THE REALITY OF LIFE.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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What do women want? It depends on time of month.
UCLA researchers analyzed dozens of published and unpublished studies on how women's preferences for mates change throughout the menstrual cycle. Their findings suggest that ovulating women have evolved to prefer mates who display sexy traits -- such as a masculine body type and facial
features, dominant behavior and certain scents -- but not traits
typically desired in long-term mates.
So, desires for those masculine characteristics, which are thought to have been markers of high genetic quality in our male ancestors, don't last all month -- just the few days in a woman's cycle when she is most likely to pass on genes that, eons ago, might have increased the odds of her offspring surviving and reproducing.
"Women sometimes get a bad rap for being fickle, but the changes they experience are not arbitrary," said Martie Haselton, a professor of psychology and communication studies at UCLA and the paper's senior author. "Women experience intricately patterned preference shifts even though they might not serve any function in the present."
The findings will appear online this month in Psychological Bulletin, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
Whether women's mate preferences shift at high fertility has been a source of debate since the late 1990s, when the first scholarly studies to hint at such a change appeared. Since then, several papers have failed to replicate the early studies' results, casting doubt on the hypothesis.
Haselton and Kelly Gildersleeve, a UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology and the study's lead author, spent three years attempting to resolve the controversy. They solicited raw data from dozens of scholars who have conducted research on the topic and then translated the data from 50 studies into the same mathematical format so that the findings could be statistically analyzed together.
The strength of women's preference shift proved to be statistically significant, although "small" to "medium" in size, relative to most findings in the field. As a point of comparison, the size of the shift was statistically comparable to the difference researchers have found between men's and women's self-reported number of heterosexual sex partners (with men reporting more sex partners).
The findings are less clear, however, about which male characteristics are most alluring to ovulating women. But women's responses to male body scents could be capable of producing the strongest effects, Haselton said.
In the few scent studies conducted so far, researchers asked women to smell T-shirts that had been worn by men with varying degrees of body and facial symmetry. (Across a large body of research on many different animals, body and facial symmetry are associated with larger body size, more pronounced sexual "ornaments" such as the attractive plumage on male birds, and better health, suggesting that symmetry could be an indicator of genetic quality.)
Women preferred the odors of more symmetrical men when in the fertile portions of their cycles. The UCLA meta-analysis likewise showed a large shift in women's preference for the body odor of symmetrical men, although more studies are needed to determine whether this effect is robust.
Haselton, who is based in UCLA's College of Letters and Science, is one of a handful of pioneers in research on behavioral changes at ovulation. One of her studies showed that women who are partnered to men they view as less sexy are more likely to experience attraction to other men at ovulation than women who rate their male partners as very sexy.
"The excellent reputation Martie has among researchers in this field and her deep understanding of the intricacies of ovulation research make her an ideal person to spearhead this ambitious meta-analytic study," said Jeffry Simpson, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. "Her extensive knowledge of this area coupled with the fact that she and her collaborators were able to identify the specific features of men that women find most appealing as short-term versus long-term mates at different points of the ovulatory cycle makes this paper a truly important one."
The presence of shifts in sexual preferences among women may generate debate, but shifts in sexual preferences and behavior are well documented in mammals as diverse as rats and orangutans. For example, female chimpanzees are known to prefer to have sex with different males within the fertile phrase than they prefer outside of this phase -- a strategy thought to improve their offspring's chances of survival.
"Until the past decade, we all accepted this notion that human female sexuality was radically different from sexuality in all of these other animal species -- that, unlike other species, human female sexuality was somehow walled off from reproductive hormones," Haselton said. "Then a set of studies emerged that challenged conventional wisdom."
One hypothesis for why a mate preference shift occurs is that it may be an evolutionary adaptation that served our ancestors' reproductive interests long before modern medicine, nutrition and sanitation dramatically reduced infant and child mortality rates.
"Under this hypothesis, women who preferred these characteristics were more likely to pass on beneficial genetic qualities to their children, thereby enhancing their children's chances of survival and reproductive success," Gildersleeve said.
In her past work, Haselton also has proposed the hypothesis that being torn between two types of mates may reflect powerful underlying adaptations.
According to this "dual mating hypothesis," in certain circumstances, ancestral women would have been driven to pursue kindness, reliability and resources (so-called "good dad" traits), as well as sex appeal and a masculine personality ("sexy cad" traits), even if both sets of qualities didn't come in the same package.
"Ancestral women would have benefited reproductively from selecting partners with characteristics indicating that they'd be good co-parents, such as being kind, as well as characteristics indicating that they possessed high genetic quality such as having masculine faces and bodies," Haselton said. "Women could have had the best of both worlds -- securing paternal investment from a long-term mate and high-genetic quality from affair partners -- but only if those affairs were timed at a point of high fertility within the cycle, and probably only if their affairs remained undiscovered."
A different hypothesis, which Haselton and Gildersleeve also find plausible, proposes that shifts in women's mate preferences across the menstrual cycle were adaptive in a now-extinct species that predated humans and are vestigial in humans -- that is, like the coccyx, or tail bone, that remains at the end of the human spine, they persist in modern humans despite serving no apparent function.
Either way, Haselton and Gildersleeve firmly believe in the value of shedding light on the preference shift.
"If women understand the logic behind these shifts, it might better inform their sexual decision-making so that if they notice suddenly that they're attracted to the guy in the next cubicle at work, it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a great long-term partner," Haselton said. "They're just experiencing a fleeting echo from the past."
So, desires for those masculine characteristics, which are thought to have been markers of high genetic quality in our male ancestors, don't last all month -- just the few days in a woman's cycle when she is most likely to pass on genes that, eons ago, might have increased the odds of her offspring surviving and reproducing.
"Women sometimes get a bad rap for being fickle, but the changes they experience are not arbitrary," said Martie Haselton, a professor of psychology and communication studies at UCLA and the paper's senior author. "Women experience intricately patterned preference shifts even though they might not serve any function in the present."
The findings will appear online this month in Psychological Bulletin, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
Whether women's mate preferences shift at high fertility has been a source of debate since the late 1990s, when the first scholarly studies to hint at such a change appeared. Since then, several papers have failed to replicate the early studies' results, casting doubt on the hypothesis.
Haselton and Kelly Gildersleeve, a UCLA doctoral candidate in psychology and the study's lead author, spent three years attempting to resolve the controversy. They solicited raw data from dozens of scholars who have conducted research on the topic and then translated the data from 50 studies into the same mathematical format so that the findings could be statistically analyzed together.
The strength of women's preference shift proved to be statistically significant, although "small" to "medium" in size, relative to most findings in the field. As a point of comparison, the size of the shift was statistically comparable to the difference researchers have found between men's and women's self-reported number of heterosexual sex partners (with men reporting more sex partners).
The findings are less clear, however, about which male characteristics are most alluring to ovulating women. But women's responses to male body scents could be capable of producing the strongest effects, Haselton said.
In the few scent studies conducted so far, researchers asked women to smell T-shirts that had been worn by men with varying degrees of body and facial symmetry. (Across a large body of research on many different animals, body and facial symmetry are associated with larger body size, more pronounced sexual "ornaments" such as the attractive plumage on male birds, and better health, suggesting that symmetry could be an indicator of genetic quality.)
Women preferred the odors of more symmetrical men when in the fertile portions of their cycles. The UCLA meta-analysis likewise showed a large shift in women's preference for the body odor of symmetrical men, although more studies are needed to determine whether this effect is robust.
Haselton, who is based in UCLA's College of Letters and Science, is one of a handful of pioneers in research on behavioral changes at ovulation. One of her studies showed that women who are partnered to men they view as less sexy are more likely to experience attraction to other men at ovulation than women who rate their male partners as very sexy.
"The excellent reputation Martie has among researchers in this field and her deep understanding of the intricacies of ovulation research make her an ideal person to spearhead this ambitious meta-analytic study," said Jeffry Simpson, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. "Her extensive knowledge of this area coupled with the fact that she and her collaborators were able to identify the specific features of men that women find most appealing as short-term versus long-term mates at different points of the ovulatory cycle makes this paper a truly important one."
The presence of shifts in sexual preferences among women may generate debate, but shifts in sexual preferences and behavior are well documented in mammals as diverse as rats and orangutans. For example, female chimpanzees are known to prefer to have sex with different males within the fertile phrase than they prefer outside of this phase -- a strategy thought to improve their offspring's chances of survival.
"Until the past decade, we all accepted this notion that human female sexuality was radically different from sexuality in all of these other animal species -- that, unlike other species, human female sexuality was somehow walled off from reproductive hormones," Haselton said. "Then a set of studies emerged that challenged conventional wisdom."
One hypothesis for why a mate preference shift occurs is that it may be an evolutionary adaptation that served our ancestors' reproductive interests long before modern medicine, nutrition and sanitation dramatically reduced infant and child mortality rates.
"Under this hypothesis, women who preferred these characteristics were more likely to pass on beneficial genetic qualities to their children, thereby enhancing their children's chances of survival and reproductive success," Gildersleeve said.
In her past work, Haselton also has proposed the hypothesis that being torn between two types of mates may reflect powerful underlying adaptations.
According to this "dual mating hypothesis," in certain circumstances, ancestral women would have been driven to pursue kindness, reliability and resources (so-called "good dad" traits), as well as sex appeal and a masculine personality ("sexy cad" traits), even if both sets of qualities didn't come in the same package.
"Ancestral women would have benefited reproductively from selecting partners with characteristics indicating that they'd be good co-parents, such as being kind, as well as characteristics indicating that they possessed high genetic quality such as having masculine faces and bodies," Haselton said. "Women could have had the best of both worlds -- securing paternal investment from a long-term mate and high-genetic quality from affair partners -- but only if those affairs were timed at a point of high fertility within the cycle, and probably only if their affairs remained undiscovered."
A different hypothesis, which Haselton and Gildersleeve also find plausible, proposes that shifts in women's mate preferences across the menstrual cycle were adaptive in a now-extinct species that predated humans and are vestigial in humans -- that is, like the coccyx, or tail bone, that remains at the end of the human spine, they persist in modern humans despite serving no apparent function.
Either way, Haselton and Gildersleeve firmly believe in the value of shedding light on the preference shift.
"If women understand the logic behind these shifts, it might better inform their sexual decision-making so that if they notice suddenly that they're attracted to the guy in the next cubicle at work, it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a great long-term partner," Haselton said. "They're just experiencing a fleeting echo from the past."
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Guys: Get married for the sake of your bones, but wait until you're 25.
In a study published online in the peer-reviewed journal Osteoporosis International, researchers found evidence that men who married when they were younger than 25 had lower bone strength than men who married for the first time at a later age.
In addition, men in stable marriages or marriage-like relationships who had never previously divorced or separated had greater bone strength than men whose previous marriages had fractured, the researchers said. And those in stable relationships also had stronger bones than men who never married.
Although for women there were no similar links between bone health and being married or in a marriage-like relationship, the study authors did find evidence that women with supportive partners had greater bone strength than those whose partners didn't appreciate them, understand how they felt or were emotionally unsupportive in other ways.
This is the first time that marital
histories and marital quality have been linked to bone health, said the
study's senior author, Dr. Carolyn Crandall, a professor of medicine in
the division of general internal medicine and health services research
at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"There is very little known about the influence of social factors -- other than socioeconomic factors -- on bone health," Crandall said. "Good health depends not only on good health behaviors, such as maintaining a healthy diet and not smoking, but also on other social aspects of life, such as marital life stories and quality of relationships."
The researchers used data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, which recruited participants between the ages 25 and 75 in 1995-96. Participants from that study were re-interviewed in 2004-05 (MIDUS II). Specifically, the authors used hip and spine bone-density measurements obtained by standard bone-density scanners during participants' MIDUS II visits at UCLA, Georgetown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other data to examine the relationship between bone health and marriage in 294 men and 338 women from around the country.
They also took into consideration other factors that influence bone health, such as medications, health behaviors and menopause.
The associations between marriage and bone health were evident in the spine but not the hip, possibly due to differences in bone composition, the researchers said.
The data suggested several significant correlations between marriage and bone health -- but only for men. The study authors found that men in long-term stable marriages or marriage-like relationships had higher bone density in the spine than every other male group, including men currently married who had previously been divorced or separated, men not currently in a relationship and men who had never been married.
Among men who first married prior to turning 25, the researchers found a significant reduction in spine bone strength for each year they were married before that age.
"Very early marriage was detrimental in men, likely because of the stresses of having to provide for a family," said study co-author Dr. Arun Karlamangla, a professor of medicine in the geriatrics division at the Geffen School.
For instance, the authors said, those who marry young are likely to be less educated, leading to lower pay and more difficulty in making ends meet.
The researchers don't know the biological pathways connecting bone health and marriage -- this will be the next stage in their research. And the findings are limited by the fact that there were no longitudinal assessments of bone density; the findings, therefore, only suggest a correlation, not cause and effect.
Despite these limitations, the findings "provide additional new evidence of the association between psychosocial life histories and adult bone health," the authors write. "The gender differences observed in the association between marital history and [bone strength] are consistent with gender differences seen in previous studies of marital status and other aspects of health, and imply that we should not assume that marriage has the same health rewards for men and women.
"Specifically, never marrying, and experiencing a divorce, widowhood, or separation are associated with poor bone health in men, whereas poor marital quality is associated with poor bone health in women."
In addition, men in stable marriages or marriage-like relationships who had never previously divorced or separated had greater bone strength than men whose previous marriages had fractured, the researchers said. And those in stable relationships also had stronger bones than men who never married.
Although for women there were no similar links between bone health and being married or in a marriage-like relationship, the study authors did find evidence that women with supportive partners had greater bone strength than those whose partners didn't appreciate them, understand how they felt or were emotionally unsupportive in other ways.
"There is very little known about the influence of social factors -- other than socioeconomic factors -- on bone health," Crandall said. "Good health depends not only on good health behaviors, such as maintaining a healthy diet and not smoking, but also on other social aspects of life, such as marital life stories and quality of relationships."
The researchers used data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, which recruited participants between the ages 25 and 75 in 1995-96. Participants from that study were re-interviewed in 2004-05 (MIDUS II). Specifically, the authors used hip and spine bone-density measurements obtained by standard bone-density scanners during participants' MIDUS II visits at UCLA, Georgetown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other data to examine the relationship between bone health and marriage in 294 men and 338 women from around the country.
They also took into consideration other factors that influence bone health, such as medications, health behaviors and menopause.
The associations between marriage and bone health were evident in the spine but not the hip, possibly due to differences in bone composition, the researchers said.
The data suggested several significant correlations between marriage and bone health -- but only for men. The study authors found that men in long-term stable marriages or marriage-like relationships had higher bone density in the spine than every other male group, including men currently married who had previously been divorced or separated, men not currently in a relationship and men who had never been married.
Among men who first married prior to turning 25, the researchers found a significant reduction in spine bone strength for each year they were married before that age.
"Very early marriage was detrimental in men, likely because of the stresses of having to provide for a family," said study co-author Dr. Arun Karlamangla, a professor of medicine in the geriatrics division at the Geffen School.
For instance, the authors said, those who marry young are likely to be less educated, leading to lower pay and more difficulty in making ends meet.
The researchers don't know the biological pathways connecting bone health and marriage -- this will be the next stage in their research. And the findings are limited by the fact that there were no longitudinal assessments of bone density; the findings, therefore, only suggest a correlation, not cause and effect.
Despite these limitations, the findings "provide additional new evidence of the association between psychosocial life histories and adult bone health," the authors write. "The gender differences observed in the association between marital history and [bone strength] are consistent with gender differences seen in previous studies of marital status and other aspects of health, and imply that we should not assume that marriage has the same health rewards for men and women.
"Specifically, never marrying, and experiencing a divorce, widowhood, or separation are associated with poor bone health in men, whereas poor marital quality is associated with poor bone health in women."
Friday, February 14, 2014
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Crazy Facts About Sex.
Crazy Facts About Sex.
Sex is really more than just an act, rather; it is an art of consensual expression of human special feelings. This feeling lies in a place where no eyes can reach. Some engage in it for the true reasons why it was made, while some abuse it and some use it just to satisfy their selfish and temporary carnal gratification.
We all cannot do without it, but not everyone knows what it really symbolizes and represent. When you understand it (sex) then it comes to you as a normal requirement of life, with no fuss or problems attached to it. Here are crazy but true facts you should know about sex, no matter how it comes please no vex.
1- Know that sex is mostly over rated and exaggerated. You won’t know that until you have your first encounter, after which you begin to ask yourself some questions. It is the most overrated part of human life. Believe me.
2- First encounter sucks most times. It could be so bad that it leaves some unending bitter after taste, which could affect subsequent ones. It is near to impossible to have or experience a smooth and perfect first time.
3- Having multiple sex partners kills the fun and value of it. You no longer regard the act as sacred, rather you just see it like a drug that you just need at a point to get you high and fly. The more persons you have sex with, the more confused and unfulfilled you become. Many partners may seem adventurous at first but believe me, it gradually boomerangs and turns against you, because your appetite just grows out of control and you become insatiable sexually. You now engage in it like an animal.
4- Sex is highly complicated and controversial if not understood and administered properly. Most people are so uncomfortable around it, some frown at it, while some still see it as a big mystery. It is culture, religion, race, sex and society sensitive, that is where its complications arise from. This sensitivity sometimes or most times build a myth around it (sex).
5- Sex is never the best way to express love and affection. It is really not a true reflection of how a man especially loves a woman. Love and sex are not as related as we think or make it to appear. Love is a feeling from the extra ordinary while sex is most times just a feeling that is highly superficial and carnal. It satisfies majorly the flesh and not the soul.
6- It is not a good way to find favour, affection, attention, respect, love and help. It should never be offered wrongly or with ulterior motives. So it doesn’t turn back to haunt the living day light out of you.
7- A good and purposeful sex is very therapeutic. It helps boost confidence with men especially and good for the heart and in the production of a certain happy hormones. Engage in it looking beyond self-gratification and you will be glad you did.
8- Sex and emotions goes hand in hand with the female folks. Once the emotions or feelings are not moved, the sex might be the most disastrous and frustrating experience ever for both parties. It hates distractions.
9- Most times sex thrives and grows on the wings of spontaneity; it doesn’t like too much planning, arranging or sketching. It likes to come out naturally and powerfully, without been induced.
10- Sex comes with responsibilities and requirement. It is not just done and dusted like it never happened. Every act of Reproduction has something involved, a lesson to teach and a message to pass. There is no casual sex; every sex is highly sophisticated and premeditated. One day the fruit of the careless seeds you sow will bear fruits, either good or bad, time will tell.
11- Sex and stress are foes; they don’t and cannot walk together. Once stress is around sex wears a frown. A stress free mind is a needed ingredient in cooking up a fantastic pot of sex.
12- Sex in the early hours of the morning is a beautiful ritual that cannot be ignored. The gods of carnality comes down at that time. It really has its own peak period, know that.
13- It (sex) responds to smell, pictures, images, words, ideas, suggestions, leads, signs, body language, silence, a secured place and imagination. Take full advantage of all these tools, if you know the rules.
14- Sex finds total expression when confidence, creativity and patience are involved. Know that you are not only out to enjoy yourself, but also out to fulfill and make the next person happy.
15- Let the spark never die, if not, the sex becomes painful, boring and meaningless. It just becomes a ritual that must be done regardless of how both of you feel. That is just close to torture.
Sex is really more than just an act, rather; it is an art of consensual expression of human special feelings. This feeling lies in a place where no eyes can reach. Some engage in it for the true reasons why it was made, while some abuse it and some use it just to satisfy their selfish and temporary carnal gratification.
We all cannot do without it, but not everyone knows what it really symbolizes and represent. When you understand it (sex) then it comes to you as a normal requirement of life, with no fuss or problems attached to it. Here are crazy but true facts you should know about sex, no matter how it comes please no vex.
1- Know that sex is mostly over rated and exaggerated. You won’t know that until you have your first encounter, after which you begin to ask yourself some questions. It is the most overrated part of human life. Believe me.
2- First encounter sucks most times. It could be so bad that it leaves some unending bitter after taste, which could affect subsequent ones. It is near to impossible to have or experience a smooth and perfect first time.
3- Having multiple sex partners kills the fun and value of it. You no longer regard the act as sacred, rather you just see it like a drug that you just need at a point to get you high and fly. The more persons you have sex with, the more confused and unfulfilled you become. Many partners may seem adventurous at first but believe me, it gradually boomerangs and turns against you, because your appetite just grows out of control and you become insatiable sexually. You now engage in it like an animal.
4- Sex is highly complicated and controversial if not understood and administered properly. Most people are so uncomfortable around it, some frown at it, while some still see it as a big mystery. It is culture, religion, race, sex and society sensitive, that is where its complications arise from. This sensitivity sometimes or most times build a myth around it (sex).
5- Sex is never the best way to express love and affection. It is really not a true reflection of how a man especially loves a woman. Love and sex are not as related as we think or make it to appear. Love is a feeling from the extra ordinary while sex is most times just a feeling that is highly superficial and carnal. It satisfies majorly the flesh and not the soul.
6- It is not a good way to find favour, affection, attention, respect, love and help. It should never be offered wrongly or with ulterior motives. So it doesn’t turn back to haunt the living day light out of you.
7- A good and purposeful sex is very therapeutic. It helps boost confidence with men especially and good for the heart and in the production of a certain happy hormones. Engage in it looking beyond self-gratification and you will be glad you did.
8- Sex and emotions goes hand in hand with the female folks. Once the emotions or feelings are not moved, the sex might be the most disastrous and frustrating experience ever for both parties. It hates distractions.
9- Most times sex thrives and grows on the wings of spontaneity; it doesn’t like too much planning, arranging or sketching. It likes to come out naturally and powerfully, without been induced.
10- Sex comes with responsibilities and requirement. It is not just done and dusted like it never happened. Every act of Reproduction has something involved, a lesson to teach and a message to pass. There is no casual sex; every sex is highly sophisticated and premeditated. One day the fruit of the careless seeds you sow will bear fruits, either good or bad, time will tell.
11- Sex and stress are foes; they don’t and cannot walk together. Once stress is around sex wears a frown. A stress free mind is a needed ingredient in cooking up a fantastic pot of sex.
12- Sex in the early hours of the morning is a beautiful ritual that cannot be ignored. The gods of carnality comes down at that time. It really has its own peak period, know that.
13- It (sex) responds to smell, pictures, images, words, ideas, suggestions, leads, signs, body language, silence, a secured place and imagination. Take full advantage of all these tools, if you know the rules.
14- Sex finds total expression when confidence, creativity and patience are involved. Know that you are not only out to enjoy yourself, but also out to fulfill and make the next person happy.
15- Let the spark never die, if not, the sex becomes painful, boring and meaningless. It just becomes a ritual that must be done regardless of how both of you feel. That is just close to torture.
