Winner 2006 Albany Times Union Photo Contest., originally uploaded by JaxPhotography.
ii desu ne… 
Picture: White Tulip
April 25, 2007 at 7:37 am (Picture)
OECD: Divorce
April 25, 2007 at 2:58 am (OECD, Social, Statistic)
3 Data on divorce topic is compiled and compared among OECD countries: crude divorce rate (2001, 2004), number of divorce in 100 marriages (2000) and mean marriage duration at divorce (2000).
1) Crude divorce rate:
On average, the crude divorce rate for the selected OECD countries is 2.16 in year 2001 and increase to 2.26 for year 2004. Ireland, Italy and Spain are seeing relatively low crude divorce rate compared to others while United States has the highest crude divorce rate, as high as 4.0 and 3.7 divorces per 1000 inhabitants/population for year 2001 and 2004 respectively. These numbers are seeing as high as 5x than Ireland’s crude divorce rate: 0.7 (2001) and 0.8 (2004). Coincidentally, Ireland, Italy and Spain are the countries which are predominantly Roman Catholics.
Graph above shows the change in crude divorce rate between year 2001 and 2004. Switzerland is seeing a great increase in crude divorce rate, 0.9, followed by Belgium (0.4) and Portugal (0.3). On the other hand, Netherlands and United States are seeing a drop/improvement in the crude divorce rate (0.3) followed by Finland and Sweden (0.2). Japan, Iceland, Australia and Austria see no changes.
2) Number of divorces in 100 marriages, 2000 and 3) mean marriage duration at divorce, 2000.
Belgium has the highest number of divorces in 100 marriages – about 60 out of 100 married couple will end up in divorce. The high number also go to Sweden, roughly 54 married Swedish couples could not make it and 53.2 for Finnish. Italy is seeing the lowest number of divorces among married couple: only 13.2% of married couple will part away. The relatively low number also goes to Spain (18.0%) and Switzerland (26.4%).
It is also interesting to note that how long does a marriage can last before the couple divorce. Again, Italy is seeing the longest marriage survival time (16.7 years) before the couple decided to part away. Portugal followed closely behind, 14.5 years and Iceland 14.1 years. On average, the selected countries have their marriage lasted 13.0 years before divorce. United States, Japan and United Kingdom are seeing relatively shorter marriage duration, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.9 years respectively.
Sources:
- Crude divorce rate 2001 and 2004: Statistic Finland, World Figure and tallied with divorce statistic from each statistic bureau from respective country.
- Number of divorces in 100 marriages and mean age of marriage duration, 2000, from OECD Social Indicators – 2006 Edition: General context indicator.
Gene: Eyes and Personality
April 25, 2007 at 1:57 am (Gene, Psychology)
Source: An instant guide to someone’s personality? The eyes have it, 18-02-2007
THE eyes are the window to the soul, it is said. Now scientists have found that the patterns in someone’s iris may give important clues about their personality, ranging from how warm and trusting they are to whether they are impulsive or neurotic.
“Our results suggest people with different iris features tend to develop along different personality lines,” said Mats Larsson, a behavioural scientist who led the study at Orebro University in Sweden.
For the new study, which is awaiting publication in the journal Biological Psychology, scientists at Orebro and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm analysed the eyes of 428 people and tested their personalities.
The researchers argue that as much as 90% of the differences in people’s irises are due to genetic variation and they are particularly interested in one gene called Pax6, which helps to set the formation of the iris in embryos. Other research has shown that a mutation in this gene is linked to impulsiveness and poor social skills.
Abstract here:
Variable and person-oriented analyses were used to explore the associations between personality and three previously untested general iris characteristics: crypts, pigment dots and contraction furrows. Personality data, as measured by the NEO PI-R and ratings of iris characteristics from 428 undergraduate students were collected. Crypts were significantly associated with five approach-related behaviors, i.e., feelings, tendermindedness, warmth, trust and positive emotions, whereas furrows were associated with impulsiveness. These findings suggest that because Pax6 induces tissue deficiencies in both the iris and the left anterior cingulate cortex, Pax6 may influence the extent people engage in approach-related behaviors. The results from using a person-oriented analysis suggested that people with different iris configurations tend to develop along different personality trajectories. Future longitudinal studies, twin-studies and genetic association studies, may benefit from collecting iris data and testing candidate genes for crypts and furrows.
Keywords: Personality; Iris characteristics/crypts/pigment dots/contraction furrows; Candidate genes/Pax6/Six3/Lmx1b; Anterior cingulate; Hemispheric asymmetries
