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Well, big duh. Relationship satisfaction depends on the mating pool, according to a new study, as reported by newswise.com. Relationship satisfaction and the energy devoted to keeping a partner are dependent on how the partner compares with other potential mates, a finding that relates to evolution’s stronghold on modern relationship psychology, according to a study at The University of Texas at Austin.  UT Austin psychology researcher Daniel Conroy-Beam and his collaborators developed a method to test how mate preferences influence behavior and emotions in relationships in the study “What predicts romantic relationship satisfaction and mate retention intensity: mate preference fulfillment or mate value discrepancies?” he writes in Evolution & Human Behavior. Who hasn't been there?  You want to go to the prom but the only guy you think will ask you is kind of a big jerk.  But you'll go with him, anyway.  And then he doesn't ask you!  This ha...

My husband watches Fox News.  He loves Bill O'Reilly.  Mike Huckabee, too.  He's against allowing immigrants to remain in this country.  And he's not too crazy about the Affordable Care Act, or President Obama. We don't see eye-to-eye on anything. So how are we still together?  I like him. I wouldn't have said that  half our relationship ago.  In the beginning, there were many years when it was a competition.   Who could win first? But then, life intervened.  We had a child, I got cancer, our mothers both developed serious illnesses and died.  And suddenly winning didn't seem the point anymore. Of course, everything isn't perfect.  He still makes me furious, pretending he doesn't hear me when I ask him to take out the garbage or vacuum the family room floor.  He still comes home and drops his coat on the floor (as does our son now, too). And his idea of a birthday gift (even a big one) is well, a card, if I'...

Does your partner like to be spanked ?  Do you?  Hope for sex with two women (or men)?  Like to dress up as a maid for your man? If you do, you're, well, perfectly normal, according to a new study, newswise.com reports. In a sampling of over 1,500 Quebec adults (usually college students are used!), results showed that people had all kinds of sexual fantasies.  But most of them were normal. What weren't?  "Clinically, we know what pathological sexual fantasies are: they involve non-consenting partners, they induce pain, or they are absolutely necessary in deriving satisfaction. But apart from that, what exactly are abnormal or atypical fantasies? To find out, we asked people in the general population, as simple as that," the Web site quotes Christian Joyal, lead author of the study. "And as we suspected, there are a lot more common fantasies than atypical fantasies." The study found that the nature of sexual fantasies are varied among the genera...

We all strive for balance in our work and home lives but many of us never find it.  Your son’s softball game?  You said you’ll be there, but, oh wait, the boss needs that report before day’s end.  That meeting where you’ll be recognized for your work on that project?  It’s today. But so is your daughter’s dance recital. We’ve all been there.  Finding the right balance between our job’s requirements, and our home’s, has never been harder. But a new survey by CareerBliss, as reported by monster.com, has found some surprising news about the most satisfying jobs in the U.S. today.  Teacher or professor?  You didn’t even make the top 10. But database administrator, or quality assurance engineer, executive assistant or executive recruiter, underwriter or software developer.  You’re on top of the world.  These jobs were ranked happiest for many reasons.  For example, database administrators find a lot of freedom and creativity...

If you're one of these, you probably already know this. But a new study has shown that entrepreneurs are happier. According to smartplanet.com, individuals who build their own businesses tend to have higher senses of well-being than those who are employed by others. Duh.  I left corporate life over 20 years ago, and though there have been certainly been ups and downs (in a down right now), I've loved just about every minute. I loved the projects I got, so satisfied to create an end product like a news story or speech or talking points instead of having to sit in endless meetings where nothing much was every accomplished except some vice president flaunting her power. Not surprisingly, the study showed that involvement in entrepreneurial activity can be linked to higher levels of satisfaction and contentment.  At times I made a lot of money but that meant less than the thrill I felt creating work that was mine, all mine, and when the clients really liked it, well, I'v...

We're known for looking down on Canada (see: South Park, "Blame it on Canada," and what about that mayor of Toronto?). But did you know that Canadians, and people living in the Netherlands, love their jobs, and we don't? According to a new Monster and GfK  study , which surveyed 8,000 people about how much they liked their jobs, we come in 4th out of  7th, followed by the Brits, the French and Germans hating their jobs most.  Tyler Falk reports that it's no surprise -- the World Economic Forum looked at the the nations investing most in the health, education and talent of their work forces and the two countries were in the top 10. Slightly less than half the workers in the U.S. like their jobs . In Canada, 64% like their jobs, according to yahoo.com. But, he notes, "In the same study, India, which had the third happiest workers in the Monster survey ranked 78th and the United States, with the most workers who hate their jobs came in 16th." Why?...