα του ωρολογίου προγράμματος (Φυσική, Αστρονομία, Μουσική, Βιολογία, Καλλιτεχνικά) ως υλοποίηση project και σε εκπαιδευτικούς ομίλους που πραγματοποιούνται στο σχολείο τους (θεατρικό παιχνίδι, μουσική, κλπ.).

Οι μαθητές θα ανεβάσουν την παράσταση στην Αθήνα -σε χώρο ο οποίος θα ανακοινωθεί προσεχώς- τον Απρίλιο 2015, όπου θα υπάρχει και επιτροπή αξιολόγησης από ειδικούς (ακαδημαϊκούς, καθηγητές φυσικών επιστημών, σκηνοθέτες, ηθοποιούς, μουσικούς). Οι μαθητές που θα επιλεγούν βάσει ατομικής απόδοσης του κάθε ρόλου θα προετοιμάσουν και θα πραγματοποιήσουν μια κοινή παράσταση που θα περιλαμβάνει όλες τις πράξεις σε δημόσιο χώρο στην Αθήνα για το ευρύ κοινό εντός του Ιουλίου 2015.

Οι ίδιοι μαθητές θα πραγματοποιήσουν μια επιπλέον παράσταση στο πλαίσιο του Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου του ευρωπαϊκού έργου CREAT-IT εντός του Οκτωβρίου 2015 τόσο για τους συνέδρους όσο και για το ευρύ κοινό. Τέλος, 3-4 μαθητές θα επιλεγούν ώστε να συμμετέχουν στο Διεθνές Συνέδριο «Science & You» που θα διεξαχθεί στο Nancy της Γαλλίας, 1-6 Ιουνίου του 2015. Εκεί θα παρουσιάσουν σύντομο απόσπασμα του έργου.

Η δράση στηρίζεται στο παιδαγωγικό πλαίσιο που αναπτύχθηκε από το ευρωπαϊκό πρόγραμμα CREAT-IT (www.creatit-project.eu), το οποίο και υποστηρίζει το project.

Οι ενδιαφερόμενοι θα βρουν στο site http://lstt.weebly.com/ περισσότερες πληροφορίες, χρήσιμο υλικό, καθώς και φόρμα συμμετοχής.

ΠΗΓΗ:

http://www.kathimerini.gr/785279/article/epikairothta/episthmh/ma8ainontas-thn-episthmh-mesa-apo-to-8eatro(accessed 30.9.14)

Οι πολιτικές ιδεολογίες μυρίζουν

Έρευνα αποδεικνύει ότι έχουν διαφορετική μυρωδιά

Οι πολιτικές πεποιθήσεις μυρίζουν. Τουλάχιστον αυτό δείχνουν τα αποτελέσματα επιστημονικής έρευνας που διεξήγαγαν τα πανεπιστήμια Χάρβαρντ, Πενσιλβάνια και Μπράουν. Η έρευνα δημοσιεύθηκε στο αμερικανικό περιοδικό πολιτικής επιστήμης «American Journal of Political Science», και δείχνει ότι οι συντηρητικοί έχουν διαφορετικό μυρωδιά από τους φιλελεύθερους. Συγκεκριμένα, οι 146 εθελοντές ηλικίας 18 έως 40 ετών, που συμμετείχαν χωρίστηκαν σε γκρούπ ανάλογα με τις πολιτικές τους πεποιθήσεις.

Οι εθελοντές κλήθηκαν να φοράνε επί 24 ώρες κάτω από την μασχάλη τους σφουγγαράκια που απορροφούσαν τον ιδρώτα τους. Σε αυτό το διάστημα δεν έπρεπε να κάνουν μπάνιο ή να φοράνε άρωμα. Αργότερα, μια δεύτερη ομάδα 125 εθελοντών που είχαν δηλώσει και αυτοί τις δικές τους πολιτικές προτιμήσεις, μύρισαν τα συγκεκριμένα σφουγγαράκια και τα βαθμολόγησαν με κλίμακα από το ένα έως το πέντε.

Το αποτέλεσμα έδειξε ότι οι άνθρωποι, χωρίς να το συνειδητοποιούν, προτιμούν την μυρωδιά των ανθρώπων, που έχουν την ίδια ή παρεμφερή πολιτική ιδεολογία. Οι ερευνητές υποστηρίζουν ότι αυτό εξηγεί το ότι οι άνθρωποι τείνουν να συνάπτουν φιλικές ή σεξουαλικές σχέσεις με άτομα, που έχουν την ίδια ή κοντινή ιδεολογία. Υπάρχει πιθανότητα τα εν λόγω ευρήματα τις έρευνας να είναι κατά 10% τυχαία το σίγουρο όμως είναι πως θα πρέπει να επιβεβαιωθούν από μελλοντική έρευνα.

SOURCE:

http://www.athensvoice.gr/article/%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%AE%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82/%CE%BF%CE%B9-%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%B9%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AD%CF%82-%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%B5%CF%82-%CE%BC%CF%85%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%B6%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%BD(accessed 29.9.14)

Blogging her way back to health

26 September 2014 Last updated at 23:58 GMT

By Emma TraceyBBC News, Ouch23:58 UK time, Friday, 26 September 2014

Why one chronically ill young woman swapped medication for a strict plant-based diet.

Like millions of others across the world, Natasha Lipman posts pictures of the food she eats on Instagram. But instead of cakes and fancy restaurant meals, she photographs her breakfast green juice concoctions and healthy superfood snacks.

Sixteen thousand followers watch the 25-year-old Londoner's daily progress, as she tries to maintain a diet of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains.

She initially joined Instagram to help her diet stay on track by keeping a visual food diary but says that her success on the site is down to more than intriguing food photos of smoothies and pancakes with raw chocolate. "I'm specifically sharing my day-to-day story of how I'm using food to heal, and the ups and downs of life with chronic illness."

Born with the connective tissue disorder Elhers-Danlos syndrome, Lipman's joints are prone to regularly and painfully dislocating. Last year, however, she developed two additional chronic conditions, an autonomic system issue called PoTS which stops the body from regulating itself properly and a histamine intolerance that's left her with severe allergies to foods including tomatoes.

Natasha Lipman

"I started getting dizzy, lightheaded, tight-chested, constantly nauseous," she wrote in the Huffington Post of her new symptoms. "I couldn't stand without needing to pass out, I couldn't eat half a banana without thinking I was going to die and needing days to recover, rolling around in bed in agony." She stopped being able to work or leave the house.

The medication she was prescribed didn't work, she says, and gave her "uncomfortable and idiosyncratic side effects that the doctors had never heard of." One drug made her feel like her skin was being sliced off, others caused hallucinations.

On 1 January 2014, after a bout of serious illness, Lipman had had enough of symptoms and side effects and began to look at the role that food might play in her recovery.

"Natural foods have to be very good for me," she decided after months of internet research. "Let's just cut out all of the rubbish and see what happens." She stopped eating meat, dairy, gluten, refined sugar and all processed food in favour of plant-based foods, particularly those such as ginger, which are said to have healing or pain-relieving properties.

Within months Lipman says she had improved to such an extent that she could hold down a full-time job from home, and eat complete meals without repercussions. But while a few Instagram followers try to foist eating habits like the raw food diet on to her as a definite cure, Lipman says that evangelising about specific diets is dangerous.

"I don't try anything without research and self-experimentation," says Lipman, "and would never tell anyone that there is one right way. Just because someone has read a few of my posts, doesn't mean they understand my conditions and the complicated chemical reactions that are unique to each of us."

As she became less ill, Lipman very slowly began reducing her medication and despite a few health relapses, nowadays doesn't take any drugs at all. But the blogger is keen to stress that this is a personal journey and doesn't advocate that others stop taking their meds. "Drugs help a lot of people," Lipman tells the Ouch talk show. "At a point last year, I wouldn't have been able to stand up if it weren't for certain medication. At that time, it was what I needed."

Lipman says that many people in her "real" life find her diet "quite weird-sounding", so making friends on Instagram has been one of the best things to happen to her. "Connecting with like-minded people is amazing. And it stops me boring my family with my food talk all day."

Natasha's recipes: Fennel juice bar and super food balls

The ingredients for her fennel green juice are: one large cucumber, two fennel, four stalks of celery, half a head of broccoli, a bunch of fresh coriander, an apple, and quarter of a lemon, all juiced up together with a teaspoon of wheatgrass.

For her super food balls you'll need: 1 cup pitted dates, 1/5 cup chia seeds, 1/4 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup raw cacao nibs, 1/4 cup pink Himalayan salted pistachios, 1/4 cup mixed seeds, a pinch of raw vanilla powder, a generous pinch of pink Himalayan salt and 1-2 teaspoons of a root called maca. Whizz it all up in a food processer until the dates are broken down and you can pinch the mixture together with your fingers. Then roll the mixture into about 14 balls and store in the freezer.

Hear Natasha Lipman's story on the latest Ouch talk show. She is on Instagram as nutritiouslynatasha.

Ouch show 112: Green juice v bacon rollsYour monthly doseof razor-sharp disability radio08:27 UK time, Friday, 26 September 2014

On this month's show - the nutritiously popular blogger who swapped medication for a plant-based diet and how social media can help people with mental health difficulties.

Also, after the recent Disability Pride parade in Belfast, we ask can you be "proud" of being disabled? And a look at what's in Ouch's diary for the coming month.

SOURCE:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs/ouch/(accessed 29.9.14)

The Big Money Test - results

The results of BBC Lab UK's Big Money Test show that there is far more to managing your money than financial know-how. Here Professor Adrian Furnham, Professor Mark Fenton-O'Creevy and Dr Sophie von Stumm reveal what they have learned from the test, launched in April 2011 by money saving expert Martin Lewis.

Why are so many people confused when it comes to managing their money? Huge efforts go into providing people with information to help them manage their money successfully. But these schemes have limited success.

We believe that many factors come into play when we make decisions about money. These include our emotions, beliefs and motivations, as well as our money habits, access to information and financial knowledge. We created the Big Money Test, to unpick how these factors make up our complex relationship with money.

Martin Lewis's money saving tips from The Big Money Test

Thanks to the more than 109,000 people that took part, this is one of the largest studies of money psychology ever.

What did we learn?

For the first time ever, we looked at the relationship between how money makes us feel (money motivations), financial capability and money problems. Our results show clearly that there is more to how we manage our money than financial capability. These are our key discoveries:

While financial knowledge is important, our emotions play a big part in how well we manage our money

Money makes many people feel worried, guilty and anxious

Impulse shopping can lead to disastrous financial problems

If money makes you feel powerful you are more likely to encounter money problems, but if money makes you feel secure you are less likely to

Being able to make ends meet is crucial for us to be able to manage our money well, more so than financial knowledge

Attitude to money and financial success tend to improve with age, even more so for men than women

Read on to find out about the results in detail.

Money makes me feel bad

We looked at negative emotions people associate with money and discovered:

Over 40% of people said they constantly worried about spending money

Half agreed that they resent paying the full price for goods in shops

Nearly half said they were flooded with guilt and anxiety when they asked for money

Over a third said they felt anxious when spending money on themselves

A third said they thought about money all the time

These results show that money generates powerful negative emotions. To help people improve their financial capability, we need to tackle people's emotional relationship with money - help them feel more positive and confident about it - if we are to succeed in helping them improve their financial capability.

Impulse buying

We've all done it. You only needed a pint of milk, but on the way out you spot those chocolates on offer and it seems too good to miss. Impulse buying can give us a boost, but what is it doing to our finances? Consumer research often argues that impulse buying is harmless or even a good thing, as it saves us time. But the Big Money Test reveals that for some people the results can be disastrous.

People who bought goods impulsively were three times more likely to go bankrupt, and four times more likely to run out of money by the end of the week. And impulse buying has a greater impact on our ability to make ends meet than financial knowledge, income, education and social class combined. As it can lead to financial problems, is it ethical for retailers to encourage us to buy things on the spur of the moment?

Our results suggest that people who shop impulsively do so to manage their emotions - to make themselves happy, or to stop feeling sad. This may be because they find it hard to manage their moods in other ways. If you recognise that you shop impulsively, you could help avoid potential money problems by adopting new ways of managing your emotions.

Security and Power

Money motivations

Psychologists have identified four types of money motivation:

Security - the extent you use money to feel safe and to avoid feeling anxious about problems you may encounter in the future

Power - the extent you use money to achieve power and influence over others

Love - the degree to which you use money to buy people's affection

Freedom - the extent you use money to do the things you enjoy in life

We wanted to know how the way you feel about money (your money motivation) affects your chance of suffering financial problems.

We found that if money makes you feel powerful you are more likely to encounter financial problems, perhaps from buying status symbols beyond your means, while those who get security from money were less likely to struggle with their finances.

If money gives you a sense of security it could push you to develop the financial skills you need to save and avoid financial crises. Encouraging positive money motivations, like security, should be used to help improve people's financial capability.

Making ends meet

We looked at financial capability, which is how good you are at:

Making ends meet every month

Planning ahead for the future

Keeping track of your finances

Staying informed about financial developments, such as interest rates and house price fluctuations

The Big Money Test results reveal that the skill of making ends meet makes you less likely to suffer money problems. Staying informed about economic developments helps, but to a lesser degree.

If you have a low income and find it hard to make ends meet, it makes sense to keep track of your finances and plan how you spend your money carefully. And we found that people who earn less had higher scores for keeping track.

Surprisingly, we found that people who are good at keeping track of their finances or planning ahead for the future are more likely to have financial problems. One likely explanation for this is that when people first encounter money troubles they start to monitor their finances closely, to avoid falling into a deeper financial trouble.

As we expected, our results have shown that how well we manage our finances (financial capability) and what money means to us (money motivation) both affect how well we manage our money.

Good financial capability is linked to higher levels of income and education, while money motivations are not.

Gender and age

The Big Money Test revealed some distinct differences between men and women and people of different ages:

Women tend to be worried spenders and shop as a form of therapy to manage their emotions

Men are more likely than women to associate money with freedom and the ability to achieve goals

Men tend to feel that money provides security and so are more likely to save, or even hoard their money

Women are much more generous with their money; this was the biggest difference between the sexes

Women are more likely to suffer from (or admit to suffering from) money problems

Impulsive shopping tends to decrease with age

Unexpected overdrafts and refusal of credit are most common for people in their twenties

Bankruptcy and other serious money problems tend to happen later in life

Unexpected life events

Redundancy, major illness and child birth (or adoption) all tend to increase our risk of financial problems and reduce our ability to make ends meet each month. But recent retirement leads to improved financial health. This is likely to be thanks to good financial planning to cope with a lower retirement income.

Our results suggest that your emotional relationship with money makes a big difference to whether an unexpected life event will lead to major financial difficulties.

Frequency of financial problems

Denial of credit or unexpected overdraft were the most frequent money problems (about 25% of the sample), while bankruptcy and car or house repossession were comparatively rare (less than 1% of the sample). These proportions are comparable with nationwide data provided by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, 2012.

Who took part?

A total of 109,472 people (55% women, 45% men) participated in the experiment. The sample was predominantly white British, had an average age of 40 and a mix of educational attainment.

All participants defined themselves as working or middle class. More than 60% were working full-time and the same proportion said they were the major wage earner in their household.

The people who took part in this online experiment don't represent the UK public as a whole. However we were able to use the data collected to generate meaningful results about the relationship that people have with money. Read an article from BBC Lab UK's Big Stress Test to see how we can get valid results from an online survey.

SOURCE:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/21360144(accessed 23.9.14)

People's belief in free will is lower when they need to urinate or desire sex

Embodied or grounded cognition is the name for the idea that physical states affect our thoughts and emotions. It's a controversial field, but typical findings include people's judgments of social closeness being shaped by room temperature, and their attentional style by the clothes they wear. A new paper takes things further, asking whether bodily states affect people's philosophical beliefs, specifically their belief in the notion of free will, defined and measuredhere in the lay sense of having self control and being in charge of one's actions (a typical questionnaire item was "I actively choose what to do from the options I have").

Michael Ent and Roy Baumeister began with an online survey of 23 people with panic disorder and 16 people with epilepsy. Compared with 35 healthy controls, individuals with these conditions believed that people in general have less free will (though their beliefs in their personal free will were no different from controls). The researchers acknowledged that the people with epilepsy and panic disorder may differ from controls in many ways other than their physical illness, but they believe this finding is consistent with their main thesis that having less control of one's body undermines belief in free will.

They further tested this idea with a second online survey of 81 more people (aged 18-70; 29 women), who were asked to rate their current state of needing to urinate, wanting sex, feeling tired, or hungry. People who felt any of these physical needs more strongly, except for hunger, tended to report lower beliefs in their own personal free will.

The anomaly of hunger was explained by a third and final survey with 112 more people, in which they were asked to report their hunger and also whether they were dieting. This time, if dieters were excluded from the analysis, feeling more hunger did go hand in hand with lower beliefs in personal free will. The researchers reasoned that for dieters, feeling hunger was actually a prime for stronger beliefs in free will, since their pangs were a sign they were successfully controlling their urges to eat.

Ent and Baumeister concluded that "embodiment may be a more far-reaching phenomenon than previous research has demonstrated" affecting not only people's views of the world and interactions with others, but also their abstract, philosophical beliefs. "Others have assumed that beliefs about free will are shaped by religious and political doctrines and logical reasoning," they said, "yet such beliefs are at least influenced by bodily cues as seemingly innocuous as a full bladder or an unfulfilled desire for sex."

Some may find these conclusions premature. This was not an experimental study, so rather than states of physical need being induced, they were entirely subjective. Of course physical need is a subjective experience, but the current methodology can't rule out the possibility that people with reduced beliefs in free will also tend to be more sensitive to their physical needs, or more happy to disclose them. In a similar vein, unmeasured factors such as mood or personality could be causally responsible for both greater sensitivity to one's physical needs and a reduced belief in free will. Unmeasured factors, such as differences in affluence and lifestyle, could also help explain the findings for people with epilepsy and panic disorder, without recourse to theories of embodied cognition.

_________________________________ 

SOURCE:

http://digest.bps.org.uk/2014/09/wee-have-no-free-will-belief-in-human.html?utm_source=BPS_Lyris_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter(accessed 18.09.14)

Ent, M., & Baumeister, R. (2014). Embodied free will beliefs: Some effects of physical states on metaphysical opinions Consciousness and Cognition, 27, 147-154 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2014.05.001

Happiness: 10 Fascinating New Psychology Studies Everyone Should Know

Where we feel happiness in the body, how it affects our genetic code, why it changes with age, unexpected pleasures and much more…


Here are 10 of my favourite recent psychology studies about happiness.

Hope you enjoy them!

(You can click the links for longer descriptions of the studies.)
1. Happiness activates the whole body

Unlike thoughts, the emotions don’t live entirely in the mind, they are also associated with bodily sensations.

Thanks to a new study, for the first time we now have a map of the links between emotions and bodily sensations.

Finnish researchers induced different emotions in 701 participants and then got them to colour in a body map of where they felt increasing or decreasing activity.

Below are the body maps for six basic emotions.

Yellow indicates the highest level of activity, followed by red. Black is neutral, while blue and light blue indicate lowered and very low activity respectively.



It’s fascinating that happiness is the one emotion that fills the whole body with activity, including the legs, perhaps indicating that happy people feel ready to spring into action, or maybe do a jig.
2. Happiness changes our genetic code
The right kind of happiness doesn’t just feel great, it also benefits the body, right down to its instructional code.

A recent study examined the pattern of gene expression within the cells responsible for fighting off infectious diseases and defending the body against foreign materials.

Amongst people experiencing higher levels of ‘doing good’ happiness, there was a stronger expression of antibody and antiviral genes.

While doing good and feeling good both make us feel happy, it’s doing good that benefits us at the genetic level.
3. People are happier when they do the right thing

What has happened to people’s happiness all around the world as they’ve faced the economic crisis?

How have they coped with job losses, less money coming in, the sense of despair and lack of control over a nightmare that seems to have no end?

One answer is: some have pulled together.

Data from 255 metropolitan areas across the US found that communities that pull together — essentially doing nice little things for each other like volunteering and helping a neighbour out — are happier.

Social capital has a protective effect: people are happier when they do the right thing.
4. Act like an extrovert — even if you are an introvert

Acting like an extrovert — even if you are an introvert — makes people all around the world feel happier, recent research suggests.

The findings come from surveys of hundreds of people in the US, Venezuela, the Philippines, China and Japan.

Across the board, people reported that they felt more positive emotions in daily situations where they either acted or felt more extroverted.

Participants in the study were told to act in an outgoing way for 10 minutes and then report how it made them feel.

Even amongst introverts — people who typically prefer solitary activities — acting in an extroverted way gave them a boost of happiness.
5. Happiness is contagious online

Emotions expressed online — both positive and negative — are contagious, a new study concludes.

One of the largest ever studies of Facebook examined the emotional content of one billion posts over two years.


Software was used to analyse the emotional content of each post.

It turned out that positive emotions spread more strongly than the negative, with positive messages being more strongly contagious then negative.
6. Ageing changes what makes you happy

With increasing age, people get more pleasure out of everyday experiences.

A recent study asked over 200 people between the ages of 19 and 79 about happy experiences they’d had that were both ordinary and extraordinary.

Across all the age-groups in the study, people found pleasure in all sorts of experiences; both ordinary and extraordinary.

But it was older people who managed to extract more pleasure from relatively ordinary experiences.

They got more pleasure out of spending time with their family, from the look on someone’s face or a walk in the park.

Younger people, meanwhile, defined themselves more by extraordinary experiences.
7. Why materialistic people are less happy

The reason that materialistic people are less happy is that a focus on what you want — and therefore don’t currently have — makes it more difficult to appreciate what you already have.

A recent study found that materialists also feel less gratitude which, in turn, is associated with lower levels of life satisfaction.

The study quotes the words of Greek philosopher Epicurus, who said:


“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

By law, all credit cards should have this quote across the front in fluorescent pink.
8. The power of social connections

Relationships have stronger associations with happiness than academic achievement, according to a recent study.

Whilst strong social relationships in childhood and adolescence were associated with happier adults, the associations with academic achievement were much lower.

It seems that all the education in the world won’t necessarily teach you much about what it means to be happy, in either the emotional or philosophical sense.
9. Goals that lead to happiness

Surprisingly, people are often wrong about the type of goals that will make them happiest.

New research suggests that certain concrete goals for happiness work better than abstract goals.

The study found that acts performed in the service of a concrete goal (making someone smile) made the givers themselves feel happier than an abstract goal (making someone happy).

By thinking in concrete ways about our goals for happiness, we can minimise the gap between our expectations and what is actually possible.
10. Unexpected pleasure from mundane moments

Mundane, everyday experiences can provide unexpected joy down the line, new psychological research finds.

In one study, 135 students were asked to create a time capsule at the start of the summer which included:
a recent conversation,
the last social event they’d attended,
an extract from a paper they’d written,
and three favourite songs.

At the time, they also predicted how they’d feel about these items when they opened the capsule three months later.

Despite being relatively mundane, the students significantly under-estimated how surprised and curious they would be when they opened it.

The study is a reminder of how we tend to undervalue the happiness we can get from everyday events.

So, why not make a little time capsule today?

SOURCE:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/09/happiness-10-fascinating-new-psychology-studies-everyone-should-know.php(accessed 14.9.14)

Botox 'may stunt emotional growth' in young people

By Smitha MundasadHealth reporter, BBC News

Botox is the most well-known version of this drug and is made using a toxic protein

Giving young people Botox treatment may restrict their emotional growth, experts warn.

Writing in the Journal of Aesthetic Nursing, clinicians say there is a growing trend for under-25s to seek the wrinkle-smoothing injections.

But the research suggests "frozen faces" could stop young people from learning how to express emotions fully.

A leading body of UK plastic surgeons says injecting teenagers for cosmetic reasons is "morally wrong".

Botox and other versions of the toxin work by temporarily paralysing muscles in the upper face to reduce wrinkling when people frown.

Mimicking to learn

Nurse practitioner Helen Collier, who carried out the research, says reality TV shows and celebrity culture are driving young people to idealise the "inexpressive frozen face."

But she points to a well-known psychological theory, the facial feedback hypothesis, that suggests adolescents learn how best to relate to people by mimicking their facial expressions.

She says: "As a human being our ability to demonstrate a wide range of emotions is very dependent on facial expressions.

"Emotions such as empathy and sympathy help us to survive and grow into confident and communicative adults."

But she warns that a "growing generation of blank-faced" young people could be harming their ability to correctly convey their feelings.

"If you wipe those expressions out, this might stunt their emotional and social development," she says.

The research calls for practitioners to use assessment tools to decide whether there are clear clinical reasons for Botox treatment.

Several assessment scales exist that take into account how thick the skin is, how sun-damaged it appears, and the depth of any wrinkles, but experts warn that some Botox clinics are putting financial gain first.

Natural emotions

Ms Collier calls on therapists to spend time helping young people boost their confidence rather than reaching for injections.

She adds: "Though most of the effects of the toxin are temporary, research suggests the muscles don't fully recover from injections.

"We really need to understand the consequences of starting treatments too soon."

Dr Michael Lewis, a researcher in psychology at Cardiff University, says: "The expressions we make on our face affect the emotions we feel.

"We smile because we are happy, but smiling also makes us happy.

"Treatment with drugs like Botox prevents the patient from being able to make a particular expression and can therefore have an effect on our learning to feel emotions naturally."

Rajiv Grover, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, says: "Injecting teenagers with Botox for cosmetic purposes is morally wrong and something that no ethical practitioner would do.

"This can only exacerbate body image issues at a vulnerable time."

Ms Collier's research will be presented at the Clinical Cosmetic and Reconstructive Expo in October.

SOURCE:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29174929(accessed 14.9.14)

Καλλιτέχνης με Αλτσχάιμερ ζωγράφιζε τον εαυτό του μέχρι να ξεχάσει την όψη του

Όταν ένας μεγάλος ζωγράφος πάσχει από Αλτσχάιμερ. Δείτε τα έργα του με τις αυτοπροσωπογραφίες (Pics)

Χρήστος Δεμέτης

news247 Σεπτέμβριος 05 2014 13:43

Το 1995 διαγνώστηκε με την νόσο του Αλτσχάιμερ. Ο ζωγράφος William Utermohlen αποφάσισε από εκείνη τη χρονιά και μετά, κάθε έτος να σκιτσάρει τον εαυτό του για να δει την επίδραση της νόσου πάνω του.

Απόφαση σκληρή στην υπηρεσία της προσωπικής του τέχνης. Στα αυτοπορτραίτα του φαίνεται πως ανά χρόνο οι ικανότητες του μειώνονται δραματικά και εμφανίζεται καταβεβλημένος.

Δώδεκα χρόνια μετά τη διάγνωση, και εφτά χρόνια μετά το τελευταίο του έργο, ο Utermohlen απεβίωσε το 2007 στα 74 του έτη, αφήνοντας πίσω του ένα θαυμάσιο έργο.

"Στους πίνακες αυτούς βλέπουμε τη δραματική προσπάθεια του William να εξηγήσει τον αλλαγμένο εαυτό του, τους φόβους του και τη θλίψη του", εξηγεί η χήρα του, Patricia.

"Είναι δύσκολο να πούμε αν οι αλλαγές στα πορτραίτα έγιναν επειδή έχασε τις καλλιτεχνικές του ικανότητες ή επειδή άλλαξε η ψυχολογία του. Σε κάθε περίπτωση, επιβεβαιώνουν το γεγονός ότι σταδιακά έχανε το μυαλό του", συμπληρώνει τονίζοντας πως δεν ήταν σε θέση να κάνει αναφορά σε καλλιτέχνες όπως ο Bacon που συνήθιζαν να κάνουν παρόμοια έργα.

Ο Dr. Bruce Miller, νευρολόγος στο Πανεπιστήμιο του San Francisco που μελετά τη νόσο του Αλτσχάιμερ αναφέρει σχετικά με τα έργα του καλλιτέχνη:

"Το Αλτσχάιμερ επηρεάζει τον εγκέφαλο σε τέτοιο βαθμό που είναι δύσκολο να αποδοθεί στον καμβά η πραγματική αίσθηση των σχημάτων όπως τα αντιλαμβανόμαστε εμείς. Η τέχνη φαίνεται να γίνεται πιο αφηρημένη, οι εικόνες θολώνουν και γίνονται πιο σουρεαλιστικές. Και τα χρώματα κυριαρχούν".

Το έργο του Utermohlen θεωρείται το συγκλονιστικότερο χρονικό της νόσου που έχει περάσει στην τέχνη μέσω της ζωγραφικής απεικόνισης μέχρι σήμερα.

Οι αυτοπροσωπογραφίες του αλλά και άλλα έργα του έχουν εκτεθεί σε πολλές πόλεις σε όλο τον κόσμο.

Δείτε τα έργα του παρακάτω:

1967

1996

1996

1997

1997

1998

1999

2000

Σημειώνεται ότι η διερεύνηση για διάγνωση Αλτσχάιμερ σε πιθανούς ασθενείς επιβεβαιώνεται συνήθως με διανοητικές αξιολογήσεις και γνωστικές δοκιμές, που ακολουθούνται συχνά από ακτινογραφίες κτλ του εγκεφάλου. Με την πρόοδο της ασθένειας, τα συμπτώματα περιλαμβάνουν σύγχυση, οξυθυμία, επιθετικότητα, ταλάντευση διάθεσης, διακοπή ομιλίας, απώλεια της μακροπρόθεσμης μνήμης, και τη γενική κοινωνική απόσυρση του πάσχοντος καθώς οι αισθήσεις του μειώνονται.

Βαθμιαία, οι σωματικές λειτουργίες μειώνονται, οδηγώντας τελικά στο θάνατο .

Η αιτία και η πρόοδος η της ασθένειας δεν είναι κατανοητή καλά ακόμη. Η έρευνα δείχνει ότι η ασθένεια συνδέεται με πλάκες στον εγκέφαλο. Από το 2008, περισσότερες από 500 κλινικές δοκιμές ερευνούν πιθανές θεραπείες για την ασθένεια, αλλά είναι άγνωστο εάν οποιαδήποτε από αυτές θα αποδειχθεί επιτυχής. Πολλά μέτρα έχουν προταθεί για την πρόληψη του Αλτσχάιμερ, αλλά η αξία τους δεν είναι ακόμη αποδεδειγμένη στην επιβράδυνση ή τη μείωση της δριμύτητας της ασθένειας.

ΠΗΓΗ:

http://news247.gr/eidiseis/afieromata/kallitexnhs_me_altsxaimer_zwgrafize_ton_eayto_toy_mexri_na_ksexasei_thn_opsh_toy.3009510.html(accessed 8.9.14)

Τι κοινό έχει η ηλιοθεραπεία με το τσιγάρο;

Σχετικά με το κατά πόσον η έκθεση στον ήλιο προκαλεί εθισμό αλλά και τι πρέπει να προσέχουμε μιλήσαμε με τον Στυλιανό Αγγελίδη, δερματολόγο - αφροδισιολόγο.

Για ποιους λόγους η ηλιοθεραπεία μπορεί να είναι εθιστική;

Η έκθεση στην υπεριώδη ηλιακή ακτινοβολία μπορεί να «πυροδοτήσει» στον οργανισμό αυξημένη παραγωγή απιοειδών και συγκεκριμένα β-ενδορφινών, ορμονών που σχετίζονται με το αίσθημα της ευχαρίστησης. Οι ενδορφίνες λειτουργούν με τον ίδιο βιολογικό μηχανισμό που δρουν εθιστικές ουσίες, όπως η ηρωίνη και η νικοτίνη. Ωστόσο, χρειάζονται περισσότερες μελέτες για να σιγουρευτούμε πλήρως ότι η ηλιακή ακτινοβολία μπορεί να γίνει εθιστική.

Μήπως ο εθισμός στην ηλιοθεραπεία ευθύνεται για την αύξηση περιστατικών καρκίνου του δέρματος;

Ενδεχομένως να παίζει κάποιο ρόλο. Θα μπορούσε εν μέρει και να εξηγήσει γιατί, παρά τις διαρκείς προειδοποιήσεις ότι, εκτός από καρκίνο, η χρόνια έκθεση στην υπεριώδη ακτινοβολία επιφέρει πρόωρη γήρανση του δέρματος, ρυτίδες και κηλίδες, πολλοί επιμένουν να αποκτήσουν σοκολατί χρώμα. Βέβαια, πολύ σημαντικός παράγοντας είναι ότι το μαύρισμα «ταιριάζει» με τα πρότυπα ομορφιάς, οπότε οι περισσότεροι το επιδιώκουν - χωρίς να λαμβάνουν τις απαραίτητες προφυλάξεις.

Τι πρέπει να έχουν υπόψη τους οι «εθισμένοι» στην ηλιοθεραπεία;

Το αντηλιακό με υψηλό δείκτη προστασίας δεν εμποδίζει το μαύρισμα, αλλά προστατεύει από την καταστρεπτική επίδραση της υπεριώδους ακτινοβολίας. Για ασφαλές μαύρισμα συνδυάζουμε αντηλιακή κρέμα με καπέλο και εναλλαγές στη σκιά -όπου και εκεί μαυρίζουμε- ιδιαίτερα τις ώρες που ο ήλιος είναι πιο δυνατός. Οι έγκυοι να αποφεύγουν την ηλιοθεραπεία, διότι λόγω των ορμονικών μεταβολών μπορεί να εμφανίσουν κηλίδες, που δύσκολα αντιμετωπίζονται. Τέλος, να μην επαναπαυόμαστε ότι τελείωσε το καλοκαίρι. Ζούμε σε μια χώρα με παρατεταμένη ηλιοφάνεια. Δεν πρέπει λοιπόν να ξεχνάμε το αντηλιακό μας, ακόμη και όταν κυκλοφορούμε στην πόλη.

ΠΗΓΗ:

http://www.kathimerini.gr/781907/article/epikairothta/episthmh/ti-koino-exei-h-hlio8erapeia-me-to-tsigaro(accessed 5.9.14)

Your angry face makes you look stronger

No matter where you travel on earth, you'll likely have no problem recognising when someone is angry with you. From the plains of Russia to the beaches of Brazil, anger shows itself in a tell-tale facial display involving lowered brow, snarled nose, raised chin and thinned lips.

A popular view has it that, besides reliably conveying anger, this particular constellation of facial movements is arbitrary and serves no other function. A team of evolutionary psychologists led by Aaron Sell disagrees. They think the anger face also makes the angry person look stronger. This fits their "recalibration theory of anger" that sees the emotion as an aggressive threat. An angry animal or person is communicating the costs that they will inflict on others if they do not get what they want. By making an angry person look stronger, so the theory goes, the facial expression gives weight to the threat of aggression, likely influencing the target's judgment about the seriousness of the threat.

To test this, Sell and his colleagues created pairs of faces using a computer programme. They began with a 20-year-old male face, morphed from averages of many faces, and then calibrated it so that for each of the seven distinguishing features of anger (lowered brow, raised lips, raised mouth, widened nose, enlarged chin, lips thinned, lips pushed forward), they created a pair of contrasting faces. One face in each pair displayed one angry feature, the other face showed the opposite feature. For example, one face showed lowered brows, the other face in the pair showed raised brows. In this way, the seven distinguishing features of anger were isolated.

Thirty-five student participants then looked at the facial pairs and indicated in each case which face they thought looked stronger. The key finding? Each anger-related facial feature when displayed on its own attracted higher ratings of perceived strength. This implies each element of the anger expression contributes to making a person appear stronger.

Further experiments ruled out an alternative explanation - perhaps angry faces actually serve to make a person look older, and this leads to ratings of greater strength because observers assume a slightly older man is stronger than a 20-year-old. One way the researchers tested this was to show participants pairs of morphed faces of a 60-year-old man, in which case looking older presumably wouldn't be associated with greater strength. Three of the angry facial features actually led him to being rated as younger, with only two prompting ratings of being older. Moreover, participants rated the man as stronger when he displayed six of the seven angry facial features.

"The current study is the first systematic test of the individual components of the anger expression," the researchers said. "And in so doing it confirms that these features are improbably well-designed to solve the adaptive problem of bargaining with threats of force." The results are also consistent with a range of other research, including the finding that several features of an angry expression tend to be more prominent in men than women (this fits with the idea that aggression is a more important bargaining tool for men); that stronger andbigger men get angry more easily; and that men's fighting ability can be discerned from the shape of their face. Looking at the study's limitations, it's a shame the researchers didn't investigate women's expressions of anger, and that they relied on student participants.

_________________________________ 

SOURCE:

http://digest.bps.org.uk/search/label/Faces(accessed 5.9.14)

Sell, A., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2014). The human anger face evolved to enhance cues of strength Evolution and Human Behavior, 35 (5), 425-429 DOI:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.05.008