Turn the tables

Meaning

Reverse the positions of adversaries. The phrases is often used when the weaker position subsequently becomes dominant.

Origin

Games like backgammon are known as ‘tables’ games. The phrase ‘turn the tables’ derives from these games and from the practise of reversing the board so that players play from their opponent’s previous position.

The first known example of the figurative use of the phrase in print is in Robert Sanderson’s XII sermons, 1634:

“Whosoever thou art that dost another wrong, do but turn the tables: imagine thy neighbour were now playing thy game, and thou his.”

10 Surprising Facts About Addiction

The Psychology of Embarrassment

By

John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

~ 1 min read

Embarrassment is a key human emotion that we’ve all experienced, usually at the cost of our own dignity. It’s a state of self-conscious distress that causes many of us to blush. And it’s something most of us work hard to avoid.

The APA’s Monitor has an interesting article this month looking into the psychology of embarrassment and the research behind it. Embarrassment can act as a powerful and beneficial social glue strengthening our social relationships with others.

But it can also have a dark side, as we seek to avoid it — sometimes at the cost of our own health or happiness.

While there’s little we can do to stop embarrassment in every situation, we can better understand the purpose it serves in our emotional health. Understanding how it can serve and hurt us means we’ll be better prepared the next time it pops up in our life.

Embarrassment has both good components:

The benefit of embarrassment, however, might depend on who’s watching. Anja Eller, PhD, an associate professor of social psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has found that people are more likely to be embarrassed when they err in front of members of their own social group. People are less embarrassed when outsiders see them goof up, especially when the outsiders are seen as lower in status.

… and bad:

Case in point: shopping for condoms. Researchers at Duke University found that buying condoms often elicits embarrassment, potentially putting people at risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies if they’re too mortified to take the prophylactics through the checkout lane (Psychology, Health & Medicine, 2006).

That’s just one of many examples of embarrassment affecting our well-being. Men may fail to get prostate exams, women could skip mammograms, seniors may avoid using hearing aids, and people of all stripes might fail to mention awkward symptoms or avoid the doctor altogether.

Researchers have found that embarrassment is adaptive. “Expressing the emotion tends to repair social relations and elicit forgiveness. And as [one researcher] has shown, signs of sheepishness may even advertise trustworthiness.”

So now you have a better of idea how embarrassment can both help and hurt you.

The Human Voice – Pitch

Tonya Reiman

Pitch

The human voice is a magical tool. It can be used to identify those we know and love; to create wonderful music through singing; it allows people to communicate verbally; and, it can help in the recognition of emotions. Everyone has a distinct voice, different from all others; almost like a fingerprint, one’s voice is unique and can act as an identifier. The human voice is composed of a multitude of different components, making each voice different; namely, pitch, tone, and rate. The following article, the first of a three part series on the voice, will discuss the pitch component of the voice. It will explore what voice pitch is, how it is used and how it can be influential. The human voice has many components and is created through a myriad of muscle movements. Pitch is an integral part of the human voice. The pitch of the voice is defined as the “rate of vibration of the vocal folds” . The sound of the voice changes as the rate of vibrations varies. As the number of vibrations per second increases, so does the pitch, meaning the voice would sound higher. Faster rates form higher voices, or higher pitches, while slower rates elicit deeper voices, or lower pitches. How are these vibrations and pitches created? The vibrations, and the speed at which they vibrate, are dependent on the length and thickness of the vocal cords, as well as the tightening and relaxation of the muscles surrounding them. This explains why women generally have higher voices than men do; women tend to have higher voices because they have shorter vocal cords. The length and thickness of the vocal cords, however, are not the only factors that affect one’s pitch. The pitch of someone’s voice can also be affected by emotions, moods and inflection. Interestingly, our emotions can also affect the pitch of our voices. When people become frightened or excited, the muscles around the voice box (or larynx) unconsciously contract, putting strain on the vocal cords, making the pitch higher. Again, not all pitch change is done unconsciously. A change in pitch is known as inflection and humans exercise this naturally all the time. People tend to exercise conscious control of the pitch of their voice when refraining from screaming, because it tightens and strains the vocal cords, or changing the pitch of our voice to mimic someone, for instance. The voice tends to change, sliding up and down the pitch scale, as we express different emotions, thoughts and feelings. Pitch is not solely an objective component of voice; research has shown that pitch is associated with attractiveness amongst men and women. Studies done by Collins & Missing and Feinberg et al discovered that men deemed women with higher pitched voices more attractive. This may be because higher pitched voices are associated with youth and fertility in women. Women, on the other hand, tend to find men with lower pitched voices sexy and desirable.

A study done by Putz found that women associated low-pitched men’s voices with uncommitted sex, making these men sexually preferred. Putz also discovered that women’s desire for men with lower pitched voices increased with fertility over the ovulatory cycle. These findings may be shocking to many as so often it is men that are deemed those who are searching for uncommitted sex while women are searching for a man offering fertility and stability. Similar to the aforementioned studies, researchers from Harvard University, Florida State University and McMaster discovered that pitch predicted reproductive success of males amongst hunter-gatherers. These researchers, studying the reproductive patterns of the Hadza, a tribe in Tanzania, found that men with lower pitched voices tended to have more children. This could be because the Hazda women chose men with lower pitched voices because they believed them to be better providers. In addition, studies have shown that low pitch voices are associated with higher levels of testosterone, so women may have chosen these men because they perceived them to be better hunters. It seems voice pitch, an arbitrary characteristic, can certainly have important impacts on human sexual preference and mating, as well as what we find attractive in the opposite sex. The pitch of our voices is created through vibrations of the vocal folds. The rate at which these folds vibrate changes the way our voices sound, with faster rates equating higher pitches. Studies have shown that women tend to prefer men with lower pitched voices and find these men more attractive. Furthermore, it has been discovered that men with lower pitched voices seem to have more children, perhaps owing to the fact that more women are attracted to them or that these men are viewed as stronger. The pitch of one’s voice can help in unconsciously divulging the feelings and emotions, but can also be consciously manipulated so as not to put strain on the vocal cords or to create a certain sound. The voice and the way it is used are unique to every individual.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986.

 

“How EINSTEIN Arrived at E=MC2“

Dear Friend:

Most people think Einstein was a genius. Even though he did poorly in school, it is generally assumed that Einstein became a genius later on. It’s also widely believed that he used superior intellect and complex mathematical reasoning to finally arrive at E=MC2.

The truth about Einstein is altogether different. Even though he was pretty smart, his accomplishments didn’t come from a wildly superior intellect. He didn’t arrive at his famous equation by complex mathematical reasoning. In fact, he didn’t use mathematical or scientific reasoning at all!

If Einstein didn’t arrive at E=MC2 by mathematical or scientific reasoning, how did he get there? The answer is very simple…

He made it up!

That’s right. He took a wild stab. He guessed. He made it all up! Without any proof, evidence, or scientific reasoning, he just woke up one day and said “It’s got to be so.” Then, in 1905, he published his “discovery” in a three-paged article in an obscure scientific journal and…well, the rest is history.

Here’s what really happened.

Einstein wasn’t as big a genius as most people think. He did have a curious mind, however, and he wasn’t afraid to think differently than other people around him believed.

Around the time Einstein became interested in physics (1895), electricity, magnetism, and the phenomenon of light were all under intensive study. A number of scientific theories and mathematical equations had already been worked out. There was even a type of relativity theory in existence, called the relativity principle, which had been formulated centuries earlier by the astronomer Galileo.

Most scientists at the time were completely satisfied with these prevailing theories. There were a few situations these theories couldn’t satisfactorily explain, but these exceptions were considered insignificant and no one really paid much attention to them.

No one, except Einstein, that is.

Einstein was intrigued by these “holes” in the prevailing theories. In fact, he enjoyed posing “mind riddles” to himself, just to see if present theories could satisfactorily explain them.

One such riddle he posed to himself was this: If a person was flying in space at the speed of light (ala Superman) with his/her arm fully outstretched holding a facial mirror, what would they “see” in the mirror? Would they see their face? Would it be bigger or smaller than if they were stationary? Would it be distorted in any way? Would light waves have time to bounce off their face, hit the mirror, and bounce back to their retina which was also moving at the speed of light? And what if an observer was watching all this from the ground. What would he or she see?

This was the riddle that eventually led Einstein to E=MC2. As you can see, it’s nothing exceptional. You or I could have easily wondered the same thing.

What made Einstein different, however, is that he refused to give up until he solved the riddle. He didn’t stay with this riddle for just a week or two, as you or I might have done. He didn’t give up after a month went by without an answer. He didn’t even quit after a year or two of racking his brain.

This story is dedicated my son, don’t ever give up finding the right answer. Common sense is sometimes the answer.

For the conclusion of this story go to this link Einstein

Looking Good: The Psychology and Biology of Beauty

Charles Feng
Human Biology, Stanford University
feng@jyi.org

In ancient Greece, Helen of Troy, the instigator of the Trojan War, was the paragon of beauty, exuding a physical

Model Cindy Crawford, an example of symmetry Image courtesy ofwww.cindy.com

brilliance that would put Cindy Crawford to shame. Indeed, she was the toast of Athens, celebrated not for her kindness or her intellect, but for her physical perfection. But why did the Greek men find Helen, and other beautiful women, so intoxicating?

In an attempt to answer this question, the philosophers of the day devoted a great deal of time to this conundrum. Plato wrote of so-called “golden proportions,” in which, amongst other things, the width of an ideal face would be two-thirds its length, while a nose would be no longer than the distance between the eyes. Plato’s golden proportions, however, haven’t quite held up to the rigors of modern psychological and biological research — though there is credence in the ancient Greeks’ attempts to determine a fundamental symmetry that humans find attractive.

Symmetry is attractive to the human eye

Today, this symmetry has been scientifically proven to be inherently attractive to the human eye. It has been defined not with proportions, but rather with similarity between the left and right sides of the face Thus, the Greeks were only partially correct.

By applying the stringent conditions of the scientific method, researchers now believe symmetry is the answer the Greeks were looking for.

By applying the stringent conditions of the scientific method, researchers now believe symmetry is the answer the Greeks were looking for.

Babies spend more time staring at pictures of symmetric individuals than they do at photos of asymmetric ones. Moreover, when several faces are averaged to create a composite — thus covering up the asymmetries that any one individual may have — a panel of judges deemed the composite more attractive than the individual pictures.

Victor Johnston of New Mexico State University, for example, utilizes a program called FacePrints, which shows viewers facial images of variable attractiveness. The viewers then rate the pictures on a beauty scale from one to nine. In what is akin to digital Darwinism, the pictures with the best ratings are merged together, while the less attractive photos are weeded out. Each trial ends when a viewer deems the composite a 10. All the perfect 10s are super-symmetric.

Scientists say that the preference for symmetry is a highly evolved trait seen in many different animals. Female swallows, for example, prefer males with longer and more symmetric tails, while female zebra finches mate with males with symmetrically colored leg bands.

Female zebra finches prefer males with symmetric colorings. Image courtesy of www.finchworld.com/zebra.html

The rationale behind symmetry preference in both humans and animals is that symmetric individuals have a higher mate-value; scientists believe that this symmetry is equated with a strong immune system. Thus, beauty is indicative of more robust genes, improving the likelihood that an individual’s offspring will survive. This evolutionary theory is supported by research showing that standards of attractiveness are similar across cultures.

According to a University of Louisville study, when shown pictures of different individuals, Asians, Latinos, and whites from 13 different countries all had the same general preferences when rating others as attractive — that is those that are the most symmetric.

Beauty beyond symmetry

However, John Manning of the University of Liverpool in England cautions against over-generalization, especially by Western scientists. “Darwin thought that there were few universals of physical beauty because there was much variance in appearance and preference across human groups,” Manning explained in email interview. For example, Chinese men used to prefer women with small feet. In Shakespearean England, ankles were the rage. In some African tribal cultures, men like women who insert large discs in their lips.

Indeed, “we need more cross-cultural studies to show that what is true in Westernized societies is also true in traditional groups,” Manning said his 1999 article.

Aside from symmetry, males in Western cultures generally prefer females with a small jaw, a small nose, large eyes, and defined cheekbones – features often described as “baby faced”, that resemble an infant’s. Females, however, have a preference for males who look more mature — generally heart-shaped, small-chinned faces with full lips and fair skin. But during menstruation, females prefer a soft-featured male to a masculine one. Indeed, researchers found that female perceptions of beauty actually change throughout the month.

Sizing up the wasit-to-hip ratio: In general, men prefer women with a low WHR. Image courtesy ofhealth.discovery.com

When viewing profiles, both males and females prefer a face in which the forehead and jaw are in vertical alignment. Altogether, the preference for youthful and even infant-like, features, especially by menstruating women, suggest people with these features have more long-term potential as mates as well as an increased level of reproductive fitness.

Scientists have also found that the body’s proportions play an important role in perceptions of beauty as well. In general, men have a preference for women with low waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs), that is, more adipose is deposited on the hips and buttocks than on the waist. Research shows that women with high WHRs (whose bodies are more tube-shaped) are more likely to suffer from health maladies, including infertility and diabetes. However, as is often the case, there are exceptions to the rule.

Psychologists at Newcastle University in England have shown that an indigenous people located in southeast Peru, who have had little contact with the Western world, actually have a preference for high WHRs. These psychologists assert that a general preference for low WHRs is a byproduct of Western culture.

Beauty and choosing a mate

Psychological research suggests that people generally choose mates with a similar level of attractiveness. The evolutionary theory is that by mating with someone who has similar genes, one’s own genes are conserved. Moreover, a person’s demeanor and personality also influences how others perceive his or her beauty.

Psychological research suggests that people generally choose mates with a similar level of attractiveness.

In one study, 70% of college students deemed an instructor physically attractive when he acted in a friendly manner, while only 30% found him attractive when he was cold and distant. Indeed, when surveyed for attributes in selecting a mate, both males and females felt kindness and an exciting personality were more important in a mate than good looks. Thus, to a certain degree, beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

Douglas Yu of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, agrees. “It’s true by definition. Beauty is always judged by the receiver,” he says. At the same time, he says in an email “there is inter-observer concordance, a measure of objectivity,” so that individual perceptions of beauty, factoring in other characteristics such as personality and intelligence, can often be aggregated to form a consensus opinion. One of the offshoots of Yu’s work in ethnobiology was a piece in Nature in 1998 that showed that the hourglass-body standard of beauty in women, previously thought to be `universally’ preferred, was in fact likely swayed by advertising.

The halo effect

In society, attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted, and more popular. This is described as the halo effect – due to the perfection associated with angels. Research shows attractive people also have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts. One theory behind this halo effect is that it is accurate — attractive people are indeed more successful.

Research shows attractive people also have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts.

An alternative explanation for attractive people achieving more in life is that we automatically categorize others before having an opportunity to evaluate their personalities, based on cultural stereotypes which say attractive people must be intrinsically good, and ugly people must be inherently bad. But Elliot Aronson, a social psychologist at Stanford University, believes self-fulfilling prophecies – in which a person’t confident self-perception, further perpetuated by healthy feedback from others – may play a role in success as well. Aronson suggests, based on the self-fulfilling prophecy that people who feel they are attractive – though not necessarily rated as such – are just as successful as their counterparts who are judged to be good-looking.

Whatever the reason, the notion that attractiveness correlates with success still rings true. Yet beauty is not always advantageous, for beautiful people, particularly attractive women, tend to be perceived as more materialistic, snobbish, and vain.

For better or worse, the bottom line is that research shows beauty matters; it pervades society and affects how we choose loved ones. Thus, striving to appear attractive may not be such a vain endeavor after all. This isn’t to say plastic surgery is necessarily the answer. Instead, lead a healthy lifestyle that will in turn make you a happier person.

The science of love

When do you know if you fancy someone? What does love do to your brain chemicals, and is falling in love just nature’s way to keep our species alive?

We call it love. It feels like love. But the most exhilarating of all human emotions is probably nature’s beautiful way of keeping the human species alive and reproducing.

With an irresistible cocktail of chemicals, our brain entices us to fall in love. We believe we’re choosing a partner. But we may merely be the happy victims of nature’s lovely plan.

It’s not what you say…
Psychologists have shown it takes between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if you fancy someone.
Research has shown this has little to do with what is said, rather
55% is through body language
38% is the tone and speed of their voice
Only 7% is through what they say

The 3 stages of love
Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in the States has proposed 3 stages of love – lust, attraction and attachment. Each stage might be driven by different hormones and chemicals.

Stage 1: Lust
This is the first stage of love and is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen – in both men and women.

Stage 2: Attraction
This is the amazing time when you are truly love-struck and can think of little else. Scientists think that three main neurotransmitters are involved in this stage; adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin.

Adrenaline
The initial stages of falling for someone activates your stress response, increasing your blood levels of adrenalin and cortisol. This has the charming effect that when you unexpectedly bump into your new love, you start to sweat, your heart races and your mouth goes dry.

Dopamine
Helen Fisher asked newly ‘love struck’ couples to have their brains examined and discovered they have high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This chemical stimulates ‘desire and reward’ by triggering an intense rush of pleasure. It has the same effect on the brain as taking cocaine!

Fisher suggests “couples often show the signs of surging dopamine: increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention and exquisite delight in smallest details of this novel relationship” .

Serotonin
And finally, serotonin. One of love’s most important chemicals that may explain why when you’re falling in love, your new lover keeps popping into your thoughts.

Does love change the way you think?
A landmark experiment in Pisa, Italy showed that early love (the attraction phase) really changes the way you think.

Dr Donatella Marazziti, a psychiatrist at the University of Pisa advertised for twenty couples who’d been madly in love for less than six months. She wanted to see if the brain mechanisms that cause you to constantly think about your lover, were related to the brain mechanisms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

By analysing blood samples from the lovers, Dr Marazitti discovered that serotonin levels of new lovers were equivalent to the low serotonin levels of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder patients.

Love needs to be blind
Newly smitten lovers often idealise their partner, magnifying their virtues and explaining away their flaws says Ellen Berscheid, a leading researcher on the psychology of love.

New couples also exalt the relationship itself. “It’s very common to think they have a relationship that’s closer and more special than anyone else’s”. Psychologists think we need this rose-tinted view. It makes us want to stay together to enter the next stage of love – attachment.

Stage 3: Attachment
Attachment is the bond that keeps couples together long enough for them to have and raise children. Scientists think there might be two major hormones involved in this feeling of attachment; oxytocin and vasopressin.

Oxytocin – The cuddle hormone

Oxytocin is a powerful hormone released by men and women during orgasm.
It probably deepens the feelings of attachment and makes couples feel much closer to one another after they have had sex. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes.
Oxytocin also seems to help cement the strong bond between mum and baby and is released during childbirth. It is also responsible for a mum’s breast automatically releasing milk at the mere sight or sound of her young baby.

Diane Witt, assistant professor of psychology from New York has showed that if you block the natural release of oxytocin in sheep and rats, they reject their own young.

Conversely, injecting oxytocin into female rats who’ve never had sex, caused them to fawn over another female’s young, nuzzling the pups and protecting them as if they were their own.

Vasopressin
Vasopressin is another important hormone in the long-term commitment stage and is released after sex.

Vasopressin (also called anti-diuretic hormone) works with your kidneys to control thirst. Its potential role in long-term relationships was discovered when scientists looked at the prairie vole.

Prairie voles indulge in far more sex than is strictly necessary for the purposes of reproduction. They also – like humans – form fairly stable pair-bonds.

When male prairie voles were given a drug that suppresses the effect of vasopressin, the bond with their partner deteriorated immediately as they lost their devotion and failed to protect their partner from new suitors.

And finally … how to fall in love
Find a complete stranger.
Reveal to each other intimate details about your lives for half an hour.
Then, stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes.

 

 

 

The United States Congress defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” The following facts and figures are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2012 annual hate crime statistics report.

• Hate Groups by the Numbers

  There are 939 active hate groups in the United States – a 56 percent increase since 2000. The number of such groups surged in response to the election of the first African-American president, Barack Obama,  and the economic downturn.

• Hate Crime Incidents 

  In 2012, there were a total of 5,796 hate crime incidents nationwide, with 7,164 victims.

• Hate Crimes, Race 

  Most hate crimes are motivated by racial bias, accounting for 48 percent of all such reports.

• Hate Crimes, Ethnic Break Down

  Hate crimes against Black people far outnumber hate crimes against the larger white population.

  The share of racial-ethnic incidents is as follows: anti-Black, 52 percent; anti-white, 19 percent; anti-Hispanic, 11 percent; anti-other ethnicity, 8 percent; anti-multiple races, 3 percent; anti-Asian, 3 percent; anti-American Indian, 3 percent.

• Hate Crimes, Religion

  The number of hate crimes motivated by religious bias nearly tripled from 10 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2012, while the percentage of hate crimes motivated by gender bias more than doubled from 12 percent to 26 percent during the same period.

• Hate Groups 

  The most prevalent hate groups in 2012 were the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and racist skinheads.

• Hate Crime Offenders by Race

  Of the 5,331 known hate crime offenders, 54.6 percent are white and 23.3 percent are Black.

• Hate Crime Offenders by Age

  Half of all the hate crimes in America are committed by people between the ages of 15 and 24.

• Hate Crimes Against the Homeless 

  There were 109 violent acts against the homeless reported in the 2013, half of the attacks were committed by people younger than 20 years old.  Seventy-two percent of the attacks were committed by people younger than 30.

  Currently, homeless people are not accounted for in federal hate crime statistics, but have some protection under laws in seven states – Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington –along with Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Seattle.

 

 

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