northern vs. southern spanish iq, redux

**update 08/03/12: see bottom of post.**

to find out whether or not there are regional differences in iq in spain, the reluctant apostate suggested looking at the pisa scores (which seem to be a good proxy for iq scores) from 2009 for spain, which are broken down regionally here. so i did.

they look like this:

Reading
Spain (Castile and Leon) 507
Spain (Catalonia) 499
Spain (Madrid) 499
Spain (Basque Country) 496
Spain (Navarre) 495
Spain (Aragon) 492
Spain (Asturias) 492
Spain (Cantabria) 488
Spain (La Rioja) 488
Spain (Murcia) 484
Spain (Galicia) 483

Spain (Balearic Islands) 461
Spain (Andalusia) 458
Spain (Canary Islands) 444
Spain (Ceuta and Melilla) 403

Mathematics
Spain (Castile and Leon) 514
Spain (Navarre) 511
Spain (Basque Country) 510
Spain (Aragon) 506
Spain (La Rioja) 504
Spain (Catalonia) 496
Spain (Madrid) 496
Spain (Cantabria) 495
Spain (Asturias) 494
Spain (Galicia) 489
Spain (Murcia) 478

Spain (Balearic Islands) 464
Spain (Andalusia) 462
Spain (Canary Islands) 435
Spain (Ceuta and Melilla) 417

Science
Spain (Castile and Leon) 516
Spain (La Rioja) 509
Spain (Navarre) 509
Spain (Madrid) 508
Spain (Galicia) 506
Spain (Aragon) 505
Spain (Asturias) 502
Spain (Cantabria) 500
Spain (Catalonia) 497
Spain (Basque Country) 495
Spain (Murcia) 484

Spain (Andalusia) 469
Spain (Balearic Islands) 461
Spain (Canary Islands) 452
Spain (Ceuta and Melilla) 416

as you can see, the further south — or offshore — you go in spain, the lower the pisa scores. here’s a map of the different regions in spain:

in fact, while the scores of most of the regions become gradually lower by a few points in each instance, the scores of the four lowest regions (andalusia, the balearic islands, the canary island, and ceuta & melilla [which are actually in morocco]) drop off dramatically by anywhere from 14 to 22 points compared to the next highest scoring region (e.g. in reading, the balearic islands score was 461, while the next highest was galicia at 483, a 22 point difference).

v. weiss suggests that a maths pisa score of 463 — the closest to the andalucia score of 462 — is the equivalent of an iq of 93, whereas a pisa score of 514 — the score of the highest scoring region, castile and leon — is the equivalent of an iq of 99.

if he’s correct, that would give the southernmost region of spain an iq like that of greece, while the average iq of people in one of the largest northern regions is more like that of poland or hungary.

so, maybe there is a north vs. south iq division in spain like the one found in italy (although the existence of that one has been disputed).

previously: españa al norte frente al sur

update: see also the reluctant apostate’s awesome maps of italy and spain’s pisa scores, which are awesome (the maps, that is, not necessarily the scores). (~_^)

update 08/03/12: frank is doubtful that there is a north-south divide in pisa scores in spain. the numbers say differently (latitudes grabbed from geohack):

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what’s your sign?

a while ago, hail wrote an interesting post about astrology and how there might be a little something to it.

i’ve thought this, too, from time to time — that there might be a kernel truth or “folk wisdom” at the bottom of all the astrology hocus-pocus nonsense. clearly our fates are not written in the stars — and i highly, highly doubt that our personalities are affected by the positions of the planets when we are born (unless there’s some really weird, quantum physics, interconnectedness sh*t going on…).

no. what i think that people over the ages might have noticed is that there are some differences in the frequencies of personality types and|or psychological conditions depending on what time of the year people are born.

for instance: “Studies have indicated that children born during certain times of the year (winter and early spring) have a higher than normal incidence of schizophrenia.”

if das volk happened to notice over the centuries that more joan-of-arc type people were born in late winter, they may have sought an explanation. that they latched on to a wrong one just shows how most people don’t think logically and scientifically — but they may have noticed some genuine patterns out there!

the other interesting astrological system is the chinese one which varies over the course of 12 (or 48) years. i’ve wondered for a long time if this is somehow connected to the length of generations in humans (especially if women in a society start giving birth at around the age of 12) — each generation following the next behaving somewhat differently from its predecessor. ?? dunno. just wondering.

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size doesn’t matter

except — oh my! — what’s up (*ahem*) with hungary?? (click on image for LARGER view):

[source.]

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españa al norte frente al sur

is there a north vs. south iq division in spain like there is in italy? i’ve never heard anyone mention it:

“SPAIN: NORTH AND SOUTH EMERGE FROM CRISIS AT DIFFERENT RATES”

“(ANSAmed) – MADRID, MARCH 25 – The crisis has split Spain in two, with the north and south emerging from the economic downturn at completely different paces. The former has practically emerged from the tunnel of the recession, while the latter is having difficulty latching onto the economic recovery….”

update 03/30: i checked the data for spain in lynn & vanhanen’s “iq and the wealth of nations” (appendix i) to see if i could see any hints about a north-south divide in iq in the country. didn’t turn up anything, so we’re left hangin’ here….

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whites most anxious

Fig 1 – Percentage of DSM-IV diagnoses across racial groups (SAD = social anxiety disorder, GAD = generalized anxiety disorder, PD = panic disorder, PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder).

from:

“A Cross-Ethnic Comparison of Lifetime Prevalence Rates of Anxiety Disorders”

“Figure 1 shows the prevalence rates of DSM-IV social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder for each individual racial group. As was found across a range of psychiatric disorders, Asian Americans consistently endorsed symptoms of all four anxiety disorders less frequently than any of the other racial groups. White Americans consistently endorsed symptoms of SAD (12.6%), GAD (8.6%) and PD (5.1%) more frequently than African Americans (8.6%, 4.9%, 3.8%, respectively), Hispanic Americans (8.2%, 5.8%, 4.1%, respectively), and Asian Americans (5.3%, 2.4%, 2.1%, respectively). African Americans more frequently met criteria for PTSD (8.6%) as compared to the White American subgroup (6.5%), Hispanic Americans (5.6%), and Asian Americans (1.6%)….

“Several studies have suggested that … a greater identification with one’s minority racial or cultural status is associated with higher levels of collective self esteem….”

for example.
__________

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man created god in his own image…

“Was he happy? Cultural difference in conceptions of Jesus”

“In the present research, we examined (a) whether the conception of Jesus differs between Koreans and Americans, and (b) whether different conceptions of Jesus might account for national differences in self-reported personality and subjective well-being. In Study 1, using a free association task, we found that European Americans spontaneously associated Jesus with predominantly positive words such as ‘awesome’ and ‘amazing,’ but rarely associated Jesus with painful or sacrificial terms. In contrast, Koreans spontaneously associated Jesus with both positive (e.g., ‘love’) and painful and sacrificial words. In Study 2, we used personality and well-being scales to assess perceptions of Jesus, as well as participants’ perceptions of their own personalities and well-being. Consistent with Study 1, American participants rated Jesus to be more agreeable, conscientious, extraverted, open to experiences, and happier than Korean participants. As expected from the previous research, American participants also rated themselves to be more agreeable, conscientious, extraverted, open to experiences, happier, and more satisfied with their lives than did Koreans….

“Although we assumed in this study that conceptions of Jesus would affect one’s self-views, it is possible that self-views could color one’s image of Jesus. Indeed, when we examined the reverse direction of the mediation process, we found that national differences in conceptions of Jesus were predicted by national differences in self-reported personality and happiness. These findings show that the relationship between self-perception and the perception of Jesus is bidirectional. To some extent, people project their own personality and well-being onto the image of Jesus.“

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stanley kurtz rocks

there’s only two reasons to ever bother reading the nro: john derbyshire and stanley kurtz.

now, as much as i love john derbyshire and his eternal-pessimism-of-the-conservative-mind, i have to say that i’ve learned the most from kurtz — specifically about how and why non-western societies work in the ways that they do.

just lookie here:

“Tribal Tension in Kenya”
“. . . and the delusion of African democracy.

“Call it the democracy delusion. We believed democracy was spreading. It was not. Now we worry democracy is retreating. It is not — since it barely advanced to begin with. We expect democracy to win the war on terror. It will not. We know from profoundest experience what democracy is, yet the very power of our experience blinds us. So achingly do we pine for a fantasy world of peaceful, loving polities that we see democracy in every passing stranger. Almost any Third World country can have us at hello. Just flash an ink-stained finger and Americans (Europeans too) open up their hearts, pocket-books, arsenals, whatever — only to be left alone, crying, and feeling used. But the truth is, we do it to ourselves.

“Maybe Kenya will finally break our pattern of dangerously naive infatuation with pretend democracies — Kenya, Pakistan, and, of course, Russia . . . let’s be honest and include the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon, as well. Need I mention Iraq? OK . . . deep-breath, slowly, say it with me now: ‘My name is the United States of America, and I am addicted to phony democracies….'”

i HIGHLY recommend reading the whole thing.

and this one, too: I and My Brother Against My Cousin

and if you really want to get into all the nitty-gritty, these two: Marriage and the Terror War and Marriage and the Terror War, Part II.

that is all! (^_^)

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the meaning of life

for kids in l.a.

this study found that, of european-american (i.e. white), latino and asian high school students in los angeles, latinos feel the most strongly that they have meaning in life, followed by asians and then white kids. and asian teens are the ones most in search of a meaning to their lives, while latinos and white kids don’t bother so much.

the latino kids presumably don’t bother looking for a meaning to their lives ’cause they already got one. but, the white kids don’t really have much meaning in their lives AND they ain’t lookin’ for it, either. slackers.

you’ll never guess it, but one of the things that gives teens (and prolly adults, too) LOTS of meaning to their lives is ethnic identiy, i.e. how close they feel to their ethnic group:

“[P]resence of meaning was significantly correlated with both dimensions of ethnic identity such that those who felt more positively about their ethnic group and those who reported greater ethnic exploration reported higher levels of meaning. Notably, ethnic identity was not significantly associated with search for meaning…. [E]thnic belonging was significantly associated with all indicators of adjustment. Associations were in expected directions such that a stronger sense of connectedness and affiliation with one’s ethnic group was related to higher self-esteem, higher attitudes toward the utility and value of education, higher intrinsic motivation, higher average levels of daily happiness, and lower daily distress.”

to repeat: a stronger sense of connectedness and affiliation with one’s ethnic group was related to higher self-esteem, higher attitudes toward the utility and value of education, higher intrinsic motivation, higher average levels of daily happiness, and lower daily distress.

but, of course, white folks ain’t ‘sposed to identify with their group anymore. gee — i wonder why white teens don’t really feel that they have any meaning to their lives? — and aren’t even bothering to look for any meaning!

“Although prior work has consistently documented positive links between ethnic identity and adjustment, it has yet to be entirely clear why ethnic identity has such a beneficial effect. Indeed, an important task for contemporary research is to identify the precise mechanisms by which ethnic identity has such a positive impact on development.”

yup! it’s just a COMPLETE and utter mystery why feeling close to one’s extended family would make a person feel good about life. strange, that!

_____

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