View Full Version : Happiness + Confidence = Poor Math Skills
nn_step
10-23-2006, 10:14 AM
http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061019_ap_math_happiness.html
Apperently depressed shy kids are better at math :rolleyes:
Revv23
10-23-2006, 10:21 AM
yeah i could have told you that from high school..
My feelings are its just about what you care about, you are hanging out with friends all the time math takes the backseat, if you have no friends, well what else are you going to do?
:p: then again im no doctor on it. :)
xpsentity
10-23-2006, 10:22 AM
Right. My girlfriend is the most social person I've ever met, and also a math major. Moving right along.. :rolleyes:
Sumanji
10-23-2006, 10:31 AM
Obviously there are going to be exceptions to the rule, it's not gonna be an absolute divine law is it :rolleyes:
Helmore
10-23-2006, 10:52 AM
yeah i could have told you that from high school..
My feelings are its just about what you care about, you are hanging out with friends all the time math takes the backseat, if you have no friends, well what else are you going to do?
:p: then again im no doctor on it. :)
Having almost no social life doesn't mean that you are going to do more on your math, you could also be hanging around on Xtremesystems, right? :stick:
Timmay
10-23-2006, 11:04 AM
LOL that is so true, in my first year of high school I was a quiet little guy and was good at math, as soon as I got to second/third year I gained confidence and a lot of friends and suddenly sucked at maths...
Quest_7F
10-23-2006, 11:06 AM
I agree with rev, i also wonder how much money went into this study
Shift
10-23-2006, 11:07 AM
Um so what does it mean when you have bad vocabulary skills? Because you spelled apparently wrong:p:
nn_step
10-23-2006, 11:11 AM
Um so what does it mean when you have bad vocabulary skills? Because you spelled apparently wrong:p:
that I'm not an english major :p:
thunderstruck!
10-23-2006, 11:16 AM
Right. My girlfriend is the most social person I've ever met, and also a math major. Moving right along.. :rolleyes:
I agree. I don't find math hard at all and I'm in 2nd year calculus. I also spend more time with friends than I do on math. It's just a cliche, that's all.
flutie98
10-23-2006, 11:59 AM
I agree. I don't find math hard at all and I'm in 2nd year calculus. I also spend more time with friends than I do on math. It's just a cliche, that's all.
calculus arguably is easier than pre calc maths once you know the basic concepts, i can solve nth order differential equations but i cant do long division... go figure
Xenogias
10-23-2006, 01:08 PM
correllation, not causation...
if either.
Revv23
10-23-2006, 01:30 PM
hey im not saying all people that are good at math dont have friends... im a real social guy and math always came easy to me, just that i can see why they got the results on that study.
Pinnacle
10-23-2006, 01:32 PM
Not news!!!
turbox997
10-23-2006, 02:26 PM
I see it to be a random theory/speculation that could show some evidence, but nothing solid.
For example "people who drive SUV's are bad drivers because they lack self confidence on the road and need to be seated high above the road to make themselves feel comfortable".... if you can tell I totally pulled that out of my butt(completely made it up, and I have nothing against SUV drivers, just incase some one thinks I was trying to attack them, not the situation), but I'm sure in some cases that could be "proven" true and then someone can write an article.
lol, yeah like my sociology prof always says how proud he is to be a sociologist because he considers it to be the most complex/difficult "science" out there, haha, even compared to nuclear-physics(i know he was only semi joking but I understand his point).
It's because in social science, nothing is ever really solid, and everything is really hard to prove 100% with a concise conclusion.
DTU_XaVier
10-23-2006, 02:32 PM
It's true for me at least.. The last first 2 years of High-school have been hell for me... But my math-grades were right up there :p:
Now I can't even solve a simple Integer equation :D
(Integralregning in danish, that last part was my own translation :p:)
Best Regards :toast:
syne_24
10-23-2006, 02:37 PM
hmm somewhat true but of there will always be exception. I guess they assume if you are more social and outgoing then you tend to go out more than study; therefore, your math skill might sucks. But there are people who can balance that so the more power to them.
Praxis1452
10-23-2006, 02:52 PM
somewhat true. I was better when I could concentrate more time on it... lol. Now I'm just like math? yeah.... screw it.
Of course if you take for example Betrand Russell a very relevant philosopher and mathmetician was depressed when he was young and had a lonely childhood... lol.
Also I think that because one is depressed the fact that math has answers may be a reason why some people are drawn to it more.
gn0s1s
10-23-2006, 02:52 PM
correllation, not causation...
if either.
Exactly.
Loveless is drawing conclusions based on a subjective rating scale, and not looking at the sociological factors that surround it. Typically introverted math oriented students are depressed because of the Alpha male syndrome prevalent in the highschool setting and the stigmatism that follows. There are enumerable factors that could lead to those results. Smarter students may find the math boring and not a challenge and therefore rate it less enjoyable. Sample size and demographic isn't listed either.
STEvil
10-23-2006, 04:09 PM
more likely they are depressed because they dont get out a lot due to being smarter.
Revv23
10-23-2006, 06:14 PM
correllation, not causation...
if either.
Correct! Economics come to the rescue!
so essentially, emo = good at math?
i personally enjoy a challenging math problem in certain types of math, algebraic types i guess
but im not a nerd by any means..for what its worth on these forums :p
Thorry
10-24-2006, 01:52 AM
Well that's funny, I've had a simular experience when I was young.
I learned in school to do pretty much any simple calculations in my head. Things like add, subtract, multiplication and division I could do in a snap even with very large numbers.
But when I was 12 my family moved to another town so I went to a new school. After the summer break when I started at the new school I found out I couldn't do any math in my head at all. And it has since not come back to me.
Once I even screwed up bigtime in university when I mistakenly thought 7 + 4 = 12 (which sounds too dumb now, but it was in a complex physics calculation). Luckely I still got full marks from my professor because the entire complex calculation was right except for that one little thing.
All he said was: "This proves genius and insanity are close indeed"
We all had a good laugh about it, but I never forgot that ;)
revenant
10-24-2006, 07:07 AM
wow.. I was always the shy non-confident kid while growing up -and- started falling behind in school so my folks put me in a learning development center where they got my attention more and gave me more challenging activities to work on... that was the key! I came out of there about two grades ahead of my classmates.. I never loved math that much but after that school it was very easy for me. I could work things out in my head easy.. I only took calc and diff eq's in college.. no further..
Anyways... I think shy kids live more in their head, so doing computations in their head becomes more easy? well, that's a pretty generalized idea.. they probably have more time on their hands to think about math also. hah! ;)
Thrilla
10-24-2006, 07:10 AM
Math.... I don't like it at all but I'm in math honors hahaha :P
My 2 cents is, if one put his mind at something and focus on it, he will do good in that area.