I read both Kyle’s and Seth’s article, and they were both interesting to read.

Kyle: I would suggest to have your thesis more clear. Numbers of facts you collected were interesting, but I was a little dissapointed seeing only a paragraph spent for more personalized view… because from what you’ve been explaining, that caught more of my attention cause it made it more real.

Seth: I like it. It made me look back on my relationships… I think its a really good point to let people know here especially. I like the point that you made that love is not a cheap thing, it takes efforts and time.

I’m excited to see the result for both of yours.

As far as mine goes, I’m still struggling to come to any conclusion on what to do. I have to explore more. Any suggestions are welcome!

So I have a lot of information.

I’ve spent most of this week just milling through it trying to make sense of it all. Putting things in some particular order will help me write the paper that is due next week. Other than that I’ve spoken with a few more guidance counselors and former juvenile officers to get some more perspective on the big picture.

I spoke with a few people I know personally who have some sort of addiction problem.

The strange thing is that many of them would say that they are not addicted to anything. To them its their choice to continue to do whatever it is they are doing. Many of them even have some sort of idea of the harm they are causing themselves but have “chosen” to disregard those consequences. I felt as I was speaking with them they their saying, “its my choice,” might just have been how they fight the sense that something has control over them. A very few had even tried to change their lifestyles a few times before but didn’t have the strength to complete any type of actual change. I could hear the suffering in their voices as they recalled the steps they had gone through to kick some sort of habit and couldn’t.

I spoke with family members and friends of those addicted. It was especially heart wrenching to hear their stories. Many of them felt as if they had “failed” their loved one somehow. People take responsibility for the actions of those they love. Many of the LDS families have continued to try to stay in touch with those who have chosen other live styles, but the addicted have a hard time communicating for any great length of time. Although I did note that those who had had an LDS background spoke with their family members much more then those who weren’t.

Throughout this coming week I’d like to find some more information on recovered or recovering addicts. Hear from them about their journey and hardships, things that worked and things that made it harder to keep going.

“Social Support”

I’m going to focus on the psychology aspect on the health effect in both physical and emotional, from having a good relationships, or in psychology term, “social support.”

Social Support: “information from others that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligations. Social support can come from parents, a spouse or lover, other relatives, friends, social and community contacts (such as churchs or clubs).”

Social support can take different forms:

1. Tangible assistance (material support)
2. Informational support
3. Emotional support

There are negative effects of course, but I’m going to focus on the positive side. And hopefully drive people to have better appreciation towards their friends, spouse, etc.

Part of me want to involve the religious aspect on this as well, since it really connects in my mind, and is important to me. I’ll see how it goes.

some interesting research will include:

• The more good relationships people have, the longer they live
• Oxytocin: chemical released from brain when we have a good relationships, which releases stress

I hope it is specific enough.

I have been trying to focus my topic, and the most interesting part was the relationships that didn’t work.  I’d like to study what causes a relationship to deteriorate.  To speak with divorced, broken up couples, and find instances where their relationship started to fall apart.  I am also trying to find strong sources on the topic.

Addiction, dependence, dependency, habituation, compulsion, withdrawal, psychological addiction, mechanism of addiction, opioid, opioid receptors (there are three found in the body), obsessive, blood-brain barrier, chemical milieu

microscopic image of what makes up the blood brain barrier

This week everything was coming along smoothly. Research was making sense and the terminology used was familiar. However, if you pay close attention to this list fragment of mine you’ll notice that some strange words and phrases get thrown into the mix.
I’m fascinated with the science so far, but due to the complexity of whats going on I’ve realized that I need to be figuring out how to word things as to appeal to a wider audience. I think many might lose interest after reading how the opioid receptors are effected by the nth which are determined by which type of ligands are attached to their…. you get my point.

I talked to three professors(psychology and anthropology) here at school and narrowing down my research.

Yay.

So I feel like I am starting to wrap my head around what I want to research for my topic.   Generally, it’s on love.  I want to study couples at different stages in their relationships; first crush, dating, break-ups, marriage, divorce,  old couple.  Basically the ups and downs and possibilities within a relationship.   I want to conduct interviews with couples who are entering or exiting different stages within a relationship,  and find out their feelings of their success in relationships, and contrast it with those who have been unsuccessful (the just engaged couple as well as the guy who’s girlfriend said no).

So that’s where I’d like to start, and I would love some feedback.

-Seth Lucas

So this week I have been feverishly trying to gather additional information on children’s fears. I was able to survey a class of 2nd graders and have them draw what they are afraid of and write about it. I also found several books on fears which have been ordered and I’m just waiting to receive them. I am now in the process of contacting several professors on campus who, I have been told, should be able to help me. My plan is to also spend the next week researching, then I will be diving into design for several weeks.