Sample and population score matrices and sample correlation matrices from an arbitrary population correlation matrix

A method for generating sample and population score matrices and sample correlation matrices from a given population correlation matrix is developed. An example giving the desired matrices for a population Guttman simplex correlation matrix is presented.The computations for this paper were done on Illiac, an electronic computer of the Digital Computer Laboratory of the University of Illinois. Mr. S. Hunka assisted in these computations. The final version of this paper was prepared while the senior author was a U. S. Public Health Service Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.     

Psychology,population, and reproductive behavior

This special section on international perspectives in psychology focuses on population issues and reproductive behavior across national and cultural boundaries, emphasizing the responsibility of psychologists and colleagues in related disciplines to generate and communicate culturally mindful findings likely to shape public health policy and improve human well-being. After considering the historical and policy context, it highlights internationally collaborative research projects in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Mexico, and the United States that address reproductive behavior, women's roles and status, responsible parenthood, and abortion legislation in terms of cultural context, gender equity, the needs of adolescents, and public health policy. The articles illustrate the importance of the cultural context within which psychological research is conducted and how psychology can be informed by international perspectives.     

Growth, population, and knowledge diffusion

This paper reviews the recent development of growth theory, focusing on the consistency between theory and evidence in terms of effects of population on growth, and presents some policy implications. Although positive effects of the population size on growth are likely to exist, the size does not necessarily mean the size of the domestic population. In the world with substantial but costly international knowledge diffusion, what affects growth is the population size of the technological leader country, the United States, from which knowledge spills over, and it is the world population when diffusion is costless. Therefore, policies to promote population growth may not be growth-enhancing for most advanced countries. A more effective population-related policy objective theoretically suggested is to encourage international knowledge diffusion. He may be reached at: yastodo@siu.edu. His current research interests include the process of knowledge diffusion among advanced countries as well as from advanced to developing countries.     

Intelligence and class mobility in the British population

Performance on intelligence tests is known to be associated with class mobility, with high scorers tending to move up the socio‐economic hierarchy, and low scorers tending to move down. However, much remains unknown about the association. It is possible that the importance of intelligence varies across different occupational areas, or that there is friction acting against mobility, such that a person from an underprivileged background would have to be more intelligent in order to reach a given position than someone who had had greater social advantage. Data from a longitudinal study of a broad, socially representative cohort of the British population (the NCDS) are used to investigate these questions. The results show that intelligence test scores in childhood are associated with class mobility in adulthood uniformly across all social classes. There is no evidence that those from underprivileged backgrounds have to be disproportionately able in order to reach the professional classes. The study reveals an apparently high level of social mobility and meritocracy in contemporary Britain.     

The Chinese single-child family programme and population psychology

China's population explosions of the early 1950s and late 1960s, followed by the launching of the one-child population policy, can be expected to have an effect on the country's demographic structure that will persist for another 60-80 years. The proportion of the population over 60 years of age should increase from 7.6% in 1982 to a peak of 25.3% by 2040. As a result, by the mid-21st century, a labor force comprised of half the population will be supporting equal numbers of young and aged people. Although political and economic utility factors make it unlikely that China's fertility rate will ever fall below 2.0, the steady aging of society will have long-term social as well as demographic consequences. Increased material and emotional investment in children, brought about by the one-child policy, may compete with investments in the needs of the aged. Recommended is consolidation of a three-generation family system in which grandparents help to maintain family interdependence and provide child care in exchange for support from their adult children. Such a model is consistent with the Confucian emphasis on respect for the wisdom of the elderly and responsibility for their well-being.     

The relation between sample and population characteristic vectors

Data are reported which show the statistical relation between the sample and population characteristic vectors of correlation matrices with squared multiple correlations as communality estimates. Sampling fluctuations were found to relate only to differences in the square roots of characteristic roots and to sample size. A principle for determining the number of factors to rotate and interpret after rotation is suggested.This study was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant GB 4230. The author wishes to express his appreciation for the use of Western Data Processing Center and the Health Sciences Computing Facility, UCLA. He also thanks Dr. Roger Pennell for extremely valuable assistance in a number of phases of the study.     

population growth,economic inequality,and homicide

Empirical research and theorizing on cross-national variations in homicide have been limited by an exclusive focus on the direct effects of national structural characteristics on the rates of homicide. This study is designed to extend this growing body of literature by advancing a conceptual model accounting for an important underlying feature of societies that indirectly elevates national homicide rates. Specifically, it is proposed that a high rate of population growth may have a direct role in bifurcating the distribution of national wealth. Population growth should therefore indirectly increase homicide rates through this mediating factor. This hypothesis is tested with data from 50 nations circa 1990. The data support the expected relationship, indicating (net of several controls) that rapid population growth is an underlying barrier to low homicide rates across nations. The main theoretical implication is that the often observed inverse relationship between level of development and rates of homicide appears to be indirectly driven by differential population dynamics.     

Risk behaviors and health. Contrasting individual and population perspectives

This article discusses risk behaviors, seemingly voluntary actions of individuals that have adverse health consequences. The central theme is to examine these behaviors from two contrasting perspectives, that of the individual and that of the population as a whole. It is argued that distinguishing between individual and population views is important for understanding and interpreting health risk data, for developing conceptual and theoretical models for explaining these behaviors, and for devising intervention strategies to modify them. It is argued that an appreciation of both the individual and the population perspectives is important to developing effective action strategies for reducing these behaviors as public health problems.     

Religiousness and obsessive-compulsive cognitions and symptoms in an Italian population

Fifty-four individuals with a high degree of religiosity, 47 with a medium degree of religiosity and 64 with low religiosity completed anonymously the Italian versions of well-established measures of obsessive-compulsive (OC) cognitions and symptoms, depression and anxiety. After controlling for anxiety and depression, religious groups scored higher than individuals with a low degree of religiosity on measures of obsessionality, overimportance of thoughts, control of thoughts, perfectionism and responsibility. Moreover, measures of control of thoughts and overimportance of thoughts were associated with OC symptoms only in religious subjects. It is concluded that religion might play a role in obsessive-compulsive disorder phenomenology. Additional research is warranted because it is plausible that only a few aspects of religious teachings (e.g., inflexibility and prohibition) are linked to OC phenomena.     

Attempted suicide among Iranian population

Predictors of suicide attempts in Iran, to distinguish any similarities and differences of these predictors between suicide attempts in Iran and other developed and developing countries and to investigate the relation between general psychiatric symptoms and repetition of suicidal attempts were assessed. The validated Farsi version of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used to assess multiple dimensions of quality of life of suicide attempters as depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, and somatic symptoms. Pivotal differences emerged in the clinical profiles of suicide attempters living in a developing country versus developed countries. In developing countries, those who attempt suicides are more likely to have no psychiatric disorder and are less likely to have used alcohol as part of the suicide attempt, but are more likely to have been assaulted physically or verbally. The results on the GHQ-28 indicate that the process through which individuals move from suicidal thought to action may decrease multiple dimensions of quality of life.