Thursday, August 9, 2012

Retail therapy!


Feeling tired, frustrated or irritated?  Maybe you could use a session of retail therapy!  "Retail therapy" is when you go shopping to make yourself feel better or when you buy yourself a little treat and it improves your mood.  I can speak for myself and say that retail therapy really does help my mood sometimes.  I'm not a shopaholic, but if I feel like all of the things in my closet are drab, old and not very fashionable, it can make me feel a little better and more confident to go out and get a snappy new item of clothing.

A little research has even been done on this topic.  Read the article below and complete the tasks following the article.  Send your answers to us at tutor@virtualingua.de to test our tutoring for free or as a tutored exercise as part of your Virtualingua English course.

Article about retail therapy:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2005447/Retail-therapy-really-does-make-happier-say-psychologists.html

Tasks:

1.  List as many items of clothing as you can think of.
2.  What are some things other than clothing that someone might buy to get into a better mood?
3.  How did the researchers conduct the survey explained in the article?
4.  Do you think the results of the survey are very reliable?  Why or why not?
5.  Do you or have you ever gone shopping or bought yourself a treat in order to improve your mood?