Think Yoga, Forget Weight

Girls who develop eating disorders, Anorexia or Bulimia, obsess about food. They are consumed by thoughts of food and weight. Eating disorders are serious psychosomatic illnesses. They involve both physical and psychological complications, and 30% of the girls that develop them never recover.

The profile of anorexics and bulimics is that of white, adolescent or young adult females from educated, middle- or upper-class families. They are usually highly competitive, have high standards for themselves, and may do intense dieting before the disease gets hold of them. Not every girl who fits this profile has or will develop an eating disorder, but the girls who are ill have many of these characteristics.

Some research with seriously ill girls at the Seattle Children's Hospital outpatient clinic has shown an unexpected benefit of yoga. A Time article about the research reports, "The study lasted eight weeks... a month later, the teens were showing steady gains [compared to girls who did not do yoga]."

Why? The article goes on to say, "The researchers suspect that yoga may help by reducing the obsessive concern about weight associated with eating disorders... [One participant said] 'This is the only hour in my week when I don't think about my weight'."

Treatment of eating disorders involves removing the obsession about food and weight. How do you do that stop an obsession? Force it out by forcing something else into its place.

Evidently, when you do yoga you can't think of anything else at the same time, i.e. your weight. If the girls can stop thinking about food during the yoga sessions, they can stop obsessing! Once they learn that they can control their thoughts/obsessions, they can begin to get better.

Stay Up Late, Made Bad Grades?

Some recent research by psychologists at Hendrix College shows a negative correlation between how late college students stay up at night and their GPA.

Refresher on Correlational Research:
1. Correlation - two or more things are co-related. They move in relation to each other.
2. Negative Correlation - when one goes up, the other goes down (or vice versa).
3. Positive Correlation - when one goes up, the other also goes up (or they both go down).
4. No Correlation - one's movement has no relationship to the other's.
5. Correlation does not imply causation - simply because there is a correlation between two things, it does not mean that one causes the other to move.

Now, about the college students' sleep patterns and grades.

Freshmen who described themselves as "late to bed" had a lower grade average at the end of the school year than either those who described themselves as "early to bed, early to rise" or "somewhere in the middle."

Did the staying up late cause the lower grades? Did the lower grades cause the students to stay up later? Or, was there a third factor that caused both of them?

Mothers might be tempted to say that the staying up late caused the lower grades. College professors might be tempted to say that there was a third thing causing both. Remember, these are college Freshmen, away from home for the first time. No momma to get them up in the morning, remind them to do their homework, or get plenty of sleep.

Either way, this research doesn't tell us, because it is correlational research. To determine cause, we need a controlled environment in which we can manipulate one variable at a time, to see if changing that one thing makes a difference. That describes experimental research.

However, I am willing to go out on a limb and say that staying up late is what causes students in my early morning classes to sleep during my lectures. Of course, someone else might suggest that the reason they sleep is because my lectures put them to sleep.

Brides Giving Fake Smiles!

What is on the inside often "leaks" out, even when a person is trying to keep it a secret. A good poker player will look for his opponent's "tell" - unintentional, unconscious physical behaviors that give a clue whether or not they are bluffing.

Supposedly, the main character in the TV series Lie to Me is an expert in reading other people's "micro-expressions" and knowing whether or not they are lying. As is often the case, the entertainment world goes more with entertainment than accuracy in the series. But it is based on real neuropsychology.

For example, there are some facial muscles around the eyes and mouth that are only used when someone is giving a real, genuine smile. They don't move when someone is giving a fake smile.

Photos of Olympic medal winners were compared in some recently reported research. "Gold-medal winners... were more likely to exhibit genuine smiles, engaging the eye muscles [than other medal winners]." Second- and third-place medal winners were faking it! Smiling on the outside, to hide the disappointment and other emotions.

Photos of brides at their weddings have also been analyzed in other studies. Some brides are giving fake smiles! Say it ain't so, Joe.

POP QUIZ: Which is harder to study, behaviors or mental processes?
ANSWER: Mental processes.

Fake smiles are easier to see than the reasons for the fake smiles.

So, the brides are faking their smiles. Should their grooms be worried? That is one possibility - they are not really happy. Trouble is on the horizon. Should I warn the groom?

Hold on there, partner. There's at least one other possible explanation for the fake smiles. This one comes from my having performed weddings for 100's of couples over the last 39 years.

The wedding is over and the photographer takes charge. The bride and groom are in staged photos with every relative at the wedding. "Smile!" "One more time, smile!" Before the photo shoot is over, the bride is looking like the politician holding baby after baby, or Vanna White turning over letters on Wheel of Fortune.

Of course the bridal smiles are fake! They are having to smile on demand.

Go ahead. Smile. You're at the end of this blog.