Search

Copyright of Psicologia Educativa is the property of Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the new types of organizations and their management in the transition towards the knowledge society. Two holocratic management proposals are analyzed and they offer innovative productive factors, such as the learning and knowledge technologies, as well as experiences of talent development and personal and social transformation (typical of organizations with meaning and aligned with Horizon 2030 and with CSR 3.0). Also, this paper analyses two compared study cases, in different socio-cultural realities, such as ISCR in Costa Rica and ICGD in Spain. It is an attempt to systematize the proposals for organization, operation and results, offering a reference model for other organizations oriented towards the aforementioned model of knowledge and social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the growth potential of clusters and industrial districts (CIDs) in international markets. Over the past two decades, CIDs have gone under increasing competitive pressure while markets have progressively globalized. Lead companies, either foreign or home-grown multinationals, have globalized their operations while often reducing their commitment (e.g. investments) within CIDs. As a result, a number of second, third and fourth-tier suppliers disconnect from global value chains coordinated by lead companies, leaving the cluster fractured and jeopardizing local development prospects. Only a few firms in the CID cope with globalization. This situation represents a challenge that CIDs need to take on. In this paper, we inquire about the importance of two factors that may represent crucial conditions for the upgrading of CIDs within global markets. The long-term commitment of lead companies with the local economy, together with the dense interaction between the regional innovation system and the lead companies and their new global innovation network, are found to be crucial elements for the resilience of CIDs and their small firms. A few successful CIDs are considered vis-à-vis others that face higher risks of internal fracture. Relevant cases in Spain, Italy, and Costa Rica are analysed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psicologia Educativa is the property of Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we aim to advance the discussion on HRM's quest to create value around social responsibility and environmental sustainability. We explore the perceptions reported by Human Resource managers in three Ibero-American countries (Spain, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica). We focus on the hospitality sector, one of particular relevancy for these countries and with significant sustainability challenges. Relying on in-depth interviews in twenty-eight organizations and a mixed-methods approach, we examine HR managers' underlying notions around social and environmental issues, stakeholder collaboration, HRM practices, roles and internal organization. Analysis of the interviews suggests varying views on those dimensions, as well as identifies Active and Advanced firms, the latter showing more commitment to sustainability (as part of the organizational culture), usage of HRM practices and engagement with multiple stakeholders. From this empirical exploration and relying on current sustainability developments, we contribute to the literature by outlining an externally-oriented model (centred on corporate priorities, communities' flourishing and ecosystems' resilience) aiming to advance HRM's engagement with sustainability-driven agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students' learning and understanding.

The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the importance that grammar has in the teaching of writing in the Hispanic American countries and Spain. To achieve this, the discussion that has taken place in these countries about the importance of sentence grammar in the teaching of writing is analysed. Three proposals for the contextualised teaching of grammar are systematised from the literature review: those that are focused in the writing process, those focused on metalinguistic reflection and those with a greater emphasis in the grammar of text. Besides, the school curricula of 14 Spanish-speaking countries that were involved in the international assessment of TERCE are examined. This analysis shows an evident attachment to the communicative approach of grammar. This means that in almost all countries grammar is taught linked to the linguistic skills of reading, writing or orality, with an especial emphasis in writing. Also, two tendencies can be observed in the curricula of this countries, that guide the way in which curricula use sentence grammar to have an impact on written communication: (i) from sentence grammar to text grammar and (ii) from text grammar to sentence grammar.

Copyright of Acta Colombiana de Psicologia is the property of Universidad Catolica de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Successful aging is closely related to self-care behaviors. In fact, self-care is one of the most important aspects of a healthy life. It is in this context that the Self-Care Scale for the Older People appears. The main aim of this study is to offer evidence on the measurement invariance of the scale in samples of older adults from countries with cultural differences, specifically Costa Rica and Spain. The research approach is a panel design of 272 Costa Rican older adults and 1166 Spanish older adults. Statistical analyses considered were a series of Confirmatory Factor analyses. The results indicate an adequate reliability, and a strong invariance of the SCOP held across the two Spanish-speaking countries studied. SCOP is a valid instrument for intercultural comparisons between these groups, and it offers indirect evidence for comparisons with other Spanish-speaking countries of the same cultural background. This results may aid to design better interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metacommunity concept provides a theoretical framework that aims at explaining organism distributions by a combination of environmental filtering, dispersal, and drift. However, few works have attempted a multitaxon approach and even fewer have compared two distant biogeographical regions using the same methodology. We tested the expectation that temperate (mediterranean‐climate) pond metacommunities would be more influenced by environmental and spatial processes than tropical ones, because of stronger environmental gradients and a greater isolation of waterbodies. However, the pattern should be different among groups of organisms depending on their dispersal abilities. We surveyed 30 tropical and 32 mediterranean temporary ponds from Costa Rica and Spain, respectively, and obtained data on 49 environmental variables. We characterized the biological communities of bacteria and archaea (from the water column and the sediments), phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, amphibians and birds, and estimated the relative role of space and environment on metacommunity organization for each group and region, by means of variation partitioning using generalized additive models. Purely environmental effects were important in both tropical and mediterranean ponds, but stronger in the latter, probably due to their larger limnological heterogeneity. Spatially correlated environment and pure spatial effects were greater in the tropics, related to higher climatic heterogeneity and dispersal processes (e.g., restriction, surplus) acting at different scales. The variability between taxonomic groups in the contribution of spatial and environmental factors to metacommunity variation was very wide, but higher in active, compared with passive, dispersers. Higher environmental effects were observed in mediterranean passive dispersers, and higher spatial effects in tropical passive dispersers. The unexplained variation was larger in the tropical setting, suggesting a higher role for stochastic processes, unmeasured environmental factors, or biotic interactions in the tropics, although this difference affected some actively dispersing groups (insects and birds) more than passive dispersers. These results, despite our limitations in comparing only two regions, provide support, for a wide variety of aquatic organisms, for the classic view of stronger abiotic niche constraints in temperate areas compared with the tropics. The heterogeneous response of taxonomic groups between regions also points to a stronger influence of regional context than organism adaptations on metacommunity organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to present an approach to achieve accessible and inclusive Virtual Education for all, but especially intended for students with disabilities. This work proposes main steps to take into consideration for stakeholders involved in the educational process related to an inclusive e-Learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper pays particular regard to accessibility in Virtual Education. This work is based on the activities prepared from years 2012 to 2015 within the initiative called ESVI-AL. This initiative was carried out in conjunction with Latin American and European Universities; for this paper, experiences and best practices from the initiative were used to prepare the proposed approach. Findings: The aim of ESVI-AL initiative was to offer products that can help in the development of an accessible and inclusive e-Learning education. Among the main results were reports, case studies, practical guidelines, training courses and software to install virtual campuses with accessibility features. Social implications: Nowadays, few countries have laws promoting and enforcing accessibility for e-Education and e-Society. This work aims to sensitize educators from different countries and raise awareness on the importance of working together toward an inclusive society based on accessible e-Learning. Originality/value: Based on a literature review and ESVI-AL initiative results, a descriptive overview was prepared as a starting point for the four identified main actors of an educational project, namely, educators, technical staff, quality auditors and students, with special emphasis on students with disabilities.

This paper presents a review of the research findings documented in literature about factors associated with academic scores in college students and their relationship with the quality of higher education in general, using as a reference studies carried out in Spain, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Costa Rica. These factors are grouped in three categories: personal determinants, social determinants, and institutional determinants that, at the same time, hold their own indicators. Emphasis is given to the fact that the search for educational quality is a desired good for different sectors of society, and for which universities fight from different fields, with major concerns in the public sector due to the investment involved. The search for quality implies ah integral review of the university that includes studies about the academic results of students, because those results are an important input and allow the identification of limiting and enabling elements of academic performance and, consequently, facilitate the control of public resources and the social impact mediation. The analysis of the educational quality must include research results about the academic results of the students since it is of great use in the decision making process aiming for a more fair educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the health trajectories of the population aged over 60, comparing between one European and two Latin American countries (Spain, Chile and Costa Rica) which have similar longevity patterns. Our focus is on functional limitation and mortality risks, considering differences by gender, education and social participation. Data come from national panel surveys (EPS, CRELES, SHARE). Multistate modelling is used to estimate transition probabilities between two health states: healthy to unhealthy, unhealthy to healthy as well as the transition to death from healthy or unhealthy states, to estimate the duration of stay in a specific state (computing healthy and unhealthy life expectancies) and the effect of the selected covariates. Results show that older Costa Ricans have the smallest gender gap in life expectancy but women have a lower healthy life expectancy compared to those in Chile and Spain. Participation in social activities leads to higher healthy life expectancy among the elderly in Costa Rica and Spain, whilst there were no relevant educational differences observed in longevity in the analysed countries. To conclude: despite the different patterns observed in health transitions and survival across the three countries, social participation is associated with greater health and longevity among people of old age, with little effect coming from educational attainment. Public policies should therefore be aimed at reducing unhealthy life years and dependency at advanced ages by promoting more engagement in social activities, especially among vulnerable groups who are more likely to experience impairment from a younger age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural expansion and intensification is occurring in seasonally dry regions of Central America, while droughts are intensifying due to increasing water demand and climatic change. Empirical measurements of water consumption of major crops in this region are scarce but crucial to assess agricultural water use dynamics in the light of increasing regional water conflicts. We empirically quantify total crop water use (CWU) and water footprints (WFs) of rainfed upland rice (wet season) and groundwater‐irrigated melons (dry season) grown sequentially as a double cropping system, one of the major cropping systems in the seasonally dry province of Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica. Data for this study cover 2 years and were measured with a state‐of‐the‐art eddy covariance water and carbon flux station. Upland rice only consumed green water (CWUgreen = 383 L/m2), while melons only consumed blue water (CWUblue = 177 L/m2). Irrigation was found to be 1.5 times larger than the actual melon water consumption, with better irrigation efficiencies than reported for melon farms in Brazil but slightly inferior to farms in Spain. Melon WFblue was 79 m3/t, a much lower value than global and regional estimates reported but similar to values reported for melons produced in Brazil or Spain. Upland rice WFgreen (681 m3/t) was reported for the first time and was proven to be much lower than flood irrigated‐rice WFblue‐green. Our results demonstrated lower overall water demand for upland rice‐melon double crop compared to the two other major monocultures of the region (flood‐irrigated rice and irrigated sugar cane). Plain Language Summary: Agricultural intensification is occurring in seasonally dry tropical areas. At the same time, droughts are becoming more severe due to climate change in many tropical regions. Empirical measurements of water usage in agriculture and water use efficiency are scarce in the tropics but are critical to achieving sustainable water management and resilient agricultural systems. We instrumented a production farm in the seasonally dry Guanacaste province of Costa Rica to measure agricultural water use for a regionally widespread double cropping system composed of irrigated melons and rainfed rice grown sequentially during the dry and wet seasons, respectively. For rice, 681 m3 of rainwater was used per ton of yield, which is much less water than the water used to produce rice in flooded fields. Seventy‐nine cubic meters of irrigated water was used per ton of melons, which is similar to values reported for melons produced in Brazil or Spain. Irrigation of melons was found to be 1.5 times larger than crop water consumption during the dry season, and irrigation efficiencies were similar to Brazilian melon farms but slightly inferior to Spanish farms. We showed that the studied system used considerably less water than did two principal monocultures in the region (irrigated rice and irrigated sugar cane). This cropping system seems a competitive option for the Central American wet‐dry tropics in terms of water use. Key Points: Water footprints of upland rice and irrigated melons empirically derived from eddy covariance were provided for the first timeMelon irrigation was 1.5 times larger than actual crop water consumption, posing a potential risk for seasonal water depletionOverall upland rice‐melon double cropping system showed a considerably lower water demand than did the other major monocultures in the region [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic programs at the graduate level are increasingly interested about the enrollment management challenges in terms of international student mobility. Understanding fundamental enrollment concepts to attract international students provides the essential key to consider the competitive environment concerning university resources, academic program potential, complex cultural dynamics, and workplaces among others. Based on a six-year quantitative and descriptive statistical study, this paper addresses the trends of first-time graduate enrollment and patterns of international student mobility by faculty at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Results revealed the sustained trend of graduate enrollment of international students mainly from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean among others. Moreover, the presence of international graduate students adds a dimension of diversity to UPRM between teaching and research undertakings that enhance the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration. The international student mobility has a consistent tendency mainly in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences. This consistency resembles the quality and reputation recognized by educational institutions and organizational world rankings. In-depth, understanding the trends related to international graduate enrollment and mobility should be considered by institutional leaders and administrators at UPRM to make knowledgeable decisions and to effectively set priorities to recruit highly qualified international students.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of school leaders to provide social justice in three contexts: Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study was conducted under the interpretative tradition characterized by a search for an understanding of the social world from the point of view of a school director from each of the three countries. Interviews were conducted to determine their views on social justice, the actions they took, and the obstacles they confronted. Findings: The directors conceived of education as a right and believed in equal educational opportunity, and fair distribution of resources. They used a variety of methods to promote social justice, increase social cohesion, and provide emotional education. Obstacles came from educational authorities who tried to control rather than support their efforts. They were committed to working in schools with marginalized populations, but their efforts had taken a toll on their personal and professional lives. Research limitations/implications: The research looked at just three principals whose experiences were unique to their context. However, the study has the advantage of looking at schools not typically included in educational research. Practical implications: The work of these school directors underscores the need for preparation in skills, knowledge, and values to work for social justice. Originality/value: The value of this research is to illuminate the narratives of school leaders. Working across borders can provide insights about the possibilities of change and strength to persevere.

We examined the influence of perceived parental sexual values, religiosity, and family environment on young adults' sexual values from the United States (n = 218), Spain (n = 240), Costa Rica (n = 172), and Peru (n = 105). On average, and across the four national groups, the messages young adults received from their parents about broad domains of sexual behaviors (masturbation, non-intercourse types of heterosexual sexual activity, premarital sex, same-sex activity, and cohabiting) were unequivocally restrictive. By contrast, across the four groups, young adults on average held rather permissive sexual values and their values differed significantly from those of their parents. Moreover, the nature of perceived parental sexual values (restrictive vs. permissive) was not associated significantly with young adults' sexual values, age of sexual debut, or number of sexual partners. Comparatively, Spanish young adults held the most permissive sexual values, whereas US young adults held the most restrictive sexual values. Religiosity was the strongest predictor of young adults' sexual values, followed by perceived parental sexual values and influence. In conclusion, it appears that despite having perceived restrictive parental messages about sex, these young adults currently hold permissive sexual attitudes, thus calling into question the influence parents actually have on their adult children's sexual values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Soziale Welt is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In three permanent inventory plots comprising 12.4 ha of undisturbed forest at La Selva, Costa Rica, all stems ≥10 cm dbh were mapped and identified to species. There were 1628, 1478 and 1954 trees in the plots, representing 168, 166 and 171 species respectively. We determined the species of each nearest-neighbor pair of trees, and asked whether the occurrence of species pairs conforms to a simple random mixing model. If trees are randomly mixed in terms of species, the expected frequency of any nearest neighbor species combination is a function of the relative abundance of the two species. Departures from random mixing could arise from species interactions, differential responses to habitat, or both. The number of possible ij species combinations increases approximately as the square of the number of species. For the 168 species in plot 1, for example, there are 14 196 possible combinations. We compared the expected frequency of each species combination in the three plots (42 736 combinations in all) with observed frequencies. Over 98% of the combinations had observed frequencies of zero and expected frequencies close to zero. A consequence of high diversity is low density of most individual species, and exceedingly low frequencies of the vast majority of species combinations. For each of the 805 combinations with observed frequencies >0, we used simulation to generate a distribution of expected frequencies. We used a t-test to compare the observed frequency with the mean of the simulated distribution for each combination. Only 40 combinations (0.09% of the possible species combinations in the plots) departed from expected frequencies; 39 combinations were more common, and one less common than expected. The overwhelming majority of nearest neighbor species combinations occur at frequencies predictable from their individual abundances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a tribute to professor, Emilio Santos who celebrates his 70th birthday. He was born on October 7, 1935 in a small country village of Extremadura, Spain called San Vicente de Alcantara. He served as an extraordinary professor at the University of Costa Rica but he returned to his native Spain in 1967 to take up a post, first as temporary professor and then as associate professor in atomic and nuclear physics at Valladolid University.

The purpose of this article is to present in a summarized form a new approach to the ethical analysis of economic policies and to illustrate its importance with a reference to recent experiences of social dialogue in Costa Rica. A general view of the Latin American scenario is presented, with the belief that some of the main problems there observed call for a type of analysis like the one here proposed. In the second place, a brief characterization of this new ethical analysis is included. Democracy suffers from the existence of asymmetries in social and economic relationships, insofar as the success of political democracy cannot be neither understood nor built up independently from economic democracy. The strengthening of democratic processes in Latin America requires a better understanding and consolidation of the relationship between political democracy and economic democracy. On the other hand, present orientation of globalization makes of the international environment an obstacle to realize democracy at a national level. Hence, two focus of interest arise for the ethical analysis of economics at the macroeconomic level: the study of the ethical conditions of participation for each country in the globalization process, and the realization of an economic democracy within each particular country. After identifying both lines of reflection, this article summarizes the theoretical basis of a proposal for the ethical analysis of economic policy making. This approach attempts to answer the challenges of economic democratization. Centered on the ethical dimension of these processes, and from the point of view of a dialogical ethics, stress is given to those aspects of the process which will guarantee the ethical character of the consequences. This is a methodological approach which tries to discover the ethical values feasible within the economic policies and, at the same time, to go in greater depth in the construction of democratic practices. Rooted in the Latin American regional reality, this academic reflection is just in its beginning and must be considered as complementary to the business ethics analysis already developed in Latin America and Spain. A reference to recent experiences of social dialogue in Costa Rica gives the theoretical presentation a support for the acceptance of its realization in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncaria tomentosa, which is widely commercialized as an herbal medicine, constitutes an important source of secondary metabolites with diverse biological activities. For instance, we have previously reported, for the first time, of a polyphenolic profile rich in proanthocyanidins from extracts of U. tomentosa plants, as well as their antioxidant capacity, antimicrobial activity on aerial bacteria, and cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines. These promising results prompted this research to evaluate the polyphenolic contents of U. tomentosa commercial products. We report a detailed study on the polyphenolic composition of extracts from U. tomentosa bark products (n = 18) commercialized in Costa Rica and Spain. Using HPLC-DAD/TQ-ESI-MS, a total of 25 polyphenolic compounds were identified, including hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids, flavan-3-ol monomers, procyanidin dimers, procyanidin trimers, as well as propelargonidin dimers. Our findings on the polyphenolic profile for all commercial samples show analogous composition to previous reports on U. tomentosa bark material, for instance a 41–49% content of procyanidin dimers and the presence of propelargonidin dimers (8–15%). However, most of the 18 commercial samples exhibit low proanthocyanidin contents (254.8–602.8 µg/g), more similar to previous U. tomentosa inner bark reports, while some exhibit better results, with one sample (SP-2) showing the highest contents (2386.5 µg/g) representing twice the average value of all 18 commercial products. This sample also exhibits the highest total phenolics (TP) and total proanthocyanidins (PRO) contents, as well as the highest Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) value (1.31 µg TE/g). One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with a Tukey post hoc test indicated significant difference (p < 0.05) between products from Costa Rica and Spain for TP and PRO findings, with samples from Spain exhibiting a higher average value. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis results showed a positive correlation (p < 0.05) between TP, PRO, and ORAC results, and an especially important correlation between ORAC antioxidant values and procyanidin dimers (r = 0.843, p < 0.05), procyanidin trimers (r = 0.847, p < 0.05), and propelargonidin dimers (r = 0.851, p < 0.05) contents. Finally, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) results indicated some variability in the composition regardless of their origin. However, only one sample (SP-2) stands out significatively, showing the highest PC1 because of its particularly high proanthocyanidins contents, which could be attributed to the 15% bark polyphenolic extract labeled in this commercial product, which differentiate this sample from all other 17 commercial samples. Therefore, our findings confirmed previous results on the value of extracts in the elaboration of potential commercial products from U. tomentosa, rich in proanthocyanidins and exhibiting high antioxidant activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish voiced obstruents /b d g/ are traditionally described as having each two allophones: stop and fricative (approximant) in complementary distribution. Several researchers have noted that some Central American and Highland Colombian varieties deviate from the general allophonic distribution in showing a preference for stop realizations in all contexts, except for the intervocalic position. In this paper we report on a large-scale acoustic investigation of /b d g/ in postconsonantal (after a liquid, sibilant or glide) and postvocalic (after /a/) contexts in Costa Rica Spanish, establishing a comparison with the variety of Madrid, Spain, which we take as representative of a variety with the general pattern of allophony. Our study, based on a continuous measurement of intensity, confirms previous descriptions in that Costa Rica Spanish does indeed show a different pattern of allophony from that found in the Madrid variety. The analysis shows that in Costa Rica Spanish postconsonantal realizations of /b/ and /d/ are very different from postvocalic ones, with a clear separation in the degree of constriction between these two contexts. In Madrid, on the other hand, we find a continuum of constriction degrees, depending on the nature of the specific preceding segment, and without a clear separation between postvocalic and postconsonantal realizations. The question that naturally arises is that of the historical connection between these two patterns of allophony, for which we offer some speculation, based in historical parallels and comparison with other varieties., (Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

The importance of genetics in understanding the etiology of mental illness has become increasingly clear in recent years, as more evidence has mounted that almost all neuropsychiatric disorders have a genetic component. It has also become clear, however, that these disorders are etiologically complex, and multiple genetic and environmental factors contribute to their makeup. So far, traditional linkage mapping studies have not definitively identified specific disease genes for neuropsychiatric disorders, although some potential candidates have been identified via these methods (e.g. the dysbindin gene in schizophrenia; Straub et al., 2002; Schwab et al., 2003). For this reason, alternative approaches are being attempted, including studies in genetically isolated populations. Because isolated populations have a high degree of genetic homogeneity, their use may simplify the process of identifying disease genes in disorders where multiple genes may play a role. Several areas of Latin America contain genetically isolated populations that are well suited for the study of neuropsychiatric disorders. Genetic studies of several major psychiatric illnesses, including bipolar disorder, major depression, schizophrenia, Tourette Syndrome, alcohol dependence, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, are currently underway in these regions. In this paper we highlight the studies currently being conducted by our groups in the Central Valley of Costa Rica to illustrate the potential advantages of this population for genetic studies.