Spending 15 minutes alone is a
tedious task
It is less tedious for people to think on their
feet rather than take a moment to sit down and reflect on the task at hand. In
fact, spending even 15 minutes doing nothing and just thinking, is something
that people not only found boring, but were unable to do so.
A recent study involving 800 people revealed that volunteers, who were asked to spend only 15 minutes alone in a room doing nothing, without cellphones, music players, writing equipments or reading material, found the task to be quite tedious. Reportedly, a few volunteers even preferred to receive mild electrical shocks rather than sitting doing nothing!
Not only that, the subjects even turned down offers for receiving money to sit idle, daydreaming. The subjects were asked if they were offered money, whether they would spend some of it to avoid getting another shock. Those who said they would be willing to pay to avoid another shock were asked to sit alone and think for 15 minutes but were given the option of giving themselves that same shock by simply pushing a button. The results were surprising, with two-third men and a quarter of the women choosing to give themselves at least one shock.
Said a researcher, "Many people find it difficult to use their own minds to entertain themselves, at least when asked to do it on the spot." It was as if people almost wanted to shock themselves out of the boredom that sitting idle brings, "Sometimes negative stimulation is preferable to no stimulation," added the researcher who also suggested that that in today's age, with all the gadgets that people have, they seem to fill up every moment with some external activity. This suggests that people, regardless of age or gender, do not like to be idle and alone with their thoughts.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
23.09.2014
Childhood abuse leads to obesity in
adult women
Women who were physically abused during childhood
are more likely to be obese, a new study has revealed.
University of Toronto researchers indicated that women who were physically abused in childhood were more likely to be obese than women from non-abusive homes.
"After adjusting for age and race, childhood physical abuse was associated with 47% higher odds of obesity for women" lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair in the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, said.
"Among men, obesity wasn't associated with childhood physical abuse," the researcher said.
"We had anticipated that the association between childhood physical abuse and obesity among women would be explained by factors including depression and anxiety, adult socio-economic position, alcohol abuse, and other childhood adversities, such as having a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol," study co-author and doctoral student Deborah Sinclair, said.
"However, even after taking into account all these factors, women from physically abusive families still had 35 per cent higher odds of obesity," she said.
The study could not determine the reason for the relationship between childhood physical abuse and women's obesity.
"It is unclear why childhood physical abuse is associated with adult obesity among women but not men; it may reflect gender differences in coping mechanisms," study co-author and doctoral candidate Sarah Brennenstuhl, said.
The research is published online in the journal Obesity Facts.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
23.09.2014
No comments:
Post a Comment