Insights into Men's Suicide

Suicide is a considerable public health issue garnering increasing attention in public and academic dialogue over the past few years. Despite alarming statistics showing a high gender skewing towards males, there has been remarkably little focus on prevention, intervention strategies or research to address male suicide

Successful Transition to Retirement in Australia

The transitions of old age include many changes in appearance, hormonal changes such as the menopause, changes in family structures such as children leaving home, and changes in work patterns such as retirement. The study of such transitions has grown rapidly in recent years. In the 1970s there were 203 peer-reviewed articles containing the keyword retirement, according to PsycINFO. By the 2000s this had risen to 1,804 (Shultz & Wang, 2011). Conceptualising retirement, Ekerdt noted, “The designation of retirement status is famously ambiguous because there are multiple overlapping criteria by which someone might be called retired, including career cessation, reduced work effort, pension receipt, or self-report” (p. 70) (Ekerdt, 2010). This study measures retirement via self-report. Although Australians no longer face a compulsory retirement age, at which they are no longer considered useful to the workforce, retirement is still an important transition for individuals, their families, and for the wider society. Based on estimates from the 2006 census and the 2007 Survey of Employment Arrangements, Retirement and Superannuation - the most recent for which such data are available - an estimated 7.7 million Australians were aged 45 years or over. Of these, 3.1 million people were retired (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). As is evident, the likelihood of being retired increases with age. In 2007, there were more retired women (1.8 million) than retired men (1.3 million). The average age at retirement for women is 47, compared with 58 for men. For all age groups over 45 years, more men than women intend never to retire (16.7% and 11.9% respectively) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). Of those retirees who had worked in the last 20 years, the most common main reason for retiring is the retiree's health. This is a more common reason for retired men (38%) than retired women (25%). Other common reasons for retirement for men include financial reasons (20%) and being retrenched or made redundant (10%). While financial considerations are more likely to influence men, women are more likely to make their decision based on family considerations. Common reasons for women to retire include caring responsibilities (15%) and to spend more time with their family or partner (13%) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). It is relatively easy to find advice about financial preparation for retirement, compared to successfully navigating the cognitive, emotional, or social aspects of the transition. What does retirement mean to those approaching it? Stokes found that it means the end of work and the loss of identity in response to a society that has a negative perception of old age (Stokes, 1992). This is consistent with the disengagement theory of aging in which aging is seen as a process of disengagement from other people (Cumming et al, 1961). On the other hand, the street protests seen in France in October 2010, in response to the French government’s proposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, could be interpreted as some people looking forward to retirement as a release from the burden of employment. In a study examining retirement experiences, three main groups of people who could be delineated on the basis of their experience were identified (Kloep & Hendry, 2006)

Vollrad Kutscher, die Porträts : eine Studie zum zeitgenössischen Porträt

Während seiner mittlerweile über 30jährigen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Porträt gelangte Vollrad Kutscher zu der Erkenntnis, dass es unmöglich ist, in unserer Zeit ein gültiges Bild von sich selbst und in der Folge von anderen zu erstellen. Dass Kutscher dennoch immer wieder Porträts herstellt, zeigt einen Widerspruch auf, der sich leitmotivisch durch die Arbeiten zieht und in ihnen selbst formal manifestiert ist. ..

The Relationship Between Connectedness to Nature, Environmental Values, and Pro-environmental Behaviours

The aims of this study were to investigate (a) the relationship between connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behaviours; (b) the relationship between environmental values and behaviours; and (c) whether or not there is a mediating effect of values in the relationship between connectedness and behaviour. Seventy-six undergraduate students completed an online survey that measured connectedness to nature, egoistic values, altruistic values, biospheric values, pro-environmental behaviours, and social desirability. The results showed that connectedness to nature, altruistic values and biospheric values were positively related to pro-environmental behaviours; and that environmental values partially mediated the relationship between connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behaviour. These results lend support to Wilson's (1984) biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that all humans are innately and emotionally connected to nature, and the value-belief-norm model of Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano and Kalof (1999), which suggests that values activate cognitions that create a positive environmental personal norm to engage in pro-environmental behaviours

What do Bayesian methods offer population forecasters?

The Bayesian approach has a number of attractive properties for probabilistic forecasting. In this paper, we apply Bayesian time series models to obtain future population estimates with uncertainty for England and Wales. To account for heterogeneity found in the historical data, we add parameters to represent the stochastic volatility in the error terms. Uncertainty in model choice is incorporated through Bayesian model averaging techniques. The resulting predictive distributions from Bayesian forecasting models have two main advantages over those obtained using traditional stochastic models. Firstly, data and uncertainties in the parameters and model choice are explicitly included using probability distributions. As a result, more realistic probabilistic population forecasts can be obtained. Second, Bayesian models formally allow the incorporation of expert opinion, including uncertainty, into the forecast. Our results are discussed in relation to classical time series methods and existing cohort component projections. This paper demonstrates the flexibility of the Bayesian approach to simple population forecasting and provides insights into further developments of more complicated population models that include, for example, components of demographic change

Mindfulness and the Quality of Romantic Relationships: Is it All About Well-Being?

Studies have shown that mindfulness is positively associated with a number of individual factors related to well-being, attention and awareness, and life satisfaction. Mindfulness has also been shown to be positively associated with the perceived quality of romantic relationships. However, the factors underlying the connection between mindfulness and relationship quality are not well understood. A study is reported in which the connection between mindfulness and perceived relationship quality was investigated when individual life satisfaction was controlled for. The results suggest that individual life satisfaction partially mediates the association between mindfulness and relationship quality but that other factors also contribute to that association. Possible additional mediating factors and ideas for possible future studies that could throw light on this connection are discussed