My brilliant friends at Vanishing Angle have produced a new web series that is quite awesome. I particularly love this episode and episode 5.
Tag Archives: relationships
More Sex Stats (Safe for Work)
2These highly researched and extremely factual charts come from OkTrends, a facet of the dating site OkCupid. These findings might not land in Psychology Today anytime soon, but they’re pretty entertaining:
Chart #1
We found this by crossing the match questions Do you like to exercise? and Is it difficult for you to have an orgasm?, and, as you can see, women who don’t like working out report twice the orgasm problems of women who do. Continue reading
Better Psychological Development = Better Sex
2
An interesting study out of Johns Hopkins takes a look at the link between psychological/social development and sexual pleasure. The study found that young men and women who are psychologically healthier — people with higher self-esteem, autonomy and empathy — consistently took greater pleasure in sex.
So if you have a healthy enjoyment of sex, thank your parents (or whoever raised you) for doing a good job giving you a bit of self-esteem, independence, and empathy.
Here’s the full article:
Sexual pleasure among young adults (ages 18-26) is linked to healthy psychological and social development, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study is the first to use a representative population sample of heterosexuals to find a relationship between key developmental assets and sexual pleasure. The findings are published in the June 2011 issue of The Journal of Adolescent Health.
The research study examined data from 3,237 respondents ages 18 to 26 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Wave III: 2001-2002. “Sexual health is more than the absence of sexually-transmitted infection, unintended pregnancy, violence or other problems. It is the presence of sexual well-being,” said Adena Galinsky, PhD, co-author of the study and a doctoral student with Bloomberg School’s Center for Adolescent Health. Galinsky, currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, conducted the study along with Freya Sonenstein, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Adolescent Health. Continue reading
Grumpier Old Truths
Graduations are not fun. Not even for the people graduating. It’s five seconds of excitement amidst three hours of waiting, usually on a very small, uncomfortable chair. Skip the graduation. Just have a party.
Physical chemistry is vital to a romantic relationship. You can’t wake up next to someone everyday and not like what you see. That’s just no good.
That said, physical attraction can grow substantially as you get to know someone better and better …At least from the woman’s side. Men are pretty shallow. It can’t be denied.
You’re not going to win the lotto. Find something other than scratchers to invest in. A few tickets from time to time is fun – banking on a win is stupid. Continue reading
Mini Stories from the Second Half of April 2011
Check: On their first date, he brought her a rose. She brought his background check. And thus he remembered why he hates dating.
Solution: The solution to her pain was so simple. Never fall in love again! Her hangover the next morning (and the man in her bed) muddied her resolve
Depression: Doug’s solitaire skills were beyond compare. He was basically a pro. It was the most depressing realization he’d ever had.
Wave: First she felt a wave of relief, then a wave of resentment, then anger. That’s when she decided to get out of the wave pool. Continue reading
Why Dating Sucks / Why Dating is Awesome
It appears I am at a point in my life when I must once again enter the dating world. I had really hoped I would never have to date again. Not that I’ve ever really “dated” before. I guess I was hoping to skip the whole experience altogether.
Here’s what I am and am not looking forward to…
Awesome: Flirting
Sucky: Rejection
Awesome: The excitement of possibility
Sucky: Feeling like you’ll never meet anyone who’s a match for you
Awesome: First kisses
Sucky: The awkward goodbye hug / handshake / whatever at the end of a date gone wrong Continue reading
When and Why We Say ‘I Love You’
A new study takes a look at who is more likely to say “I love you” first in a heterosexual relationship and what that could mean. It doesn’t surprise me that the study found that in two thirds of relationships, the man said it first.
Women, in my experience, don’t like to lay their hearts out on the line and risk seeming clingy unless they know their sentiments will be reciprocated.
In my last relationship, I thought I said ”I love you” first, but then my boyfriend kindly pointed out to me that he had actually told me he loved me twice before that — the first time the phone cut out, and the second time I just flat wasn’t listening to him and started talking about something else.
Whoops.
Here’s what the article had to say:
Women, being from Venus, have a reputation for being the first to spring “I love you” in romantic relationships.
But men actually are more likely to utter those three loaded little words first, and men admit thinking about confessing love six weeks earlier than their female partners, according to an article to be published in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Continue reading
Sex Stats (Safe for Work)
This article from TIME takes a look at some of the sex stats that OKCupid reported this month using the data that they gather from their users. Their charts and graphs are pretty amusing.
I was surprised by some of the stats, all of which should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt:
OkTrends, the site that compiles data from the dating site OkCupid and culls it into handy little graphs and charts for easy digestion, has finally focused on what we really want to know–how other people feel about sex. Continue reading
Truth Time Redux
Worry is a dirty whore. Not worth it.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, and Children’s Hospital are all pretty genius.
It really is better to have loved and lost.
Pleasure and pain go hand in hand – you can’t have one without the other. The people who have suffered the most pain are usually the people who’ve felt the most joy.
Finishing a great book is one of the thoroughly gratifying experiences in life.
Museum trips should be mandatory for everyone.
People only care about endangered species if they’re cute. Continue reading
Recent Study Gives New Meaning to Heartache
As if breaking up isn’t crappy enough, it looks like the feelings of rejection and loss associated with a break up can cause you actual physical pain. Further proof that Shakespeare really knew what he was talking about when he invented the word “heartache.”
In this study, “Psychologists studied 40 recently-dumped volunteers who reported intense feelings of rejection when thinking about the breakup. All underwent four MRI brain scans, including one while looking at a photo of their ex and thinking about the split, and one while viewing a friend’s photo and thinking good thoughts about that person. Another scan took place as the volunteers wore an arm device that produced a gentle, comforting warmth, and yet another when the device was hot enough to cause pain.
“During each of the two negative situations—when the volunteers thought about the breakup and when they experienced a burning sensation—the same brain regions associated with physical pain lit up, suggesting physical pain and the pain of rejection hurt in a similar way.”
The author of the study, Edward Smith noted, “There may be something special about rejection… No other negative emotion, not anger and not fear, elicits reactions in the pain matrix of the brain.”
Image: Courtesy Flickr/oedipusphinx– — – — theJWDban
