October 2012 Archives

I found this research study quite interesting because it talks about the health benefits of organic vs. non-organic foods. Many times, people walk into a grocery store and hear that the there are health benefits with buying organic foods (myself included) even though they are quite more expensive. In a study performed by Stanford University scientists, research shows that there are no significant health benefits in regards to purchasing organic foods. Another important finding was that research showed that organic foods were no less likely to contain bacteria such as E.Coli in comparison to non-comparison foods.

The study shows objectivity because it acknowledges that the study is unlikely to swing opinions on purchasing organic foods.I appreciate that the study acknowledges the advocate's viewpoints with the benefits of organic foods and that buyers will likely continue on purchasing these foods. By providing both sides of the argument, people are able to make informed decisions and prove that the researchers were set on finding the facts, they didn't have bias to sway consumers one way or the other. The study also shwoed credibility because the findings were combined with 237 other studies examining the health benefits of organic food.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/earth/study-questions-advantages-of-organic-meat-and-produce.html

This study posted by CNN talks about the link of stress levels to higher mortality levels within cancer patients. The article talks about how the management of stress effects effects how likely a cancer patient is to survive the disease.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/14/health/stress-cancer-survival-enayati/index.html

The study was done by Lorenzo Cohen, professor of general oncology and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Cohen found that symptoms of depression among a group of patients with late-stage renal cell carcinoma were associated with an increased risk of death. The results of this study were published in the PLOS One journal.

This study shows validity because multiple other studies were conducted by other credible sources (doctors and professors concentrating in psychology) and results were all consistent in that stress influences the body's ability to fight off the disease.

The study also showed its credibilty because it provided areas where the research may be skewed or uncertainty may still remain. Researchers claim that deciphering the causation between stress and survival level is hard to figure out.

The Guardian recently posted a study about the link between social media and the connection people have with self-image and a generally more shallow outlook on relationships. The study noted that those who consistently change their profile picture on Facebook, update their statue, and tag themselves in pictures are more concerned with their image and the way in which they are portrayed which ultimately contribute to a link with a more narcissistic outlook. The research was done by Western Illinois Univeristy on 294 students ages 18-65 and studied the two most socially disruptive forms of narcissism grandiose exhibitionism (GE) and entitlement/exploitativeness (EE).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/17/facebook-dark-side-study-aggressive-narcissism

This research study shows reliability because it was performed by an educational source and also was validated by other credible educational sources from different learning institutions. With 294 participants, this is a large enough number where the experiment seems representative of the tested demographic.