Find Out What?EUR(TM)S Really Stopping You From Getting the Woman of Your Dreams! (Hint: It?EUR(TM)S Not What You Think!)

How many of you find yourselves strolling through life from one heartbreak to another watching life fly by and your friends enjoy all manner of pretty girls while your left at the bar holding your drink, trying not to appear too awkward? Perhaps your situations slightly better than that and you find that you have a lot of female friends that you talk to day and night, pouring out your heartaches and deepest darkest secrets, however they remain just that, friends! Perhaps you have people in your life that seem to be magnets to the opposite sex and you can't for the life of you understand why. These guys could very well be broke, douchebags, homeless (don't laugh, seen it before), never lifted a finger in their lives, treat women like shit and generally don't make any effort at all.
I know we all have the stereotype that the guys with money, awesome bodies, status and power get the pretty girls. Or you need to have been slugging through the pickup scene for years on end going out and humiliating themselves night in and night out. A rather depressing picture plastered by society and clung to by the masses, no? As fi that isn't bad enough and you head out to the club and find some jersey shore roid monkey wannabe macking da ladies out from under your feet and your left wandering, was life designed as some cruel joke?!
Well I can't answer that question but I can console you in that all is not what it seems!
That's right there is order behind the chaos, a method to the madness and most of all this is hope for you my sad little chudbudd!
The truth is that we were all born to be made into ultimate ladies men! We were born to have a glorious harem of beautiful women lining up our bedroom, one feeding us grapes while yet another stands by and fan us with a banana leaf seeing to our every desire and whimsical fancy! "Lies!" *one calls out* "Nay you are but deluded" another erupts "this is the stuff of fantasy!" *yet another interjects.* Please I implore of you to stall your judgements and preconceptions for at least the duration of this of this article. When I say that it is your destiny I'm not referring to the law of attraction or anything that far out, what I mean is that it is your genetic destiny.
Think of it from an evolutionary perspective. Our complex musculature, skeletal and nervous system have hundreds of thousands of years of refinement behind them growing ever more complex systems to meet and procreate. These systems have been around far longer than our conscious logical mind and have been hyper refined by a continuous battle for survival. This has resulted in only the best of the genes going through to the next generation. If we take a look at the evidence of prehistoric societies and find that monogamy was often the exception. We would often see something more of a winner takes all dynamic where the strongest males or the tribal leader would have his pick of the lot and the rest would be left to their quiet desperation. So… what does this imply? Your ancestors weren't just any cavemen. They were the tribal leaders that would have gone through life like a buffet and passed on their genes while the weaker males of the bunch would have been unapologetically weeded out of existence! And guess what? Those are the genes that sprouted the person looking back at you in the mirror!
So at the end of the day we all have exactly what it takes to be pimp daddy, regardless of where we're at we all have it in us to be the ladies' man we were destined to be. So why aren't you? What's the affliction that's been plaguing you since birth and stopping you from reaching your mating potential?
In order to answer that question we must first understand that a woman can sense who a man is almost immediately by subtle signals given off in his body language. Now I know this has been rehashed countless times by nearly every self-development guru and their dog but bare with me for 1 one second here. It's not about the actions that you perform or the way that you do them, of e.g. a woman truly couldn't care less if you puff your chest out to make yourself look larger and more masculine (in fact this Is more likely to hurt your chances.) What truly makes an impact on the feminine subconscious mind is the lack of inhibition and tension in your body. Does your body move smoothly without any restrictions, with all the joints enjoying their full range of motion, or are you packed to together like a robot with your chest tight, your arms moving in unison with one plane of motion like one large lobster claw and your hips locked back. All these subconsciously signal that you're not a worthy mate. Much in the same way that a lean body, large hips and perky breasts tell you to go for that girl physical tension implies that this guy has a reason to be stressed out therefore most probably doesn't have much going for him in life or is just generally weak and fearful.

This muscular tension is conditioned into your nervous system and remains a permanent attachment until its dealt with in one way or another. These inhibitions can be attributed to fears harboured in the subconscious due to traumatic experiences, these tend to stick to one part of the body and clog up the nervous system in that area, to sports injuries that have not properly healed and even bad habits such as sleep improperly or too much computer.

Does dinner make a strong family, or does a strong family make dinner?

The family meal is often touted and encouraged for its social and health benefits, but a new Cornell University study questions the nature of this association, finding that the perceived benefits may not be as strong or as lasting once a number of factors are controlled for.

"We find that most of the association between family meals and teen well-being is due to other aspects of the family environment. Analyses that follow children over time lend even weaker evidence for causal effects of family meals on adolescent and young adult well-being," said Kelly Musick, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell and lead author of "Assessing Causality and Persistence in Associations Between Family Dinners and Adolescent Well-Being," to be published in the June edition of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Musick and co-author Ann Meier, associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, found that the ability to manage a regular family dinner is in part facilitated by family resources such as time and money, and in part a proxy for other family characteristics, including time together, closeness, and communication. Families with both biological parents present, a non-employed mother, higher income, and better family relationships ate together more frequently. Controlling for the quality of family relationships in particular explained much of the family dinner's association with teen depressive symptoms, substance use, and delinquency -- three factors typically examined in family meal studies. Only some of these associations held up to analyses of adolescent outcomes over time.

The study accounts for aspects of the family environment that differentiate families on the basis of how often they eat together, and it's the first to use a fixed-effects approach that focuses on how changes in family dinners relate to changes in adolescent outcomes. Estimates are based on a sample of about 18,000 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health.

"Meals may afford a regular and positive context for parents to connect with children emotionally, to monitor their social and academic activities, and to convey values and expectations. This is what we suspect is driving any causal relationship between family dinners and child well being. But, family dinners also appear to be part and parcel of a broader package of practices, routines, and rituals that reflect parenting beliefs and priorities, and it's unclear how well family dinners would work unbundled from the rest of that package," said Musick.

The authors add that future work needs to go further in assessing which elements of mealtime may be most salient, looking beyond how often families eat together to examine whether talking, television, texting, eating the same food, or helping in the kitchen mediate or moderate the potential benefits of mealtime.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Kelly Musick, Ann Meier. Assessing Causality and Persistence in Associations Between Family Dinners and Adolescent Well-Being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 24 May 2012 DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00973.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Healthy marriage interventions: A boom or a bust?

Conventional wisdom, backed by years of research, suggests that healthy marriages equals a healthy society. And politicians and government officials have taken note, investing hundreds of millions of dollars each year in education programs designed to promote healthy marriages, focusing specifically on poor couples and couples of color. Is it working? No, says a Binghamton University researcher in a new study published in the current issue of American Psychologist, the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association. And it's because many of these programs were based on research data gathered from White and middle-class marriages, and when applied to poor couples or couples of color, just don't work.

"Initially, the rationale for these programs came from policy makers and scholars, who honed in on the association between unmarried parents and poverty that is plainly obvious in the data," said Matthew D. Johnson, associate professor of psychology at Binghamton University. "This association led George W. Bush to make the promotion of healthy marriages a central plank of his domestic policy agenda, resulting in the implementation of the Healthy Marriage Initiatives. Barack Obama endorsed these initiatives, both as presidential candidate and as president. Now that the data on the success of these programs has started to roll in, the results have been very disappointing."

According to Johnson, the problem lies in the fact that many of these programs lack grounding in solid science and are allowed to run unchecked. He cites research from two recent multisite studies as evidence that many of the federal programs that promote healthy marriage need to be suspended -- or at the very least, overhauled. One of these studies, which was focused on over 5,000 couples in eight cities, examined the benefits of interventions designed to improve the relationships of low-income, unmarried couples who were either pregnant or recently had their first child.

The results indicated that the interventions had no effect in six of the cities, small beneficial effects in one city, and small detrimental effects in another city. The results of the other outcome study focused on 5,395 low-income married couples and found that those who received the intervention experienced very small improvements in relationship satisfaction, communication, and psychological health but no significant changes in relationship dissolution or cooperative parenting. And to add to it, the interventions didn't come cheap, costing on average around $9,100 per couple.

So why the disconnect between a seemingly good idea and disappointing program outcomes? Johnson says there are several possible explanations. The best of these programs -- the ones based on scientific findings -- were initially studied with middle-class couples while the federal initiatives target poor couples. And even if the research that formed the basis of these interventions does apply, relationship improvement just doesn't seem to be a priority for poor couples.

"There is evidence that suggests poor women want to be married and understand the benefits of healthy marriages," said Johnson. "But earning enough for basic household expenses, keeping their children safe and working with their children's overburdened schools are much more urgent concerns, making the idea of focusing on marriage seem self-indulgent if not irrelevant to many poor parents. When faced with a myriad of social issues, building intimate relationships is just not high on their priority lists."

Johnson explains that this doesn't mean the federal government shouldn't be funding intimate relationship research. Instead, the government needs to adopt a more multifaceted approach: focus on programs that will ease the stress of poor families and at the same time, fund more rigorous basic research.

"We just don't have solid predictors for relationship satisfaction for poor couple and couple of color, let alone whether the current marriage models apply," said Johnson. He points to the National Institutes of Health as being the perfect place to coordinate and sponsor the research, noting "It has a long history of using scientific rigor in decision-making and it would certainly help in achieving the type of results that we're looking for from these initiatives."

Johnson also suggests that every community-based program funded by the Health Marriage Initiative should be required to gather standardized quantitative data in order to clearly demonstrate outcomes. And if the data shows programs aren't working, Johnson recommends that the federal government get tough and either defund or filter out those that do not demonstrate effectiveness.

"If we are going to continue these initiatives, let's at least make certain that we are assessing the effectiveness of the programs and learning from our mistakes," said Johnson. "Improving marriages is a worthy goal and one shared by Democrat and Republican administrations alike. The key now is to get that same bipartisan support for improving the research and programs that target poor couples. With the renewed focus on the federal budget, the timing is just right."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Binghamton University, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Johnson, Matthew D. Healthy marriage initiatives: On the need for empiricism in policy implementation. American Psychologist, 2012 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Magazine trends study finds increase in advertisements using sex

Sex sells, or at least that is what advertisers hope. A recent study from the University of Georgia looked at sexual ads appearing in magazines over 30 years and found that the numbers are up.

"Advertisers use sex because it can be very effective," said researcher Tom Reichert, professor and head of the department of advertising and public relations in the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. "Sex sells because it attracts attention. People are hard wired to notice sexually relevant information so ads with sexual content get noticed."

People also succumb to the 'buy this, get this' imagery used in ads, he said.

"Some young men actually think Axe body spray will drive women crazy," he said. "But, brand impressions are shaped by images in advertising, too. Arguable, Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret are not much different than Hanes or Vassarette, but perception studies show those brands are perceived as 'sexy,' and some customers want that."

Looking at 3,232 full-page ads published in 1983, 1993 and 2003 in popular magazines Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Esquire, Playboy, Newsweek and Time, researchers found sexual imagery in 20 percent of the ads. Using sex to sell everything from alcohol to banking services has increased over the years: 15 percent of ads used sex to sell in 1983; that percentage grew to 27 percent in 2003.

Ads were categorized based on the models' clothing, or lack thereof, and physical contact between models.

"Our findings show that the increase in visual sexual imagery over the three decades of analysis is attributable to products already featuring sexual content in ads, not necessarily widespread adoption by other product categories," Reichert said. "Specifically, alcohol, entertainment and beauty ads are responsible for much of the increase."

The study showed sex is primarily used to sell low-risk products purchased on impulse.

"Sex is not as effective when selling high-risk, informational products such as banking services, appliances and utility trucks," he said.

Much of the growth was seen in alcohol, entertainment and beauty advertising. Out of 18 product categories, those most often using sexual imagery in advertising were health and hygiene at 38 percent; beauty, 36 percent; drugs and medicine, 29 percent, clothing, 27 percent; travel, 23 percent; and entertainment, 21 percent.

"In almost every study I've seen, sexual content gives a purchase advantage in such instances," Reichert said.

Products not using sex in their ads were charitable organizations and computer companies.

Women are used to sell products most often when pitching sex. In ads sampled from 2003, 92 percent of beauty ads that contained models were female. Just under half the ads did not contain models.

With the exception of entertainment advertising, females overwhelming occupy the pages of sex-selling advertisements. Of the 38 percent of provocative health and hygiene advertisements that feature models, 31 percent feature females and 7 percent feature males.

"Perhaps more important, this analysis shows that the proportion for alcohol ads in 2003 increased to about one sexual ad for every three ads (37 percent)," Reichert said. "Using sex to sell products such as alcohol and tobacco is a moral issue."

Reichert said this upward trend in erotic ads is a reflection of society.

"It takes more explicitness to grab our attention and arouse us than before," he said. "In the early 1900s, exposed arms and ankles of female models generated the same level of arousal as partially nude models do today. We can see during our lifetimes the changes in sexually explicit content on television, movies, books and other forms of media beyond just advertising."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Georgia. The original article was written by April Reese Sorrow.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Hiding true self at work can result in less job satisfaction, greater turnover

Hiding your true social identity -- race and ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation or a disability -- at work can result in decreased job satisfaction and increased turnover, according to a new study from Rice University, the University of Houston and George Mason University.

"The workplace is becoming a much more diverse place, but there are still some individuals who have difficulty embracing what makes them different, especially while on the job," said Michelle Hebl, Rice professor of psychology and co-author of "Bringing Social Identity to Work: The Influence of Manifestation and Suppression on Perceived Discrimination, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions." The paper appears in the Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology journal.

"Previous research suggests that employees who perceive discrimination or are afraid of receiving discrimination are more likely to fall into this category of individuals who feel the need to suppress or conceal their identity," Hebl said.

The study examined the behavior of 211 working adults in an online survey and measured factors such as identity, perceived discrimination, job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

"This research highlights the fact that people make decisions every day about whether it is safe to be themselves at work, and that there are real consequences of these decisions," said Rice alumna Eden King, study co-author and associate professor of psychology at George Mason University.

The study also showed that suppressing one's true identity might result in exposure to co-workers' discriminatory behavior, as people are less likely to care about appearing prejudiced when they are not in the presence of an "out" group member. On the contrary, the research finds that expression of one's true identity in a workplace can have positive impact on their interpersonal relationships.

"When individuals embrace their social identity in the workplace, other co-workers might be more sensitive to their behavior and treatment of individuals like them," said Juan Madera, a University of Houston professor, Rice alumnus and lead study author. "And quite often, what's good for the worker is good for the workplace. The employees feel accepted and have better experiences with co-workers, which creates a positive working environment that may lead to decreased turnover and greater profits."

The authors hope their research will encourage the general public to be accepting of people with diverse backgrounds and become allies to them and encourage employers to implement policies that foster a positive organizational culture.

"I think this study really demonstrates that everyone can have a role in making the workplace more inclusive," Hebl said. "Individuals tell co-workers, who can act as allies and react positively, and organizations can institute protective and inclusive organizational policies. All of these measures will continue to change the landscape and diversity of our workforce."

This study was funded by Rice University, the University of Houston and George Mason University.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Juan M. Madera, Eden B. King, Michelle R. Hebl. Bringing social identity to work: The influence of manifestation and suppression on perceived discrimination, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions.. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2012; 18 (2): 165 DOI: 10.1037/a0027724

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Health behavior examined in long-term relationships

Women bear the brunt of being the health police in heterosexual marriages, but gay and lesbian couples are more likely to mutually influence each other's health habits -- for better or for worse.

The findings are reported in the June issue of the journal, Social Science & Medicine.

Researchers Corinne Reczek, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of sociology, and Debra Umberson, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, followed 20 long-term heterosexual marriages as well as 15 long-term gay and 15 long-term lesbian partnerships in the United States. Their findings reflected previous research that in heterosexual marriages, women put more effort into encouraging good health habits for their spouses.

Sociologists have theorized that from early childhood, the socialization of women into caretaker roles has led to health benefits for husbands. Reczek says this newest study is among the first of its kind to explore how gay and lesbian couples affect each other's health habits.

The researchers examined what they called "health work" -- defined as any activity or dialogue concerned with enhancing another's health. The researchers conducted 100 in-depth interviews with couples involved in 50 long-term relationships -- couples who were involved for at least eight years or longer.

The study found that at least one partner in over three-quarters of the heterosexual, gay and lesbian couples did some form of health work as a result of two reasons: the other partner had bad health habits, or one partner was considered the "health expert."

Nearly half of the respondents -- heterosexual, gay or lesbian -- blamed a partner's unhealthy habits for the other partner's attempts at intervention. Among heterosexual couples, men were typically identified as needing the prodding toward healthier lifestyles.

For couples identifying a "health expert," the researchers say that straight women were almost exclusively identified, while gay and lesbian couples identified one partner as the health expert, regardless of gender.

For better or for worse, couples mutually reinforcing health behaviors were more prominent in gay (80 percent) and lesbian (86 percent) couples versus straight couples (10 percent).

"The social and institutional conditions within which gay and lesbian couples live -- including a heteronormative and homophobic culture at large, and a non-institutionalized nonheterosexual union -- structure a unique relational context for cooperative, more egalitarian health work processes to emerge," write the authors.

The authors state that the findings suggest that gendered relational context of an intimate partnership shapes the dynamics and explanations for health behavior work.

The research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Aging as well as the Mentoring Program of The Center for Population Research in LGBT Health, under the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Demographic Description

In the survey sample, 80 percent of the straight respondents were white, 15 percent were African-American, one Asian-American and one Latina. Gay and lesbian respondents included 63 percent whites, 27 percent who identified as Hispanics, Latinos or Latinas, one African-American, one Native-American/Hispanic, and one South American.

The average age for the straight couples was 45 years -- 49 years for gay respondents and 43 years for lesbian respondents.

The average relationship duration for straight couples was 17 years, 21 years for gay couples and 14 years for lesbian couples. Household income averaged $60,000.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Sexual orientation fluctuation correlated to alcohol misuse

Many young adults explore and define their sexual identity in college, but that process can be stressful and lead to risky behaviors. In a new study, students whose sexual self-definition didn't fall into exclusively heterosexual or homosexual categories tended to misuse alcohol more frequently than people who had a firmly defined sexual orientation for a particular gender, according to University of Missouri researchers. These findings could be used to improve support programs for sexual minorities.

"Bisexuals and students whose sexual orientation was in flux reported the heaviest drinking and most negative consequences from alcohol use, such as uncontrolled drinking and withdrawal symptoms," said Amelia Talley, MU assistant professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts and Science. "Those groups reported drinking to relieve anxiety and depression at higher rates than strictly heterosexual or homosexual individuals. One possible explanation is that people who aren't either completely heterosexual or homosexual may feel stigmatized by both groups."

The study followed more than 2,000 incoming college students for four years. Each fall and spring, study participants were surveyed about their sexual self-identification, attraction and sexual behavior. The students fell into different sexual orientation groups. One was exclusively heterosexual, but there were several sexual minority groups: exclusively homosexual, mostly homosexual, bisexual and mostly heterosexual. The survey also asked about frequency of alcohol use, reasons for drinking, and negative consequences experienced as a result of alcohol use.

"Exclusively homosexual and heterosexual persons drank at roughly the same rate and reported drinking to enhance enjoyment of social situations," Talley said. "The other sexual minority groups tended to report more alcohol misuse. This suggests that it may be the stressful process of developing one's sexual identity that contributes to problematic drinking, just as people in any difficult situation in life may turn to alcohol to alleviate stress."

The study also found gender differences in sexual behaviors and self-definition of sexual identity.

"Females showed the greatest degree of sexual orientation fluidity," Talley said. "They were able to admit a certain degree of attraction to the same gender without defining themselves as completely homosexual." Talley suggested that "women may be more open to admitting to same-sex attractions because women are more likely to be objectified as sexual objects in our culture; hence, women are accustomed to assessing the attractiveness of other women in comparison to themselves."

Males tended to define themselves as either heterosexual or homosexual. Talley speculated that this may be because many males aren't aware that being "mostly straight" is a feasible alternative. Even a small degree of sexual attraction to other males may cause a young man to feel anxiety about his sexual identity due to strict masculine gender norms.

"Organizations could put our findings to use by providing a support network to help young people avoid using alcohol to cope with stress as they define their sexual identity," Talley said.

The study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Amelia E. Talley, Kenneth J. Sher, Douglas Steinley, Phillip K. Wood, Andrew K. Littlefield. Patterns of Alcohol Use and Consequences Among Empirically Derived Sexual Minority Subgroups. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 2012 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Many new mothers spend more time on facebook after birth

A small, exploratory study suggests that many first-time parents -- particularly mothers -- actually increase the amount of time they spend on Facebook after the birth of their child.

Results showed that 44 percent of mothers said their Facebook use increased after giving birth, compared to 27 percent who said it decreased and 29 percent who said it stayed the same.

For fathers, 31 percent said their Facebook use increased, while 19 percent said it decreased and 51 percent said it stayed the same.

The study, published in the July issue of the journal Family Relations, is the first to investigate new parents' use of Facebook during this stressful life event.

The results offer some initial clues as to how Facebook use may affect new parents' adjustment to parenthood, according to the researchers.

The findings suggest that, despite all the new demands faced by new parents, spending time on Facebook was worthwhile to them, said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, co-author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University.

"Given all the stress that new parents are under and everything they have to manage, it wouldn't have been surprising if we had found a decrease in Facebook usage -- but that's not what we found," Schoppe-Sullivan said.

Particularly for mothers, who may spend more time at home taking care of the baby, Facebook may be a way to connect with friends and family and seek support during a stressful time.

"These mothers may be taking time off from work, and may be far from family, so this network they created for themselves on Facebook can be very valuable in helping them cope," said Mitchell Bartholomew, lead author of the study and a graduate student in human development and family science at Ohio State.

This study is part of a larger, long-term "New Parents Project," co-led by Schoppe-Sullivan, that is studying how dual-earner couples adjust to becoming parents for the first time.

The study involved 154 mothers and 150 fathers, most of whom were white and highly educated. The data from this study came from questions asked nine months after the birth of their child.

New mothers reported both visiting their Facebook accounts more frequently than fathers, and also managing their content more often.

The majority of mothers (58 percent) visited their accounts at least once a day, compared to 44 percent of fathers.

Nearly all women (98 percent) said they had uploaded photos of their child to Facebook, while 83 percent of fathers said they did. Nearly two-thirds of mothers (63 percent) said they uploaded more photos after the birth of their child than they had before, as did 73 percent of fathers.

And 93 percent of mothers and 71 percent of fathers said it was "likely" or "very likely" that the photos would be acknowledged by their Facebook friends, either with a comment or a "like."

That kind of feedback was important for new parents. Both mothers and fathers who said it was likely that their Facebook friends would comment on photos also reported higher levels of satisfaction in their parenting role.

"Parents may feel like they're getting positive feedback about their role as parents," Schoppe-Sullivan said. "These are all first-time parents, and they particularly need that."

The researchers noted that most of the "friends" that people have on Facebook aren't usually close friends. Still, new parents may enjoy support and feedback even from acquaintances.

"There may be something about getting feedback from someone who doesn't know you very well that may be particularly encouraging," Bartholomew said.

"They don't know you very well, they don't owe you the positive reinforcement that you may expect from close friends and family, but still they took the time to comment on your photo or post."

But, particularly for mothers, having close ties on Facebook are important, the study found. When mothers reported that a greater proportion of their Facebook friends were family members or relatives, they reported greater satisfaction with their parenting role.

Facebook use was not always associated with better adjustment. Mothers who were more frequent visitors to their Facebook accounts and who managed their accounts more frequently reported higher levels of parenting stress.

Schoppe-Sullivan cautioned that they can't tell from this data whether more Facebook use caused stress for mothers, or if mothers with higher levels of stress were more likely to use Facebook frequently.

"I think the most likely interpretation is that mothers who experience higher levels of stress are looking for social support on Facebook so they visit more often," she said.

"I know that I see a lot of Facebook posts from new mothers talking about how their child wouldn't sleep, or how their second child was harder than their first. Stressed-out mothers may be using Facebook to vent and to find help."

But she said it may be possible that some new mothers see Facebook as just another chore they have to do to communicate with friends and family.

Future studies by the researchers will look more in-depth at how new parents use Facebook and how it impacts their coping and adjustment.

Other co-authors of the study were Michael Glassman, associate professor, and Claire Kamp Dush, assistant professor, both in human development and family science at Ohio State; and Jason Sullivan, a statistical information specialist in Ohio State's Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

The New Parents Project, of which this study is a part, is partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Mitchell K. Bartholomew, Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan, Michael Glassman, Claire M. Kamp Dush, Jason M. Sullivan. New Parents' Facebook Use at the Transition to Parenthood. Family Relations, 2012; 61 (3): 455 DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00708.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Millionaire Dating Tips: The 5 Things That Men Find Irresistible In Women

Most people believe that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, men love to eat, but it would take a good dish to win him over. Aside from being able to cook mouth watering meals, here are some things that men just find irresistible in women.

1. Curves. The modern women nowadays are drawn to the concept that men like women who are skinny. Or personally think that skinny is better and healthier, that it is in. That's why women diet and desperately want to lose those pounds. And without knowing that men are into girls who have more curves, than one almost showing her rib cage. Think Manilyn Monroes, she has great curves and not skinny at all. Curvy hips, small waists is like a drug to men. It's sexy. Women who have full breasts, asses like Beyonce and thunder thighs are actually tons sexier. Men usually recognise this in a primal level, so stop worrying about losing 5 more pounds this summer.

2. High-pitched voice. Ever wonder why many men swoon over Paris Hilton. It's because of that artificially high pitched voice. Women who have high-pitched voices are more attractive to men. In a recent study, it's been found out that a woman's attractiveness increases with the pitch of her voice- whether it be natural or artificial. This is clearly evident with the Japanese culture, men are more likely drawn to women who have high-pitched voice. But of course, not to a point where you would sound like a chipmunk.

3. Confidence. Ever wonder how those popular kids back then became, well, popular? If you look back, they are not all pretty- but they are fiercely confident about themselves. Think of a friend who is such a big hit with the boys, she may not be that pretty but she's got the edge. Confidence is sexy. There is something attractive about a woman who can carry herself in different social situations. Someone who would smile a lot and can steadily hold eye contact and overall comfortable in just being herself. Be happier with yourself and men will usually agree with you. Confident women are intriguing and interesting since they are not burdened with thoughts of low self-esteem issues. This can even affect how you handle a relationship. Confident people don't always need confirmation from their partners when it comes to their value.

4. Positive attitude. Of course, having a positive mindset can get you to great lengths. A strong and independent woman with a positive attitude is more winning than a pretty woman with a negative mindset. In a study conducted, the same pictures of a women were rated based on personality. The first pictures features the women coupled with a list of optimistic personality rates, which scored a higher rating; as compared to the same pictures but listed with some negative traits.

5. Sense of humour. Men and women perceive the importance of humor differently. Women would go for men who can throw good jokes or are the ones making the jokes. While men would go out with women who has the right capacity and laughs at his jokes.

Women, you hold the key to attract men towards you. Learn to release it so you can attract that perfect mate towards you.

New studies challenge established views about development of children raised by gay or lesbian parents

Despite considerable research showing that children of same-sex parents fare just as well as children with heterosexual parents, two papers -- a review of existing studies and a new study -- published June 10 in Elsevier's Social Science Research, find insufficient data to draw any definitive conclusions.

The review by Dr. Loren Marks from Louisiana State University finds that much of the science that forms the basis for the highly regarded 2005 official brief on same-sex parenting by the American Psychological Association (APA) does not stand up to scrutiny. The new study by University of Texas sociologist and professor Mark Regnerus, provides compelling new evidence that numerous differences in social and emotional well-being do exist between young adults raised by women who have had a lesbian relationship and those who have grown up in a nuclear family. Dr. Marks reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2005 cited by the 2005 official APA brief which asserted that: "Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents."

"The jury is still out on whether being raised by same-sex parents disadvantages children," explains Marks. "However, the available data on which the APA draws its conclusions, derived primarily from small convenience samples, are insufficient to support a strong generalized claim either way."

Of the 59 studies referenced in the APA brief, more than three-quarters were based on small, non-representative, non-random samples that did not include any minority individuals or families; nearly half lacked a heterosexual comparison group; and few examined outcomes that extend beyond childhood such as intergenerational poverty, educational attainment, and criminality, which are a key focus of studies on children of divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation. In other words, "A lack of high quality data leaves the most significant questions unaddressed and unanswered," concludes Marks.

In his study, Professor Mark Regnerus used data from the New Family Structures Study (NFSS) , a large nationally representative sample of just under 3,000 young Americans aged 18 to 39, to compare how children raised in eight different family structures fared on 40 social, emotional, and relationship outcomes.

According to his findings, children of mothers who have had same-sex relationships were significantly different as young adults on 25 of the 40 (63%) outcome measures, compared with those who spent their entire childhood with both their married, biological parents. For example, they reported significantly lower levels of income, more receipt of public welfare, lower levels of employment, poorer mental and physical health, poorer relationship quality with current partner, and higher levels of smoking and criminality.

"This study, based on a rare large probability sample, reveals far greater diversity in the experience of lesbian motherhood (and to a lesser extent, gay fatherhood) than has been previously acknowledged or understood," explains Regnerus. "The most significant story in this study is arguably that children appear most apt to succeed well as adults when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother and father, and especially when the parents remain married to the present day."

In a series of commentaries published in the same issue of Social Science Research, three family researchers share their views on both studies. David Eggebeen, Associate Professor of Human Development and Sociology at Pennsylvania State University, remarks, "Dr. Marks' paper, by turning a bright light on the shortcomings of previous work, challenges researchers to develop better data and conduct kinds of analyses that allow more confidence in generalizations. The Regnerus paper introduces a data set based on a national probability sample that has the potential to address some of Mark's criticisms. The analyses in the Regnerus paper are provocative but far from conclusive. These very preliminary findings should not detract from the real importance of this paper, the description of a new data set that offers significant advantages."

"Whether same-sex parenting causes the observed differences cannot be determined from Regnerus' descriptive analysis," cautions Professor Cynthia Osborne from the University of Texas at Austin. "Children of lesbian mothers might have lived in many different family structures and it is impossible to isolate the effects of living with a lesbian mother from experiencing divorce, remarriage, or living with a single parent. Or, it is quite possible, that the effect derives entirely from the stigma attached to such relationships and to the legal prohibitions that prevent same-sex couples from entering and maintaining 'normal relationships'."

In a final comment on Regnerus' research, Pennsylvania State University, sociologist and professor Paul Amato points out, "If growing up with gay and lesbian parents were catastrophic for children, even studies based on small convenience samples would have shown this by now

If differences exist between children with gay/lesbian and heterosexual parents, they are likely to be small or moderate in magnitude-perhaps comparable to those revealed in the research literature on children and divorce."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal References:

David J. Eggebeen. What can we learn from studies of children raised by gay or lesbian parents? Social Science Research, 2012; 41 (4): 775 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.04.008Cynthia Osborne. Further comments on the papers by Marks and Regnerus. Social Science Research, 2012; 41 (4): 779 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.05.002Paul R. Amato. The well-being of children with gay and lesbian parents. Social Science Research, 2012; 41 (4): 771 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.04.007Loren Marks. Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting. Social Science Research, 2012; 41 (4): 735 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.006Mark Regnerus. How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study. Social Science Research, 2012; 41 (4): 752 DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.009

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Are wider faced men more self-sacrificing?

Picture a stereotypical tough guy and you might imagine a man with a broad face, a square jaw, and a stoical demeanor. Existing research even supports this association, linking wider, more masculine faces with several less-than-cuddly characteristics, including perceived lack of warmth, dishonesty, and lack of cooperation. But a new study suggests that men with these wide, masculine faces aren't always the aggressive tough guys they appear to be.

"Men with wider faces have typically been portrayed as 'bad to the bone,'" says psychologist Michael Stirrat. But he and David Perrett wondered whether the relationship between facial width and personality was really so simple. They suspected that men who look aggressive and untrustworthy might actually be good guys in some contexts.

In their new study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, they predicted that more physically robust men, as identified by a wider face, would be self-sacrificing when their group was competing with another group.

The researchers gave University of St Andrews students money to play a game in groups where they could either benefit themselves and free-ride on the cooperation of others or they could risk their money to benefit their group. Half of the students were told that the outcomes of the game would be compared between St Andrews students, the other half that they would be compared with a rival university. The prediction was that the wider faced men would respond to the rivalry in the second condition and sacrifice their money for their own group.

The results of the study confirmed their hypotheses and turned the typical associations with facial width on their head: the more robust looking, wider faced men in the study were more self-sacrificing than other men.

"It was surprising that our predictions were confirmed," reports Dr. Stirrat. "When we mentioned Edinburgh University, our St Andrews participants with wider faces were more cooperative than the other men. When we didn't mention the rivalry, they were less cooperative than other men."

The present finding provides a more nuanced understanding of masculinity and male behaviour. Compared with women, men appear to be more sensitive to intergroup relationships and to whether they are being observed. The results of this experiment suggest that while more robust males may show more 'masculine' behaviour in anti-social ways such as physical aggression they are also more likely to make sacrifices to support the groups to which they belong. In short, the same characteristics in men predict both anti-social and pro-social behaviour, depending on the context.

These findings are particularly interesting in light of recent research that has shown that the facial width of male CEOs predicts their business performance and facial width of male presidential candidates predicts their drive for achievement. This new study suggests that facial width may be related to performance and achievement because these men may be more self-sacrificing in time and effort for their group.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

M. Stirrat, D. I. Perrett. Face Structure Predicts Cooperation: Men With Wider Faces Are More Generous to Their In-Group When Out-Group Competition Is Salient. Psychological Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435133

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Do You Have What It Takes To Win Him Back

Are you trying to win him back? Are you sure that you're all in and ready willing and prepared to get your boyfriend back? It's going to be a bumpy ride full of ups and downs but in the end, do you have what it takes to stay the course and do what is necessary to get your ex back? Have you been struggling with all of this and you just feel like giving up at times? Are you happy and sure of yourself one minute and then driven to tears the next because the reality of being broken up come crawling back into your mind?

The truth is that your reality can be whatever you decide. Your reality actually is how you perceive things and how you feel at any particular moment. Just think about that for a moment and you'll know that it's true. The more you dwell upon the fact that you're broken up the worse you feel and the more you focus on all the positive reasons why you can and will get him back, the better you feel. Right now, you call the shots and it's up to you whether you want to believe that you can win him back or you want to believe that you won't ever hear those three sweet words that you dream about every night.

Your well meaning family and friends might try to get you to see that reality if you ever try to talk to them about your desire to get your ex boyfriend or husband back. They might try to point out that he said that it's over or that he has already moved on. These thoughts might even invade your own mind from time to time but the truth is that even if he left you for another woman you still can get him back. He didn't leave you because she was better than you and that relationship is going to fall apart all on its own. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should just be sitting there by the phone waiting on his call. Time is precious and there are things that you need to do to get ready for that opportunity to get him back.

This time is all about you, right now. Take advantage of this situation and make some changes and learn a few things about guys in relationships. Understand what makes him tick and how you can leverage this new found knowledge to your advantage. Once you do get back together you might wish that you had used this time more creatively so you can be more successful in your relationship but for right now, you want to have yourself together and be ready to make him yours again when the time comes.

One way of looking at it is, if he called you and said that he wanted to talk to you in an hour, how fast do you think you could look fabulous? Well, what if he just rang your doorbell right now? Would you really be prepared and would you know what to say and what to do to create that attraction based upon what has been proven to work well and without a hitch? That's how prepared you want to be. You want to know ahead of time how you want to steer the relationship and your inner and outward attitude and appearance needs to be near flawless. You need to be back to being the woman that he fell in love with if not better because he could show up at any moment.

You need to live in ever present expectation for that moment when he walks back into your life. You him to be yours and you want to be able to see it in his eyes. There's no telling when that moment will come but you can bank on it that it is coming. This whole thing isn't over by a long shot and if you are prepared and you understand the how and why your ex not only broke up with you but what it's going to take to get him back then your odds of getting him back are almost one hundred percent... as long as you have the guts to follow through and do the right things and not fall apart and beg him to take you back again.

Dream about this moment. Know in your mind already, starting tonight, exactly how you want things to happen when he comes back to you. Experience it with every part of your body and make it as real as possible. Feel the sensations in your body as you know for sure and without a doubt that everything is going to fall into place and how it will feel to have him hold you again. Don't let anyone or anything kill this dream. Protect it, nurture it and live the dream that you can get him back after all.

Neuroscientists show how brain responds to sensual caress

A nuzzle of the neck, a stroke of the wrist, a brush of the knee -- these caresses often signal a loving touch, but can also feel highly aversive, depending on who is delivering the touch, and to whom. Interested in how the brain makes connections between touch and emotion, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex, a region that, until now, was thought only to respond to basic touch, not to its emotional quality.

The new finding is described in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The team measured brain activation while self-identified heterosexual male subjects lay in a functional MRI scanner and were each caressed on the leg under two different conditions. In the first condition, they saw a video of an attractive female bending down to caress them; in the second, they saw a video of a masculine man doing the same thing. The men reported the experience as pleasurable when they thought the touch came from the woman, and aversive when they thought it came from the man. And their brains backed them up: this difference in experience was reflected in the activity measured in each man's primary somatosensory cortex.

"We demonstrated for the first time that the primary somatosensory cortex -- the brain region encoding basic touch properties such as how rough or smooth an object is -- also is sensitive to the social meaning of a touch," explains Michael Spezio, a visiting associate at Caltech who is also an assistant professor of psychology at Scripps College in Claremont, California. "It was generally thought that there are separate brain pathways for how we process the physical aspects of touch on the skin and for how we interpret that touch emotionally -- that is, whether we feel it as pleasant, unpleasant, desired, or repulsive. Our study shows that, to the contrary, emotion is involved at the primary stages of social touch."

Unbeknownst to the subjects, the actual touches on their leg were always exactly the same -- and always from a woman. Yet, it felt different to them when they believed a man versus a woman was doing the touching.

"The primary somatosensory cortex responded more to the 'female' touch than to the 'male' touch condition, even while subjects were only viewing a video showing a person approach their leg," says Ralph Adolphs, Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Caltech and director of the Caltech Brain Imaging Center, where the research was done. "We see responses in a part of the brain thought to process only basic touch that were elicited entirely by the emotional significance of social touch prior to the touch itself, simply in anticipation of the caress that our participants would receive."

The study was carried out in collaboration with the husband-and-wife team of Valeria Gazzola and Christian Keysers, who were visiting Caltech from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

"Intuitively, we all believe that when we are touched by someone, we first objectively perceive the physical properties of the touch -- its speed, its gentleness, the roughness of the skin," says Gazzola. "Only thereafter, in a separable second step based on who touched us, do we believe we value this touch more or less."

The experiment showed that this two-step vision is incorrect, at least in terms of separation between brain regions, she says, and who we believe is touching us distorts even the supposedly objective representation of what the touch was like on the skin.

"Nothing in our brain is truly objective," adds Keysers. "Our perception is deeply and pervasively shaped by how we feel about the things we perceive."

One possible practical implication of the work is to help reshape social responses to touch in people with autism.

"Now that we have clear evidence that primary somatosensory cortex encodes emotional significance of touch, it may be possible to work with early sensory pathways to help children with autism respond more positively to the gentle touch of their parents and siblings," says Spezio.

The work also suggests that it may be possible to use film clips or virtual reality to reestablish positive responses to gentle touch in victims of sexual and physical abuse, and torture.

Next, the researchers hope to test whether the effect is as robust in women as in men, and in both sexes across sexual orientation. They also plan to explore how these sensory pathways might develop in infants or children.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by California Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Katie Neith.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Valeria Gazzola, Michael L. Spezio, Joset A. Etzel, Fulvia Castelli, Ralph Adolphs, and Christian Keysers. Primary somatosensory cortex discriminates affective significance in social touch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 4, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1113211109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Positive words: The glue to social interaction

Words charged with a positive emotional content are used more frequently, thus enhancing human communication.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have studied the use of language, finding that words with a positive emotional content are more frequently used in written communication. This result supports the theory that social relations are enhanced by a positive bias in human communication. The study by David Garcia and his colleagues from the Chair of Systems Design is published in the first issue of the new SpringerOpen journal EPJ Data Science.

Previous studies focused on word lengths and frequency. They demonstrated that frequency depends on the length of words used, as a result of the principle of least effort influencing the use of shorter words. In contrast, this study focused on how the emotions expressed in words relate to the word frequency and its information content. The authors focused on words used in written emotional expression in the three most popular European languages online: English, German and Spanish.

They exploited a dataset on human behavior on the Internet, which includes texts from blogs, chat rooms and forums, among other sources. After performing a quantitative analysis on this dataset, the authors found that positive words appeared more frequently than words associated with a negative emotion. This suggests that the emotional content affects the words' frequency, even though the overall emotional content of the studied words is neutral on average. These findings support existing theories that there is a positive bias in human expression to facilitate social interaction.

Going one step further, the authors also focused on words within their context and realized that positive words carried less information than negative ones. Therefore, because of the positive bias observed in human communication, positive words are more likely to be used whereas negative expressions could be reserved to transmit information about urgent threats and dangerous events.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

David Garcia, Antonios Garas, Frank Schweitzer. Positive words carry less information than negative words. EPJ Data Science, 2012; 1 (1) DOI: 10.1140/epjds3

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

How To Get Him Back When You Broke Up With Him

Did you make a mistake by breaking up with your boyfriend and now you want to get back together? You would do anything to go back in time and do it all over again but that's not going to happen any time soon. You realize what a fool you were and you wish you had done things differently. Now, all you want to do is get him back but nothing seems to be working.

Was it something trivial that you fought over. Maybe you hadn't been feeling quite as much affection as you wanted and you had hoped that this would be a wakeup call for him. But now you're alone and you wish you had just kept your thoughts to yourself or handled things another way. You thought that he would fight for you or be upset but instead he just left and you are desperate for a way to get your boyfriend back.

No doubt you've already tried talking to him and explaining that you made a terrible mistake. You've probably told him how much you love him and how you'll never say those things to him that you said before he left. But, no matter what you say or do it seems like he is unmoved. Tears will not move him to show you mercy and your words of love are falling on deaf ears. Your days are dark and depressing and you know that if you could just get him back that you could be happy again.

Even though you might feel that nothing is going to help you to get him back, the simple fact is that winning him over really isn't all that difficult. Uncovering the love that still lies within his heart for you might be a little difficult for you to do giving your present emotional state but it's not complicated. Knowing what will cause him to see you as he once did with love in his heart should be your focus while avoiding doing anything that could push him away from you or potentially make matters worse. These are the two essentials when it comes to getting your ex back.

You might think that crying or pleading or asking for forgiveness will show that you really do care about your relationship. The truth is that these methods will make your ex lose respect for you and you will only be pushing him further away. Trying to talk to him about what went wrong or working through your problems so you can come up with a remedy for these problems is only going to turn him off too. After all, nobody really likes to talk about problems and his solution to the problems was to leave you.

Now, you might think that if these methods don't work then doing the exact opposite might do the trick. Maybe if you were mean to him or if you yelled at him or pointed out all of his flaws that he might get knocked down a peg. Will this help you achieve your goal of getting your boyfriend back? Will this make him think that he made a mistake by leaving you? These methods will only solidify his decision to leave and he might swear off ever talking to you again if you're not careful.

Knowing what makes your man tick and understanding how to use male psychology against him is the way to go if you are serious about getting him back. Do the things that will make him want you while avoiding doing the things that will turn him off to you or lose respect for you and you stand a very good chance of getting him back. Make a decision today to stop doing the normal things that most women do when they want to get a guy back like texting him and telling him that you're sorry and give him the opportunity to see you as you really are and begin to chase you and you can and will get him back.

70% of women use contraceptives during their first sexual encounter, Spanish study suggests

Contraceptive use in Spain during the first sexual encounter is similar to other European countries. However, there are some geographical differences between Spanish regions: women in Murcia use contraceptives less (55.8%) whereas women in the Basque Country use them more (76.7%).

Spanish researchers have analysed the prevalence of contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter over the last month in 5,141 sexually active women between the ages of 15 and 49 years through Spain's 17 autonomous communities.

"Bearing in mind the individual factors amongst women that determine contraceptive use, living in one autonomous community or another also has an influence," as explained by Dolores Ruiz Muñoz, researcher at the Public Health Agency of Barcelona and lead author of the study.

Published in the Health & Place journal, the results reveal that the prevalence of contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter is 70.4%. It varies in the different regions from 55.8% in Murcia to 76.7% in the Basque Country.

In this case, contraceptive use shows positive correlation in women with a university education and negative correlation amongst women from poor backgrounds.

Ruiz Muñoz points out that "contraceptive use during the first sexual encounter was more common amongst non-religious women in developed countries who had high educational attainment and their first sexual experience was between the ages of 18 and 19 years."

Furthermore, the prevalence of contraceptive use during the four weeks prior to the interview stood at 77.2%. Percentages varied from 70.9% in Navarra to 86.7% in Asturias, which suggested less difference between the different regions that in the case of the first sexual encounter.

The use of contraceptives during sexual relations in the month before the study was more common amongst younger women, those who live alone, those with higher educational attainment, those with children and those that had used contraceptives during their first sexual encounter.

"There are many factors that influence the correlation between the region and women at an intermediate level" continues the researcher. "These factors which influence the context must be taken into account to ensure all women throughout Spain have equal access to contraceptives regardless of their socio-economic level or the area where they live."

There are still inequalities

According to experts, contraceptives are the most effective way of preventing unplanned pregnancy and their use is widespread in Spain. Nonetheless, there are still some inequalities in their use.

In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of considering the social, economic and political characteristics of regions when designing administrative measures and promotion methods for contraceptive use.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Dolores Ruiz-Muñoz, Gloria Pérez, Mercè Gotsens, Maica Rodríguez-Sanz. Regional inequalities in the use of contraception in Spain: A multilevel approach. Health & Place, 18 (2012) 408-414

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Sending sexually explicit photos by cell phone is common among teens

A significant number of teenagers are sending and receiving sexually explicit cell phone photos, often with little, if any, awareness of the possible psychological, interpersonal, and sometimes legal consequences of doing so. Even many of those who believe there could be serious legal consequences are undeterred and still choose to engage in 'sexting'. These findings by Donald Strassberg, from the University of Utah (US), and colleagues are published online in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

New communication technologies play an increasingly important role in the lives of young people, especially adolescents. Instant access to others via online social networks has dramatically changed when, how, and what teens learn about each other and the world. In addition, sexting -- the transfer of sexually explicit pictures via cell phones -- is a new way in which adolescents are exposed to sexual material. In many US states, those sending or receiving nude pictures of individuals under 18 risk charges as serious as possession or distribution of child pornography, carrying penalties that include being listed on a sex offender register. In addition, for those featured in the photos, there may be serious psychological consequences.

Strassberg and team looked at how prevalent sexting is among adolescents and how aware, or not, teens are of the potential consequences. They recruited 606 students from a private high school in the southwest US, who completed a questionnaire about their experiences of sexting and their understanding of what consequences they believed were associated with being caught sexting. The students were also asked about their feelings on sending sexually explicit cell phone pictures, for example, in what context it might be right or wrong.

Nearly 20 percent of the students, some as young as 14, said they had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves via cell phone, and nearly twice as many said that they had received a sexually explicit picture. Of those receiving such a picture, over 25 percent indicated that they had forwarded it to others.

In addition, of those who had sent a sexually explicit picture, over a third had done so despite believing that there could be serious legal and other consequences if they got caught. Students who had sent a picture by cell phone were more likely than others to find the activity acceptable.

The authors conclude: "These results argue for educational efforts such as cell phone safety assemblies, awareness days, integration into class curriculum and teacher training, designed to raise awareness about the potential consequences of sexting among young people."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Donald S. Strassberg, Ryan K. McKinnon, Michael A. Sustaíta, Jordan Rullo. Sexting by High School Students: An Exploratory and Descriptive Study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s10508-012-9969-8

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

 

Bisexuality studies focus on health, behavior and identity

Bisexuality, often stigmatized, typically has been lumped with homosexuality in previous public health research. But when Indiana University scientists recently focused on the health issues and behaviors specific to behaviorally bisexual men and women, they found tremendous variety, and that commonly used labels, such as heterosexual and homosexual, can sometimes do more harm than good.

Bisexual, gay, lesbian, queer, men who have sex with men (MSM), women who have sex with women (WSW) -- these are just some of the terms commonly used to characterize sexual partnering and attraction in recent research. Behavioral science researchers have long known that socially constructed sexual identity "labels" (like "gay") are often not always reflective of the diversity and complexity of an individual's sexual behaviors. A study led by Vanessa Schick, assistant research scientist at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU Bloomington, found that how women relate to their label could influence their health.

Schick's study involved 2,578 women who reported a history of attraction or sexual encounters with women. The Web-based survey asked about mental, physical and sexual wellness. In the paper "Bidentity: Sexual Behavior/Identity Congruence and Women's Sexual, Physical and Mental Well-Being," Schick reports finding that the women who identified themselves as bisexual or lesbian reported the best health when their sexual identity matched their recent sexual history.

Schick, however, warned against interpreting this as evidence that women should declare a sexual identity that corresponds to their sexual behavior. Instead, she points to the experiences of women who labeled themselves as "queer," a sexual identity that is sometimes endorsed by individuals who want to reject traditional labels that suggest the gender of their sexual partners.

"Unlike the other women in the study, the mental, physical and sexual well-being of queer-identified women was not related to the gender of their recent sexual partners," she said. "This suggests that, instead of encouraging women to adopt labels that are more descriptive of their behavior, we should be more flexible in the behavioral expectations that we attach to these labels."

For a variety of reasons, men and women often identify openly or just to themselves with a label that is different from their sexual history. One such reason is biphobia, the stigma and discrimination that bisexual individuals experience from both heterosexual and homosexual individuals.

Brian Dodge, associate professor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation and associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, found in his study on sexual health among bisexual men that factors associated with biphobia contributed to feelings of isolation and social stress reported by many of his study participants. Dodge's qualitative study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, is based on in-depth interviews with 75 bisexual men from the Indianapolis area, ages 19 to 70, equally divided among Latino participants, non-Latino black participants and non-Latino white participants.

"There have been large quantitative studies that examined the mental health status of men who have sex with both men and women," Dodge said, "but no one has sat down and talked with these men about it. When we did, men were saying explicitly that being bisexual, not having a community to be involved with, not having people they could disclose to, homosexual or heterosexual, was tied to their experiences of adverse mental health."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Indiana University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Vanessa Schick, Joshua G. Rosenberger, Debby Herbenick, Sarah K. Calabrese, Michael Reece. Bidentity: Sexual Behavior/Identity Congruence and Women's Sexual, Physical and Mental Well-Being. Journal of Bisexuality, 2012; 12 (2): 178 DOI: 10.1080/15299716.2012.674855

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Secret love cheats pose a greater infection risk than those in open sexual relationships

People who were sexually unfaithful without their partner's knowledge were less likely to practice safe sex than those who had other sexual relationships with their partner's consent. They were also more likely to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the encounter.

In a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers from the University of Michigan, USA, found that condom use for vaginal and anal sex was 27% and 35% lower in sexually unfaithful relationships and drug and alcohol use was 64% higher.

Of the 1,647 people who replied to an online advertisement, 801 had had sex with someone other than their primary partner. Of those, 493 stated this had happened as part of a negotiated non-monogamous relationship and 308 said that they were sexually unfaithful while in a committed monogamous relationship.

"Our research suggests that people who are unfaithful to their monogamous romantic partners pose a greater risk for STIs than those who actively negotiate non-monogamy in their relationship," says lead author Dr. Terri D. Conley from the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. "Monogamy can be an effective method for preventing the spread of STIs, but only if couples test negative for STIs at the start of the relationship and remain faithful while they are together. If people do not find monogamy appealing or feasible, they clearly need to think about the risk this poses to their partner and consider whether an open relationship would suit their needs better, and better protect their relationship partners."

"More work is needed in both prevention of and education about sexually transmitted diseases," explains Irwin Goldstein, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. "This research is of particular interest because it reveals that monogamous relationships are not always monogamous which can have resultant sexual health implications."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Terri D. Conley, Amy C. Moors, Ali Ziegler, Constantina Karathanasis. Unfaithful Individuals are Less Likely to Practice Safer Sex Than Openly Nonmonogamous Individuals. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2012; 9 (6): 1559 DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02712.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Alcohol abuse may be cause, rather than effect of social isolation, poor grades among teens

Rather than gaining "liquid courage" to let loose with friends, teenage drinkers are more likely to feel like social outcasts, according to a new sociological study.

Published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the study shows alcohol consumption leads to increased social stress and poor grades, especially among students in schools with tightly-connected friendship cliques and low levels of alcohol abuse.

For their study, Robert Crosnoe, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, Aprile Benner, an assistant professor of human ecology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Barbara Schneider, a professor of sociology and education at Michigan State University, analyzed National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data on 8,271 adolescents from 126 schools. Add Health, which began in 1994, is the largest and most comprehensive survey of health-related behavior among adolescents between grades 7 and 12.

The researchers, who also drew on Add Health's companion Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement transcript study, found a correlation between drinking and feelings of loneliness and not fitting in across all school environments. But these feelings were especially significant among self-reported drinkers in schools where fellow students tended to avoid alcohol and were tightly connected to each other. When not surrounded by fellow drinkers, they are more likely to feel like social outcasts, said Crosnoe, who, along with Benner, is a research affiliate at the University of Texas at Austin's Population Research Center.

"This finding doesn't imply that drinkers would be better off in schools in which peer networks are tightly organized around drinking," Crosnoe said. "Instead, the results suggest that we need to pay attention to youth in problematic school environments in general but also to those who may have trouble in seemingly positive school environments."

The researchers, who adjusted statistically for factors such as ethnicity, race, gender, and socioeconomic circumstances, tracked the respondents' grade point averages and found a direct link between feelings of isolation and declining grades. The difference between drinkers who felt as though they did not fit in socially in school and their peers could equal as much as three tenths of a point in grade point average from year to year.

"In general, adolescents who feel as though they don't fit in at school often struggle academically, even when capable and even when peers value academic success, because they become more focused on their social circumstances than their social and academic activities," Crosnoe said.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has resulted in recommendations for how public schools should address nonacademic dimensions of school life and youth development in attempts to meet academic accountability benchmarks.

"Given that social development is a crucial component of schooling, it's important to connect these social and emotional experiences of drinking to how teenagers are doing academically," Crosnoe said.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Sociological Association, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

R. Crosnoe, A. D. Benner, B. Schneider. Drinking, Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Progress in Secondary School. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2012; 53 (2): 150 DOI: 10.1177/0022146511433507

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

iPad Case - What You Should Know When Buying One

Owning an expensive electronic gadget like the iPad can be quite exciting. But along with it comes the anxiety and need to protect the gadget from any kind of damage. It is always wise to get a good iPad case as soon as you purchase your iPad.

There are various different types of covers for the device. Hard shell covers that act like a second skin to the device are quite light in weight. They come in different colors and styles. Some covers are made of polycarbonate which makes the case tough and durable.

If you wish to go for a more posh-looking cover, you can choose a genuine leather executive case. Leather cases are flexible and have a soft inner lining to protect the body of the iPad. They look extremely sophisticated and are ideal for use in the corporate world. The leather case is a great-looking accessory for a great-looking device.

You can also find covers that look and act like folders. These are very handy and allow you place the iPad in different positions. The cover doubles up as a stand which can hold the device in different orientations.

Here are a few features that you need to look for in your iPad case.

First of all, the cover should provide total protection for your expensive and delicate electronic device. It should be durable enough to withstand wear and tear from regular usage, and at the same time be soft enough to avoid scratching the surface of the iPad.

Secondly, you should be able to use your instrument even when it is within the case. The case should have flaps that can be opened when you wish to use the device. It should have openings for headphone jacks and ports so that you can attach other devices to your iPad. You should not have to completely remove the device from the case every time you need to use it. The very process of taking the device out and putting it in can cause damage sometimes. Therefore, you need to look for a case that is designed with the device's usage in mind. In other words, the case should act as an extension to the device when you use it.

Thirdly, the cover should preferably be waterproof. The iPad is so handy that you are likely to take it wherever you go. Having a water-proof case can help you preserve it from damage for a much longer time. These are some of the important features that you need to look for when buying your iPad case.

GeekCool Inc

The term 'Geek Cool' was created to address modern day tech enthusiasts who understands style and fashion. Gone are the days when the term geek is associated with big nerdy glasses, bad hair and just plain bad fashion. These days, 'geek' is the new cool. Here at GeekCool Inc, we stand by that term proudly. Our collection of iPad case is the representation of geek cool; functional, quirky and stylish. These iPad cases are perfect for people who love their individuality and want their iPad to stand out from the masses!

 

Get Healthier Sunless Tanning Without Harming Your Skin

Most of the people are in search for healthy and perfect tanned body and they try their best to capture a perfect tan each year especially in hotter months. Moreover, it is not easy task to get a tanned body. It sounds simple, but in reality it is complicated process, which may cause harmful and dangerous affects on your skin. Since many years, the only way to get tan was to sit out in the sun for hours and let the sun give a tanned color to their skin. This case suits some of the people and most of the time people get burnt with the harsh UV sun-rays and sensitive skin results ins reddish pink skin, which blistered and peeled later on. Therefore, people want some easy steps to get perfect tanned color.

With the advent of technology, lotions, creams, goggles and several other products are available in the market. This is the simple way to get ideal tanned body at lowest price range. Now, there are online stores, which are offering these products to give you desired results. Their exclusive range of tanning lotions, creams and goggles is authentic and have customer satisfaction results. There are various formulas used for tanning according to your skin type and your specifications. The various formulas are: Non-tingle (Regular) formulas, Tingle formulas, Broozing formulas, Cooling formulas and Blush formulas. Non-tingle formula is suitable for any tanner; it contains key ingredients which optimize tan development and hydrate the skin and provides intense and long-lasting moisture to the skin. Tingle formula increases the microcirculation of the outer skin layer and used by tanners with a base tan. Broozing formula provides a tanned appearance by developing brown color on skin without exposure of harsh UV rays. Cooling formula is used to draw warmth away from the skin. Blush formula, as the name tells that it produces a glowing blush on the skin.

At there website you will get your favorite tanning lotion of different-different brands. Designer Skin brand is the most popular and saleable brand amongst all other brands. They provide wide range of products of well-known brands and you choose your preferred product available at wholesale price. They are also offering skin products, which suits your skin delicacy and maintain excellent customer service.

Besides tanning lotions and creams, they are also delivering tanning goggles. They are used to protect your eyes while you are on tanning bed. Tanning beds are used for giving tanned color to body, which produces UV rays for best results. They provide all the necessary products for getting perfect tanned color. They provide safe and timely home delivery for your convenience.

How Do I Choose a Wedding Photographer?

Picking a Wedding photographer is an extremely crucial decision. It is necessary to not choose the most affordable or perhaps the easiest alternative. The reason being the actual photographs will probably be together with you forever; these are the memories of the greatest day's your own lives. When selecting a wedding photographer you should have a clear idea of what sort of photographs you need.

When interviewing photographers, ensure you employ a digital photographer who specializes in weddings. Ensure the digital photographer you interview will be the one that will in fact be photographing your wedding. Several significant companies possess several photography enthusiasts and you have to employ the main one a person interview. Ask to determine their own perform. Most are very happy to give references and it's also very important to inquire about current wedding ceremonies the photographer has carried out.

Narrow down a summary of your preferred photographers based on their own on the web portfolios. A great place to start seeking is within the neighborhood on the internet advertisements. Websites such as: Findaweddingphotographer.co.uk and Gumtree.company.uk are good locations to begin. Be mindful with internet queries, simply because someone shows up on the first web page of Google does not mean these are the finest, or even most economical, it just signifies these people have a large amount of hyperlinks to their site.

Search for Availability: Once you have reduced this list, e-mail or even call your 5 best roughly photography enthusiasts. Check to see in the event that every digital photographer can be obtained on your wedding date, and acquire a quote or estimate. Emailing or phoning each photographer will also give you a tiny understanding of their character. Read more about that later.

Take a look at the references or testimonials of satisfied customers. What do other individuals have to state in regards to the digital photographer that you are thinking about. A great photographer needs to have a listing of past customers who will have left a good testimonial as to the kind of support and attention to detail they received during their personal marriage ceremony as well as reception.

In fact, you do not have to choose between either. Most wedding photographers/photojournalists will actually do a minimum of a bit of each. What you need to ask yourself is whether you prefer the photographer who'll invest nearly all of his time generating lovely photographs by controlling what is happening in the frame a treadmill that will spend the majority of her time taking storytelling pictures by capturing the emotions unfolding normally in your wedding ceremony.

Now that you have met by incorporating photography enthusiasts, it's time to make your decision and sign a legal contract. Opt for your gut, if you feel a photographer will be fantastic to do business with then you definitely should hire them. Additionally it is not a bad notion in order to schedule and engagement program along with a pre-wedding choosing them also so you've the opportunity get to know all of them, get comfortable as you're watching digital camera, and feel confident in your range of wedding photographer.