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The extrastriate body area (EBA) in the lateral occipito-temporal cortex has an important role in reciprocal interaction, as it detects congruence between self and other’s hand actions. However, it is unclear whether the EBA can detect congruence regardless of the type of action. In the present study, we examined the neural substrate underlying congruence detection of three types of actions: hand gestures, vocalizations, and facial expressions. A univariate analysis revealed a congruency effect, especially for imitating action, for all three types of actions in the EBA. A multi-voxel pattern analysis classifier in the EBA was able to distinguish between initiating interaction from responding to interaction in all experiments. Correspondingly, the congruency effect in the EBA revealed by univariate analysis was stronger for responding to than for initiating interaction. These findings suggest that the EBA might contribute to detect congruence regardless of the body part used (i.e. face or hand) and the type of action (i.e. gestural or vocal). Moreover, initiating and responding to interaction might be processed differently within the EBA. This study highlights the role of the EBA in comparing between self and other’s actions beyond hand actions.

本研究の目的は、自認するキャラを対象に、キャラを介したコミュニケーションとセルフ・モニタリングとの関連を検討することであった。中学生と大学生を対象に質問紙調査を行った結果、以下2点が示された。第1に、学校段階に関わらず、セルフ・モニタリングはキャラあり群の方がキャラなし群よりも高かった。第2に、キャラ行動および受け止め方とセルフ・モニタリングとの関連について、自己呈示変容能力はキャラ行動を促進し、キャラの積極的受容につながることが示された。また、自己呈示変容能力は、キャラへの拒否に負の関連を示した。一方、他者の表出行動への感受性は、キャラ行動および受け止め方とは関連がなかった。なお、この過程は学校段階に関わらず、成り立つことが示された。以上の結果から、キャラの利用は、対人場面での自己呈示に対する不安よりも、状況に応じて自身の言動を適切に調整できるという自信に基づいている可能性が示唆された。

Description: Social communication deficits form one of the core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and comprise difficulties in Theory of Mind (ToM, the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states, such as beliefs, desires, or intentions, to them). One task that has extensively been used to measure inter-individual differences in mental state attribution is the so-called animations task, where participants are asked to interpret social situations depicted through the movements of two triangles (e.g., Abell et al., 2000). While traditionally, autistic individuals have been found to provide fewer and/or less appropriate mental state descriptions than controls in this task, more recent research has acknowledged the bi-directionality of these mental state attribution difficulties. In other words, non-autistic people have exhibited difficulties in interpreting depictions of social situations created by autistic people. This recent finding has the potential to fundamentally change the way we look at social interaction difficulties between autistic and non-autistic people: as a two-way process rather than a communication deficit present only in autistic individuals. In the recent years, the idea that social communication difficulties between autistic and non-autistic partners may be bi-directional has gained increasing attention, culminating in theories which frame social isolation among autistic individuals as a consequence of consistent misperceptions by the neurotypical majority (Milton , 2012; Mitchell et al., 2021). Importantly, however, what is deemed as atypical social behaviour is largely culturally dependent (e.g., Triandis , 1988; Murphy , 1976), yet the current understanding of ASD symptomatology and diagnostic standards across the globe is based on research which is highly biased towards western (i.e., WEIRD, Henrich et al., 2010) samples. Western research (i.e., research biased towards an individualist perspective) suggests that kinematic and spatial features of body movement provide informative cues which individuals use to express their own and understand others’ internal states, and that differences in bodily movement may be one of the key contributing factors to suboptimal social interaction between autistic and non-autistic people (Edey et al., 2016; Schuster et al., 2021). At present, little is known to what extent these findings transfer to other (e.g., collectivist) cultures. Indeed, different cultural norms and conventions around bodily expressions are likely to affect what cues individuals use to understand others (Bettinsoli et al., 2021). For instance, while it has been shown that British participants use movement kinematics as one of the primary cues to infer mental states from animations (Schuster et al., 2021), a lower tendency among Japanese individuals to express their internal states in body movements (Aune & Aune, 1996) may indicate that Japanese people rely on cues other than movement kinematics to decode an animation’s identity. By investigating and comparing the communication and understanding of mental states in British and Japanese autistic and non-autistic adults, this study aims to address two primary questions: (a) Do Japanese non-autistic individuals show difficulties when interpreting animations created by Japanese autistic individuals, as has been shown for UK-based participants? (b) Can movement differences between autistic and non-autistic people explain difficulties in interpreting animations in the two cultures to a similar extent? To answer these questions, British and Japanese autistic and non-autistic participants will first be asked to depict various mental states by moving two triangles across a touch-screen device while their finger and hand movements are recorded. Subsequently, all participants will view and interpret animations from all four generator groups. Findings will carry important implications for developing more culturally tailored diagnostic and treatment approaches.

The experience of transferring from one culture to another during childhood can represent a crisis of identity for some individuals. "Third Culture Kids" are children who grew up outside their parents' culture during their developmental years, leading them to develop a third cultural perspective. Previous studies have reported that the experience of transferring to different culture is often accompanied by identity-related difficulties. Ethnic identity is an aspect of collective identity that plays a particularly important role among members of cultural minority groups. Stable ethnic identity can help members of cultural minorities form identities and maintain stable mental health. Family relationships also play an important role in identity. The main aim of the current study is to discuss the developmental process of ethnic identity among people in Japan who experienced a cross-cultural transition during school age. The results revealed two important characteristics for adaptation and the development of identity: a stable environment, including family relationships, and having a concept of ethnic identity from early childhood. The current findings suggested that cross-cultural experience may affect the order of developmental stages. Since cross-cultural experience involves a difference between the self and others, children in ethnic minorities may differentiate themselves from other children before adolescence while living in a host culture, and may identify with other third culture kids after returning to their home culture.

Research in psychology has traditionally focused on individuals experiencing crisis and adversity in an attempt to understand the various mental illnesses resulting from such events. However, in recent years, the importance of individual adaptability has been increasingly emphasized. Resilience, which focuses on the “individual characteristics necessary for recovery” and the “recovery process” has been the subject of much recent research attention. However, because the history of resilience research is relatively short and its definition is not yet unified among researchers, resilience is currently not organized as a comprehensive research field. The current study sought to clarify trends in resilience research in Japan and to clarify future issues and prospects, after examining the various definitions of resilience. Resilience research often regards resilience as a trait necessary for recovery and a process resulting from the interaction of protective factors that are internal and external to the individual. In addition, resilience studies are characterized by considering an individual’s adaptive state and degree of psychiatric dysfunction as indicators of recovery. Resilience research in Japan has often focused on individual characteristics. It is important to examine dynamic interactions between individual and environmental factors, considering social background and the contextual nature of the recovery process. In addition, it may be necessary to capture recovery not only in terms of the degree of symptoms, but also to examine the aspects of recovery of individuals in detail from the perspective of “meaning making”.

Among their various experiences of loss, a broken heart is thought to be familiar to young people and relatively easy to experience. This experience greatly influences adolescents’ values and their life. In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of differences in attachment style on meaning making in adolescents’ broken-heart experiences. Questionnaires were distributed to 354 university students. In total, 312 people were analyzed after excluding incomplete responses. The results show no significant difference in meaning making or feelings of self-growth in the group with broken-heart experience. The subjects of this study were relatively healthy adolescents; therefore, their attachment styles were conceivably concentrated on the average value. The group with broken-heart experience was compared with the group without broken-heart experience and a significant difference was observed in “focus on positive aspects.” The score of the group with broken-heart experience was significantly higher than the score of the group without broken-heart experience. It is suggested that adolescents should overcome the stressful experience of a broken heart during their interpersonal relationships by positive meaning making, regardless of the attachment style.

The increasingly busy workloads of teachers have been identified as posing particular difficulties in the compatibility between teaching and child rearing. Teaching while child-rearing is considered to be particularly difficult for female teachers. Although it is not solely a mother’s responsibility to balance the roles of teacher and parent, children may be affected by a parent’s heavy teaching workload. The current study examined the influence of the mother’s teaching job on their children. We conducted a qualitative analysis of children’s occupation-related experience, particularly among female children, who are considered to be most strongly affected by their mothers. The results revealed that female children whose mothers were teachers reported various occupation-related influences on their recognition as individuals (e.g., my mother cannot fulfill her mother role because of her teaching job), recognition in the mother-child relationship (e.g., teacher-like mothers), and social recognition (e.g., experiences of being treated differently because they were the child of a teacher).

Homosexuals are exposed to a great deal of discrimination and prejudice: Identifying as homosexual remains difficult in today’s society. The purpose of this paper is to review current research on the development of homosexual identity, focusing on internalized homophobia and coming out. The development of homosexual identity is an important factor to prevent mental health problems, and overcoming internalized homophobia is indispensable in this process. Although emotional connections with others are important in the development of an individual’s identity, internalized homophobia decreases the quality of personal relationships. Coming out has historically been considered an indicator of the development of one’s sexual identity, but this is now being questioned. The act of coming out may be less important than the personal significance of coming out. Many models of sexual identity development are being proposed in international research, but there have been few studies on homosexuality in Japan. Furthermore, although gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals are often treated as a single sexual minority, we should pay attention to each of these distinct groups. Coming out and internalized homophobia are related to the development of individuals’ homosexual identity, but these individuals are also susceptible to cultural and environmental factors and trends. While assessing these differences, it is important to clarify the process and psychological background of coming out, and how homosexuals overcome internalized homophobia.

Perfectionism is a personality characteristic involved in various negative outcomes, including mental disorder. Perfectionism, which demands perfection of oneself, is called ‘‘self-oriented perfectionism.’’ In the present study, we focused on the social expectations model in which parental expectations make children perfectionists to investigate the differences in perceived parental expectations and the method of receiving parental expectations on several types of self-oriented perfectionists using a questionnaire survey (Study 1) and interviews (Study 2). The results of Study 1 showed that two types of self-oriented perfectionists differed in their method of receiving parental expectations. The results of Study 2 showed qualitative differences in perceived parental expectations and the method of receiving them between two types of self-oriented perfectionists. The findings suggest the possibility that the social expectations model has limitations in its application to self-oriented perfectionists who show a tendency to be concerned with their mistakes.

5, 実践研究報告