Twenty-six percent of Americans don’t know who America fought for independence. That’s according to a 2010 telephone survey conducted by Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The survey included 1,004 Americans age 18 and over across the country. Among the 26% of participants who didn’t know the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain, answers included France, China, Mexico, Spain and Japan. Six percent of the 26% were unsure the U.S. had fought any war of independence. Although the survey’s margin of error was 3%, the U.S. school system must have a much larger “margin of error”.

According to another survey, money can buy happiness – at least one kind. Of the 136,839 people age 15 and older in 132 countries, people with money were likelier to say they were happy with their life overall. However, happiness associated with positive feelings was more affected by respect, control of life, family and friends to depend on and a fulfilling job. It seems money affects one’s life evaluation. Positive feelings affect one’s emotional well-being. According to the study, both kinds of happiness are basically the same from rural villages to large cities. The “i” in happiness is universal.

The problem of not being able to “unplug” on vacation seems to be universal too. Increasing numbers of people can’t go on vacation without being able to check their e-mail. According to a psychological principle called “a variable reinforcement schedule”, it is harder to stop a behavior if you’re randomly rewarded than to stop it if you’re consistently rewarded. Thus the random e-mail of genuine importance increases the need to check e-mail. To deal with this problem psychologists suggest setting aside specific time for checking e-mail when on vacation – and I’m sure marriage counselors would agree.

Hopefully, marriage counselors would also agree romantic love is addictive. Fifteen college-age men and women participated in a study done at Rutgers University. All of them had experienced a romantic breakup within 2 months of the study and all said they were still in love. As the participants looked at pictures of their ex-lovers, their brains were scanned. The parts of the brain affected were those associated with cocaine and nicotine addiction, physical pain and distress, and attachment. The good news is activity in the parts of the brain associated with attachment and addiction Silagra decreased with time. Maybe time does heal all wounds – and wounded hearts.

Author Bio: Knight Pierce Hirst takes a second look at what makes life interesting and it takes only second at http://knightwatch.typepad.com

Category: Culture and Society
Keywords: war of indpendence, happiness, e-mail, love