It all depends on the smell. After all, we don't mind the smell of our own farts, but if somebody else, sharing a car or a lift drops one...
It's subjective. You can get pleasant and unpleasant experiences form any sense.
Supplement from 02/27/2007 02:03pm:
After some consideration, I thought that my flippant answer did not actually achieve what I set out to communicate. This is such a broad topic.
For example... memory is linked with smells. Smells can make you salivate, they can make you puke. Aroma therapists would have you believe that smells can cure your athlete's foot.
Look at what google threw back at me when I asked it about pongs:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B2GGG... copy
If you could narrow it down, we could probably be a bit more helpful. :-)
Supplement from 02/27/2007 02:31pm:
A good place to start is to think of the function of the sense of smell. It tells us when something is likely to be harmful, or when something is going to be good for us.
A lot of research has shown that smell, and pheromones play a large part in human reproductive behaviour.
Not so much fo us, but in other animals, smell can inform an organism that there are predators around, or lead them to prey.
Smell an warn creatures of environmental dangers... noxious volcanic gases like hydrogen sulphide are repugnant. Most animals are spooked by the smell of burning.
If it is a clinical assignment:
You could include some stuff on the stimulation/ suppression of appetite. In your case of the elderly... some times care homes can get a little "ripe." Managing the environment may help alleviate some people who are having problems with eating. Think of the smells that get you going. For me, it is coffee brewing, bread baking, frying onions, and especially grilling bacon. How can you replicate those effects.
You could also point out that people who feel nauseous may be affected adversely by excessive scent worn by carers, who work in proximity to them.
You could look up some aromatherapy site. You might not have much faith in the therapy, but generally speaking, most complementary therapies feel they have much to prove. In this case, examples of the impact smell has on us might be use to such an end. This could give you more ideas and lead you to more appropriate areas of research.
I hope that this get the ball rolling for you. :-)
