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Objectives: In this study, we investigated the association between subjective school adaptation and life skills in elementary school children with chronic diseases., Methods: A cross-sectional sample of children with chronic diseases (n=76), who were being treated as pediatric outpatients and who were in the 4th to 6th grade of public elementary schools, was selected. The subjects completed a self-administered questionnaire that comprised an Adaptation Scale for School Environments on Six Spheres (ASSESS) and life skills scales for self-management and stress coping strategies. Structural equation modeling was conducted to identify the inter-relationship between subjective school adaptation and life skills., Results: Compared with the gender- and schoolyear-matched healthy controls (n=380), a large number of children with chronic diseases had low scores on the measure of interpersonal relationship in school. From the structural equation modeling, the subscales "friend's support" and "victimized relationship" in interpersonal relationship were two of the factors closely related to subjective adaptation of learning as well as school satisfaction in the children with chronic diseases. Furthermore, the "decision-making" and "goal-setting" components of self-management skills demonstrated positive contributions to the adaptation of learning and interpersonal relationship either directly affected by the skills themselves or through the affirmative effects of stress coping strategies., Conclusions: These results suggest that life skills education, focusing on self-management and stress coping strategies along with support to improve interpersonal relationships, is effective in promoting subjective school adaptation and leads to increased school satisfaction in children with chronic diseases.

The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS) provides a new method of researching identity development based on the dual-process model pertaining to lifespan development. This study developed and evaluated the Japanese version of this scale (DIDS-J). Two surveys of undergraduate and high school students showed that the DIDS-J had good reliability and validity and that it consisted of 25 items with five factors: commitment making, identity with commitment, exploration in breadth, exploration in depth, and ruminative exploration. Through cluster analysis of the DIDS-J, five identity statuses were found that were not clearly distinguished by previous scales: foreclosure, achievement, searching moratorium, diffused diffusion, and carefree diffusion. Research using the DIDS-J has two advantages: it enables us to examine the process of identity development among adolescents with a wider age range, and to compare results cross-culturally in future research. The trial investigations compared student scores with those from previous research in Western cultures, demonstrating that DIDS-J may lead to further explanations of identity development.

This study reports the development of The Scale of Social Interest for Elementary School Children and examines its reliability and validity. Elementary school students of fourth, fifth, and sixth grades responded to provisional items of the scale, as well as scales assessing mental health, adaptation to school, and sympathy. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using the provisional items. The following three factors, which had also been identified by Kosaka (2011), were extracted: feelings of contribution, feelings of belonging to society and trust in society, and self-acceptance. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated sufficient fitness. The reliability of the scale was confirmed based on internal consistency and stability. The predicted relationships among the scale and mental health, school adaptation, and sympathy were demonstrated. Based on these results, the reliability and validity of the Scale of Social Interest for Elementary School Children were confirmed.

Moderating effects of group type on the relationship between in-group social values and group identity were investigated. Previous research has indicated that values attached to the in-group, such as its status, privileges, and power, lead to increased group identity. However, these studies have not investigated the role of the type of in-groups on this effect. We conducted an experiment that manipulated the in-group type. In the common-identity type of in-group condition, formation of in- and out-groups on the basis of social categorization was established. In the common-bond type of in-group condition, interactions between the group members were conducted. Results indicated that in the former condition, the degree of in-group social values affected group identity; however, this effect was not found in the latter condition. These results suggest that social values of the in-group have an asymmetric effect on group identity, depending upon the in-group type as a common-identity or common-bond group.

Intuitively, insight emerges unexpectedly. However, some previous views proposed that insight emerges with a high probability after people recognize their failure in solving a problem. In order to empirically investigate this failure-insight relationship, this study manipulated when participants recognized failure by using social comparison. It presumed that participants who had not yet solved the problem but knew others had already solved it would recognize that their currently adopted strategy was a failure; the timing of this was manipulated in the experiment. As expected, participants who were given a cover story regarding others' fast performance for the T-puzzle completed the same puzzle more successfully, as compared to those who were given a story of others' slow performance. The results suggest that the occurrence of insight was influenced by when participants recognized their failure. Providing social reality information (i.e., others' good/poor performance) might be a method to facilitate or inhibit insightful problem solving.

A one-shot sequential prisoner's dilemma game with an in-group and an out-group member was conducted to test the group heuristic hypothesis for the in-group bias in minimal groups. Eighty-nine participants played the role of a second player and faced a fully cooperative first player. The results showed that in-group bias occurred only in the common knowledge condition in which the first player and the second player mutually knew each other's group membership, but not in the private knowledge condition in which the first player did not know the second player's group membership. These results provide support for the group heuristic hypothesis that in-group bias is an adaptive strategy in an assumed generalized exchange system to avoid a bad reputation as a defector.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop "a professional identity scale for public health nurses (PISP)" and to discover factors related to professional identity for use in studies to improve public health nurse (PHN) activities., Method: Questionnaires including a tentative PISP together with "ego identity' "self-esteem', and "nurse identity' scales were sent to PHNs working in the Kanto region. Out of 986 questionnaires sent, 739 were be collected, and the data were statistically analysed for reliability,validity, and identify-related factors., Results: 1) A tentative PISP consisting of 7 factors and 52 items was developed. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis (Promax rotation) of the scale showed that 37 of the PISP items had a 5-factor structure. Theses factors were interpreted as "confidence in working as a public health nurse," "identification of the profession with life," "feedback from others and self-esteem," "adaptation to and certainty about career," and "integration of life and career." 2) A significant, positive correlation was found between the total score of PISP and the "ego identity' and "self-esteem' scales. 3) A significant, positive correlation was found between the total score of PISP and the "nurse identity' scale. 4) The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total PISP was 0.96. 5) Significant, positive correlations were also found between the total score of PISP and age and years of experience. 6) Significantly higher scores of PISP were found for those having a partner or housemate, living with a partner or children, and holding a higher position 7) Multiple regression analysis showed that the factors significantly related to the total PISP score were having faith in his or her duties, having high motivation, being of a higher age, and having a satisfying role as a PHN., Conclusion: The PISP developed in this research demonstrates considerably high reliability and validity. It also showed the necessity to improve the working environment and enhance the positive behavior and motivation of PHNs, for facilitating their development of a professional identity.

This study classified environmentally-conscious behaviors of residents (n = 335) along Lake Biwa as a common goods into personal and group behavioral intentions, and examined the determinants of these intentions. Identification with the community was a social identity, and differed from attachment to Lake Biwa, which was defined as topophilia. The results indicated that group behavior was affected by topophilia, while personal behavior was influenced by general attitudes about the environmental problems of the lake and evaluations of the cost for the behavior. Community identity had a significant effect on both personal and group behavior. Rational or emotional decision making processes resulted in two different types of environmentally-conscious behaviors.

An ultimatum game and two impunity games, in which rejection by the Responder had no impact on the Proposer's earnings, were conducted with 228 participants. The impunity game was run in two conditions: with feedback information, where the Responder's choice was disclosed to the Proposer, and without feedback information, where the Responder's choice was not disclosed to the Proposer. These two conditions were used to determine whether the motivation for rejection in the impunity game was social punishment or identity protection. The three game conditions and the Responder or Proposer roles were manipulated between participants. The rejection rates in the two impunity games were about half the rate in the ultimatum game: there was no difference in the rejection rates between the two feedback conditions of the impunity game. These results indicate that rejection in the ultimatum game is largely based on identity protection. The adaptive role of maintaining self-image as a commitment device was discussed.

Self-esteem of sexual orientation minority members is not necessarily low, contrary to what might be theoretically expected. An explanation has been offered that self-protective strategies were in use. Instead, it is argued in this paper that sense of social inclusion plays an important role, and two questionnaire studies examined the possibility. In Study I, 214 members of sexual orientation minority completed a set of questionnaires. Results showed that sense of acceptance by others had a positive relationship with self-esteem, but use of self-protective strategies did not. In Study 2,218 who were not minority members completed the same set of questionnaires. It was shown in the comparison that the relationship between self-esteem and sense of social inclusion was stronger for minority members than non-members. Sense of social inclusion thus appeared to help members of sexual orientation minority keep self-esteem high.

The distinction between ingroup and outgroup has played an important role in group process research. However, much less attention has been paid to variations among ingroups. In this study, we attempted to demonstrate that different ingroups could have different psychological impacts on self and group serving or effacing behavior. In our social survey. Japanese respondents evaluated the importance and psychological meaning of two typical ingroups: their family and another social group in which they spent most of their time. They were also asked about their behavior in the presence of ingroup members from each group. Results indicated that people showed a self-effacing tendency in the social group, whereas they showed a self-serving tendency in their family. At the same time, they showed a group-serving tendency when they talked about the social group, but they showed the opposite, i.e., a group-effacing tendency, when they talked about their family. These differences are explained in terms of relationships with ingroup members.

Two alternative explanations for ingroup favoritism in the minimal group situation have been proposed: social identity and expectations of bounded generalized reciprocity. In this study, predictions derived from the two were examined for ingroup favoritism in a realistic group salutation with ongoing interactions. Results of the experiment, a replication of Karp, Jin, Yamagishi, and Shinotsuka (1993) which used groups with ongoing interactions rather than minimal groups, were inconsistent with either of the two explanations. (1) Ingroup favoritism emerged even in the condition under which the nature of fate control was unilateral. The finding was in sharp contrast to results of previous minimal groups experiments; the studies found ingroup favoritism only when fate control was mutual. (2) Analysis of post-experimental questionnaire responses indicated that participants engaged in ingroup favoritism, not to maximize differences between ingroup and outgroup but to improve ingroup members' gain. (3) Analysis of participants' open-ended self-reports revealed that they engaged in ingroup favoring reward allocation because of their personal bonds and likings for ingroup members as individuals rather than of their identification with the group per se.

The current population of Japanese-Brazilians living in Japan consists mainly of second- and third-generation Japanese immigrants to Brazil. In the last 10 years, they have migrated to Japan, their ancestral country, mostly as industrial workers. The objective of this study was to examine possible relationships between mental disorders and both pre-migration psychosocial factors and acculturative status, among Japanese-Brazilians in Japan. We developed our own Portuguese acculturation-questionnaire to assess the their adaptation to Japanese society and their ethnic-cultural identity. Using the acculturation-questionnaire, the Portuguese version of the self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20) and an identification form with socio-demographic and clinical data, a community sample of 131 Japanese-Brazilian immigrants in Utsunomiya and outpatient sample of 32 Japanese-Brazilians in the psychiatric department of a medical school in the same region were compared. Analysis was done by chi 2 Fisher and multiple logistic regression. The socio-demographic data indicated that the outpatients were most likely to have past medical history (OR = 12.3), traumatic experience (OR = 10.1) in Brazil before immigration, short duration of residence in Japan (OR = 3.76), no occupation in Brazil (OR = 4.78) and to be living alone in Japan (OR = 5.71). The findings from the acculturation-questionnaire showed that outpatients were most likely to have sociability in Japan with either Brazilians or Japanese only (OR = 3.94) and to hope to hand down either Brazilian or Japanese culture only to their posterity (OR = 5.31). The findings from the acculturation-questionnaire showed that the community sample showed a higher acceptance of both the Brazilian and Japanese culture than the patient sample. We suggested that mentally healthy individuals have a stronger integration orientation as an adaptation modes i.e. to keep the original ethnic-cultural identity on one hand, and to accept the cultural values, attitudes, norms and customs of the host society on the other, than individuals predisposed to- or with mental disorders among Japanese Brazilians in Japan.

Black sheep effect (Marques, Yzerbyt, & Leyens, 1988) and ingroup favoritism (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) appear to contradict each other with respect to the evaluation of inferior ingroup members. In addition to examining the relationship between the two phenomena, this study also examined the effect of ingroup identification on them. Sixty-one female student-nurses participated in the study. To measure black sheep effect, superior and inferior ingroup and outgroup members were rated on 20 adjectives. Distribution matrices (Tajfel et al., 1971) were used to measure ingroup favoritism. The participants were median split according to their level of group identification. Black sheep effect was found only among high-identification participants, who also showed ingroup favoritism. Ingroup identification had a positive correlation with both ingroup favoritism and black sheep effect. Overall, ingroup favoritism had a positive correlation with the evaluation of superior members, while it had a negative correlation with that of inferior ingroup members.

Purpose: It has been reported that the young people of today tend to engage in sexual behavior at an early age and the abortion rate is high. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of post-adolescents with regard to sexual behaviors and the relationship to self-identity and self-esteem., Methods: The subjects were 234 males (mean +/- SD 20.2 +/- 1.1 years) and 460 females (mean +/- SD 19.5 +/- 1.1 years) 4-year university students aged 18 to 23 years in Aichi Prefecture. An anonymous, self-report questionnaire was used to survey the subjects with regard to self-identity ("Establishment of Self" scale), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), and sexual attitude and behavior. The scores on both scales and subscales of the "Establishment of Self" scale, "Foundation of Identity (Foundation)" and "Establishment of Identity (Establishment)", were calculated and intercompared, along with sexual attitude and behavior, controlled for age and school type., Results: The mean total score of the "Establishment of Self" scale for males was 55.3 (SD9.2) and for females 52.2 (SD9.3), while those for the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were 27.2 (SD5.5) and 25.7 (SD5.2), respectively. There was significant positive correlation all scales in both sexes. Both male and female students had positive attitude towards sex and a negative view of "traditional gender roles" particularly females. Of the subjects, 82.4% of males and 69.5% of females were thinking of accepting a request for sexual intercourse from their partners. Many students understood the "need for contraception", that is a component of contraceptive behavior. Most of them, however, didn't acquire the other components. A total of 68.3% of males and 48.2% of females had experienced sexual intercourse during the last year. Of these, 50.6% of males and 58.2% of females consistently used contraception. The score on the "Establishment of Self" scale was higher among both the male and female students who responded positively to having "communication ability," "learning ability," and "acquisition ability." Significant differences were found in total and "Establishment" scales among males, and all scales among females. The score on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was significantly higher with "learning ability" among males, and with "communication ability" and "learning ability" among females. However, no significant relationship was found between actual contraceptive behavior and any of the scales., Conclusion: In dealing with contraception, a gap exists between university students' attitudes and actual behavior. The scores on the "Establishment of Self" scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were found to be significantly higher for those who exhibited higher values for components of contraceptive behavior.

This study examined the determinants of attitudes toward intergroup support. The data was collected from the participants of a simulated society game (SIMINSOC; Hirose, 1997). The global society in the game includes rich and poor regions, and the poor regions need to obtain support from rich regions for survival. One hundred and thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to either rich or poor regions and were engaged in various activities in the game. The level of ingroup identity was manipulated by facilitating group activities in some groups but no in others. Then they answered questions regarding the identification, attributions of responsibility, and attitude toward support provision. The results indicated that the identification toward the ingroup increased attribution bias. Furthermore, the identification toward the global society increased the intent to provide support among those from the rich regions. The discussion considered the importance of including intergroup variables in the attributional approach to support provision.

We hypothesized that one of the reasons that not a few Japanese are interested in lay personality theories of ABO blood-typing and similar unsupported beliefs on human nature, was unsatisfied needs of having clear collective and personal identities. To test the hypothesis, we asked 149 married women, 34 to 62 years of age, to describe themselves as in self introduction to strangers, and then separately indicate the degree of interest in lay personality theories. We then counted the number of references to personal/private aspects (an index of personal identity) and the number to social groups whose membership was known to be exclusive and limited (an index of collective one). Results showed that those who were high on both indices were less interested in lay theories than those low on one or both of personal and collective indices.

Two experiments were conducted to examine intergroup discrimination and illusory correlation in majority and minority members and outsiders of a group. In Experiment 1, allegedly based on social attitudes, 64 participants were divided into the three groups, and then completed a point distribution task in a minimal group paradigm. It was found that although both minority and majority members showed ingroup favoritism, outsiders favored neither majority nor minority. In Experiment 2, a continuation of Experiment 1, 45 statements were shown that described majority and minority members in favorable and unfavorable terms. The majority members perceive illusory correlations between the minority group and infrequent, unfavorable characteristics, whereas the minority members did not. The results suggest that for the majority, both distinctiveness-based cognitive bias and ingroup bias had the same effects on perception of illusory correlation, whereas for the minority, the two had opposite effects. The outsiders did not perceive any illusory correlation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate people's expectation of others' ingroup favoritism, and the effect of expecting others to take part in reward allocation decision on ingroup favoritism in reward allocation. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, and were asked to rate attractiveness of ingroup members, and to allocate reward to ingroup and outgroup under two conditions. In the unilateral condition, the subject alone was to make the decision, and in the multilateral condition, every subject was to. The results indicated that equally in all conditions, subjects rated ingroup members more attractive, and expected others to allocate more reward to own groups. Reward allocation that favored ingroup occurred only under the multilateral condition, where everyone participated in reward allocation, regardless of whether the subject's own reward was dependent on others' decisions or was a fixed amount. The findings suggest that ingroup favoritism was not a result of quasi-strategy of self-interest in an attempt to maximize own gains, but of psychological group formation.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the independent and interdependent construal of the self in relation to the cultural difference and personality traits. A scale developed by Kiuchi (1995) to measure the person on the dimension of independent versus interdependent, the SII was administered to three groups of students. They were: (1) 81 college students who once lived in Europe or America, (2) 99 students of a college of music, and (3) 296 undergraduates of other majors and backgrounds. Mean SII scores clearly showed that the first group gave the highest priority to independent construal of the self, the second music college group follows them, and the last group of regular undergraduates gave the highest priority to interdependent construal of the self. In addition, SII scores were shown to have significant correlations with social anxiety, self-monitoring, sex identity, and self-esteem. Implication of these results are discussed.

Interviews with 57 college students were conducted. In order to investigate how they experienced "confidence" or "pride" in everyday life. The framework of the study was "locus of reality", which was the degree that reality was felt inside self as opposed to in others. Results showed that the subjects tended to become conscious of themselves when they were to share information about situations with others. Also, locus of reality had a relative tendency to oscillate between self and others. Moreover, differences were found for mental experiences ascribed for themselves and others, even when the same words were used for both. The experiences of "confidence" and "no-confidence" were characteristically asymmetrical in the feeling of reality. "Pride" was different from "confidence", in that the former was associated more with experiences that had defensive connotations. These results suggested that people might have a tendency not to differentiate interpretation processes of their own from others.

Two experiments examined the effect of illusion of control on in-group favoritism found in the minimal group situation (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971). In bilateral dependency condition, each member made allocation decisions for in-group as well as out-group participants. It was exactly the same situation used in the original studies under the minimal group paradigm, and the subjects knew that their reward allocation too depended on others' decisions. In contrast, in unilateral dependency condition, the subjects made allocation decisions knowing that theirs were not dependent on others' decisions. In Experiment 1, an in-group bias in reward distribution was found in the bilateral dependency condition, but not in the unilateral condition. In Experiment 2, it was found that only those who felt illusion of control exhibited such an in-group bias. Results of the experiments therefore confirmed that illusion of control explained in-group favoritism, as Karp, Jin, Yamagishi, and Shinotsuka (1993) originally hypothesized.

The present study was conducted to investigate the intergroup behaviour from the perspective of social identity theory. It was predicted that (a) when group membership was based on trivial categorization (e.g., by drawing lots), minority group members would be more conscious of their social identity, and favour their own group more in reward distribution than majority group members; (b) when based on value-loaded categorization (e.g., by social attitudes), both minority group and majority group members would favour their own group; (c) both minority group and majority group members would perceive converted members, who move away from their initial attitudes, as a threat to their social identity, and discriminate them. Results from three experiments under the minimal group paradigm, with undergraduate students, supported these predictions. Findings were discussed in terms of salience of social identity in categorization of minority versus majority, and the impact of anonymity in the minimal group paradigm. They were also discussed to compare the theory with belief congruence theory, which argues that attraction due to similarity of belief is the cause of ingroup favoritism.

In this review, the author theoretically and empirically examined motives and interpersonal functions of aggression. A factor-analysis of Averill's questionnaire items on anger revealed that motives involved in aggressive responses were clustered into two groups: the hostile and the instrumental. It was also clarified that an individual is likely to engage in aggression particularly when some hostile motives are evoked. Concerning the interpersonal functions, the author proposed that aggression might serve four principal goals. (1) Aggression can be generated as an avoidance response to an aversive stimulus, such as frustration, annoyance, or pain, and so on. It depends on the severity of the stimulus. It was however emphasized that aggression is also mediated by social cognition, such as an attribution of intent to a harm-doer. (2) Aggression can be used as a means of coercing the other person into doing something. An individual is likely to use such a power strategy if he/she is lacking in self-confidence or a perspective for influencing the target person by more peaceful strategies. (3) Aggression can be interpreted as a punishment when it is directed toward a transgressor. In this case, aggression is motivated by restoration of a social justice, and thus its intensity is determined by the perceived moral responsibility of the transgressor. Further, it was indicated that aggression is intensified if it is justified as a sanctional conduct against the immoral. (4) Aggression can be also evoked when an individual's social identity is threatened. It was suggested that impression management motives are involved in aggression by an unexpected finding that the presence of audience or the identifiability rather facilitated retaliative aggression. The aggression-inhibition effect of apology was also explained in terms of impression management. In conclusion, it was presented that aggression is a behavioral strategy as an attempt to resolve interpersonal conflicts including physical or psychological annoyance, the other person's disobedience, perceived injustice, and a threat to one's social identity. Whether one's aggression is performed or not depends on a number of intra- and inter-personal determinants, particularly on social cognitive processes such as attribution, inference, prediction and other judgements.