Source: The National Network To End Domestic Violence  

Sources:

Menstruation Facts

68 Random Facts about Menstruation

History of the Tampon

A friendly reminder from the Campaign for Southern Equality.

World’s Most Confused Fish Gets Stuck INSIDE A Jellyfish

It’s every photographer’s dream to capture a once-in-a-lifetime shot that leaves viewers in total awe.

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Creativity and Mental Illness

At one point or another, most of us have heard the stereotype of the mad genius or the creative genius who suffers from mental illness(es). Think about of historically famous or influential painters and writers who had unstable lives–some went as far as committing suicide.

The problem? This is only anecdotal evidence. It doesn’t really give us data that is reliable and objective. But what do the studies say?

Contrary to what this image claims, the link between creativity and mental disorders like anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder is not as clear cut. The primarily reason is because not many studies have looked at mental illness and creativity. Furthermore, ‘mental illness’ is an umbrella term that covers many different illnesses or disorders. So naturally there are even less studies looking at particular mental disorders and creativity. 

Creativity and Depression

Silvia and Kimbrel (2010) summarize the small research that has looked for a potential depression-creativity link. They note that while some studies have found moderate positive correlations between depression and creativity, others have found negative correlations. They conclude that “the evidence for a depression-creativity link is clearly inconsistent.”

Creativity and Anxiety

They further point out that even less studies have been done to evaluate an anxiety-creativity link. One study looked at anxiety, depression, and personality disorders as a whole without distinguishing the individual disorder-creativity links. Two other studies they summarize looked at shyness, an aspect of social anxiety spectrum; one study found that shy preschoolers were rated less creative by teachers, while the other found that shy female college students were less creative in a poem-writing task.

“Taken together,” write Silvia and Kimbrel, “these studies suggest that shyness (and by extension social anxiety) may be associated with less creativity” [emphasis of “may” on my part]. However, if this link does exist, it doesn’t necessarily mean that anxiety in general is negatively correlated with creativity, or vise versa–more research is needed to establish if a link exists at all..

Creativity and Bipolar Disorder

What about a bipolar disorder-creativity link? A book chapter by Lloyd-Evans, Batey, and Furnham (2006) reviewed biographical and psychiatric research studies to examine if a relationship exists.

Biographical studies work by collecting biographical data of historical individuals considered highly creative–say, Edgar Allan Poe–and searching for explicitly documented mental illnesses or clues that imply the existence of a disorder to developing a retrospective diagnosis. Evans and co-writers note that while biographical studies seem to suggest a positive correlation between bipolar disorder and creativity, they have serious limitations and can’t establish a definitive link. For example, they point out that Vincent van Gogh has been retrospectively diagnosed with different mental illnesses by different clinicians. Furthermore, they note that “it is always possible to find biographical material that appears to support a specific hypothesis and the same information might well be used to link alcoholism and creativity” (120). 

Psychiatric research studies look at persons who have been diagnosed with certain mental disorders, in this case bipolar disorder, and give them different creativity measurements to see how they differ from “normal” participants. These studies, too, point to a potential positive bipolar disorder-creativity link but were not without limitations. Some of these studies had potentially biased samples and/or no control groups. And another study didn’t show a significant correlation.

Conclusion

Clearly, things are not as simple as the images implies. A definitive link between these mental disorders and creativity has not been established yet primarily because the research is lacking, and the few available studies have methodological limitations. Here is a quick summary:

The limited literature on depression-creativity is inconsistent. Some studies show a positive correlation, others show a negative correlation.

Studies haven’t really studied anxiety-creativity. The available literature looks at shyness–which lies in the social anxiety spectrum–and has provided some evidence that there is a negative relationship between shyness, or social anxiety, and creativity. 

Slightly more research has examined bipolar disorder and creativity. These studies fall into two categories: biographical and psychiatric studies. Both of these methods show a tentative link (positive) between bipolar disorder and creativity, but because of certain limitations, more research is warranted to definitively establish the correlation.

To make things more complicated, we have to consider how creativity is defined and measured, and the severity of the particular mental disorder. Lastly, if we can’t be 100% sure there exists a correlation between these mental disorders and creativity, how can we possibly say that one causes the other like the image suggests? We simply can’t. 

Reference:

Lloyd-Evans, R., Batey, M., & Furnham, A. (2006). Bipolar disorder and creativity: Investigating a possible link. In A. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research, Volume 40. (pp. 111-142). NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Silvia, P. J. & Kimbrel, N. A. (2010). A dimensional analysis of creativity and mental illness: Do anxiety and depression symptoms predict creative cognition, creative accomplishments, and creative self-concepts? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 4, 2-10.

Source: Wasted in Engineering : Story of India's Youth Sharing thoughts of the writer: \\\\‘If you study engineering, you will have a good future.’ This is a claim often repeated to children and teenagers by parents and teachers in many parts of India. But only those who have gone through an engineering college life know that it’s not completely true.

There is a difference between calling yourself as an engineering graduate and an engineer. India produces millions of engineering graduates like you and me but only very few of us are actual engineers. Many of us just graduate with an engineering degree, with an artistic dream in mind.

What do you think is the difference between engineers in many countries around the world and engineers from India? In other countries, if David Pascal studied electrical engineering in college, few years later you can find him working as an electrical engineer. In India, if Ram Krishnamurthy studied electrical engineering, few years later you can find him working in a completely irrelevant field like software coding, banking, photography and even movie directing.

This book is not about the few engineering students in your class who love engineering. I don’t hate them. In fact, I am very jealous that they study what they love. This book is about the majority of engineering graduates whose lives are wasted in engineering and is intended to tell you why you should make an attempt in pursuing your real passion, instead of being suffocated under the weight of an engineering degree.

This is a story of India’s Youth. Welcome to India, the land of Wasted Engineers.///

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To buy the book 'Wasted in Engineering', use the link http://goo.gl/Ia7l7zfor Amazon and http://goo.gl/a29ph8 for Flipkart.

Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting.

Vera Rubin (via fyp-science)

Consent: If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. Take the pledge to help stop sexual assault at ItsOnUs.org.

Better late than never! It’s time to start Icy Dwarf Planets Month with our favorite icy world, Pluto!

Besides, think of it as fun early Saturday morning cartoons! 

http://space-facts.com/pluto/

The Surprising And Varying Kinds Of Intelligence- Which One Is Yours?

In our modern day society we find that the educational system has a very narrow perspective of intelligence, mostly linguistics and logical knowledge. The groups who fall within the parameter of these intelligence sectors, can prize themselves  as lucky.

What happens when our schooling system mostly focuses on these sectors? Well,  a very big percentage of the people gets left out. By doing so, there is a big possibility that this group gets labeled as less intelligent, while the truth can be very much the opposite. Their intelligence may just lie in a different category.

The theory of multiple intelligence was first published by Howard Gardner in 1983. In his book called Frames of mind, he describes seven different intelligence categories. Over the years a couple additional categories has been added, with the latest suggestion for an addition in the beginning of this year.

With this theory Gardner wants to show that the norm of what is called ‘intelligence’ in our society is too narrow. People can be highly intelligent in other areas.  Which one of the next categories applies to you?

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