Are Boys Better Than Girls At Maths?

Wow, I believe this article is very true! Throughout this article it was debated whether or not boys are better at math than girls. Looking at data from the 1990s, the results from SAT scores showed that yes, boys are better at math than girls. However, one of the main reasons for this is stereotyping girls as bad at math. When girls are literally told that they are bad at math and that boys are always better, it will lower their confidence and the result will show that they are in fact bad at math. BUT now there is new data showing that the boys had better look out because the girls are showing major improvement. Evidence provided by many, many schools of different grades showed that there was little difference between boys and girls performance in math.

I don’t normally hear about this subject anymore, but when I was younger I remember the phrase that guys are smarter when it come to math. I certainty do not agree that boys are smarter than girls. In my school, the advanced math class is pretty much equal when it comes to boys and girls.

How Beliefs and Values Influence What Tastes Good

This was a very intriguing article to read about food. This article was all about how one’s belief could influence the choice of foods they like. In one experiment, participants were given sausage rolls, some with real beef and some with a vegetarian alternative. However, if some participants were told they were eating real beef, they were actually eating the vegetarian alternative and those told they were eating the vegetarian alternative were actually eating real beef. The results showed that a majority of them couldn’t tell much of a difference. But along with this experiment they did find that those high in social power preferred the real beef, while those low in social power preferred the vegetarian alternative. Much like the sausage rolls experiment, there was a Pepsi challenge which showed that a majority of people actually preferred the store brand cola over Pepsi.

Overall, I thought this article was interesting. It’s funny how we always want the best brands of food like Pepsi, but when we don’t know that we aren’t drinking actual Pepsi we like it better. In the end I think its all in our head whether or not we like a certain food or not.

Happiness Could Add 10 Years to Your Life

Well, I read this short article about happiness and how it could add 10 years to my life. Although, it clearly says that this is has not been proven yet. Some studies on this have shown a positive, neutral, and even negative affects of happiness on life. The studies of people who were ill showed neutral and negative effects of happiness actually. On the other hand, those that were healthy showed positive effects. Another study on nuns showed that the happiest nuns lived 10 years longer than those who were unhappy. What do I think about this? I think this all malarkey. Of course those who were ill were going to show no effect of happiness… they’re sick! I also look around and know that some of the happiest people become ill and have died at a young age. Sure happiness makes a person feel better about themselves, but I don’t think it can contribute to 10 more years of life.

Why Loud Music in Bars Increases Alcohol Consumption

AWESOME! This was one of the most interesting articles I have read. This article was all about how loud music in bars can make a person drink more. According to some studies by a few different groups, it really is true that the louder the music is in a bar, the more a person will drink. To make sure that this was a true experiment they kept the music at its normal volume or it ranged from 72dB to 88dB. On average when the music was at its normal volume, it took a bar-goer 14.5 minutes to drink a 8 oz glass of beer. However, when the music was turned up louder, it only took 11.5 minutes. On average when the music is turned up louder, a bar-goer usually has one more drink. So why do you think most bars play loud music? Well, after reading this article I definitely understand why. I guess I never really paid that much attention to the relation between music and bars. This article didn’t really have a solid reason as to why a person would drink more if the music was loud, but it did come to a conclusion that the louder the music, the less a person talks. And the less a person talks, the more a person drinks. I thought this article was very entertaining compared to the articles I have read so far. Go read it!

http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/09/why-loud-music-in-bars-increases.php

~Chapter 5 Blog~

I really enjoyed this chapter compared to the last chapter. It was great reading about adolescence, which all of us in this class seem to be going through right now, including myself.
One thing I learned in this chapter was that what the conscious mind does not know and cannot express in words, the nervous system somehow remembers. This was really intriguing to me, but according to the study we really do remember things through our nervous system.
Another thing I found surprising in this chapter was one of the phrases in this chapter. “Forty years ago I had a great memory, but I was a fool.” I love this phrase actually. Its so interesting that even though a person grows old, they are gaining wisdom as well.
I also learned that moral action feeds moral attitude. This means that by actually doing good deeds as morals we gain a moral attitude. I just thought that this was really interesting because I do realize that when I do good deeds, I feel more like an adult and it forms my moral attitude.
I really enjoyed watching the video on learner.org. It was interesting to view experiments of children developing skills and how they process certain problems. It was really cool to see how one little girl couldn’t find the big Snoopy, but at 3 years of age another girl could find Snoopy easily. I just found the movie really intriguing to watch. The other video was great as well. I liked how it simply put it that teenagers go through times when we may not seem like we want to talk and that it’s normal.

Blog Time!!!

I thought this was interesting chapter overall I thought. One of my favorite things I learned in this chapter was learning about how parents shape our lives. I learned that parents influence how their children act, religious beliefs, and their political views. What really surprised me was learning that parents don’t have any influence on personality.
Another thing I found interesting in this chapter was how nature and nurture works together to form our gender. I learned how the mother and fathers chromosomes contribute to make either a male or female baby. I just thought that this was a key aspect to knowing how our gender is developed.
Then I really thought that the twin studies were really cool. Its interesting how separated twins can share some similarities. These studies show the results of our genetic influences. The twin studies assignment really helped me understand how twin studies can attribute to us learning about similarities in genes.
I thought the Evolutionary Psychology and Sexual Attitudes Resource was a very interesting video to watch. The video went through many different explanations as to why men desire sex more often than women do.
Oh yeah I actually really enjoyed doing the nature/nurture assignment too. It was a great way to compare how my lifestyle would change if I were raised by different parents.

Mondays Are Not As Depressing As You Think

　This article was fun to read for many reasons. Many people despise Mondays, especially high school people. We tend to think that we are always unhappy on Mondays because its only the first day of the long week ahead. According to this article Mondays are stereotypically depressing, when a survey actually showed that Monday was not anymore depressing than any other day. These surveys actually showed that Friday and Saturdays are stereotypically the most exciting days of the week, but according to these results they are no different than most of the other days of the week. Through these surveys they did find that Wednesdays are the most depressing days of the week.
Ok now this really made me think about my week… waking up on Monday morning I always feel tired and usually the first words out of my mouth are, “I hate Mondays.” Wednesdays are always busy for me, I guess I’ve never really realized a difference in that day. Friday at school is usually boring for me, so I would have to agree with the survey that Fridays are not as exciting as many people believe them to be. Overall, our mood throughout the days of the week do not fluctuate as much as people think they do. On the contrary the mood throughout days are similar throughout the week.