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The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference between individualists and collectivists in their reasons for resistance to high-pressure communication. Reactance is assumed to be related to individualism. So, individualists would perceive high-pressure persuasion as a threat to freedom, and would resist it for this reason. In contrast, collectivists would perceive that coercive persuasion would disturb the harmony of group. It was hypothesized that horizontal individualism is positively associated with resistance due to freedom-infringement and that horizontal collectivism is positively associated with resistance due to harmony-disturbance, in response to coercive persuasion. Undergraduates （N=121） participated in a study to test these hypotheses. They were asked to read 5 short coercive communications and to rate these communications from two standpoints, that is, freedom-infringement and harmony-disturbance. A path analysis showed that horizontal individualism was positively associated with freedom-infringement, and that horizontal collectivism was positively associated with harmony-disturbance, as expected. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This study investigates differences in the types of relationship difficulties which undergraduate students face and the strategies which they adopt in constructing and maintaining friendships. The influence of students' relationship strategies on their adjustments to university life was explored. Friendship difficulty and friendship strategy scales were administered to 234 undergraduate students(92 males and 142 females)to examine the difficulties they encountered and their strategies during relationship construction and maintenance, respectively. A friendship scale, interpersonal satisfaction scale, and stress response scale were also administered. Two-way(periods and friendship style)ANOVA analysis for relationship difficulties revealed that undergraduates with careful relationships during friendship construction experienced higher levels of difficulty due to psychological distance, worrying about impressions of others, and the problems the undergraduates have with careful relationships perceived in comparison with other groups. Undergraduates with careful relationships perceived less psychological distance and friendship difficulties during relationship maintenance than relationship construction. Friendship strategies did not change throughout friendship construction and maintenance. Multiple regressions revealed that passive involvements have a significant positive effect on stress responses, while active involvements have a significant positive effect on interpersonal satisfaction levels.

Previous research has suggested that especially middle-aged Japanese people are less likely to seek social support compared to Americans. Japanese emphasize a construal of self that is interdependent with others. By contrast, Americans have a strong belief in the independence of the self. Such cultural construal of the self shapes the nature of psychological processes, such as emotions. It has also been suggested that people who receive help feel more indebted, because they are obligated to reciprocate the favors that are received. We hypothesized that engaged negative emotions that are involved in the interdependent self construal, would induce indebtedness, and restrain people from social support seeking. A questionnaire survey was conducted with middle-aged people in Japan (N = 385: Mean age, 48 years, SD = 5.39). Results confirmed that social support seeking was affected by the cultural self construal through negative emotions: (1) The more interdependent a person's self construal was, the more engaged were negative emotions. (2) The more engaged a person's negative emotions were, higher was indebtedness after receiving help on issues related to children. (3) The more indebted a person was, less was the tendency to seek social support for issues related to children.

The information that a product is scarce, or on sale for only a limited time, threatens the freedom to purchase the product, by arousing psychological reactance and increased the motivation to purchase. It was hypothesized that information about restrictions on available quantity of a product (Hypothesis 1), and information about restrictions on available time (Hypothesis 2), would increase the intention to purchase the product. Female undergraduates (N=100) participated in a study to test these hypotheses. Participants were randomly allocated to a quantity-restriction, time-restriction, or a control condition. They were instructed to assume they were at a soft drink stand. A notice was displayed to the participants that manipulated the perception of the availability of the target product. In the quantity-restriction condition, the notice announced that there were only two bottles of soft drinks left on that day, and in the time-restriction condition, it was announced that it was the last day of drink sales. After reading the notice, participants were asked to indicate how they evaluated the product. A one-way analysis of variance and multiple comparisons revealed that the mean intent-to-purchase in the time-restriction condition only, was significantly greater than that in the control condition, which supported Hypothesis 2. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

According to the reactance theory, people perceive high-pressure communications as a threat to freedom and as a result they are not persuaded by such communications. However, high-pressure communications might have a persuasive potential, if they were not perceived as being a threat to a person's freedom. It was hypothesized that when a high-pressure communication is targeted at an individual, it would result in resistance to persuasion as assumed by the reactance theory, whereas, when it is targeted at another person(s), it would result in the receivers' compliance with the communication. Undergraduate (n=145) participated in a study to test this hypothesis, in which they were randomly allocated to an experimental design consisting of pressure (high or low) ×target (participant vs. other-people) factorial design. Participants were asked to read one of the communications and responded to measures of attitudes about the communications. A 2-way ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between pressure and target of the communication. As hypothesized, high pressure communications directed at an individual resulted in resistance to persuasion, however, those directed at others tended to increase compliance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Help-seeking behavior consists of many factors that are beyond the control of the help-seeker. Behaviors for seeking help from mental health specialists were investigated from the framework of the theory of planned behavior, which predicts behaviors that are beyond the control of the individual. A questionnaire survey was conducted with middle-aged women(n=161; age 39-59 years, mean age 48.9,SD=3.83).The results indicated that the behavioral intention to seek help from mental health specialists was higher in the following conditions.(1)Attitudes toward help-seeking are positive,(2)Subjective norms about help-seeking are high; and (3) Perceived behavioral control of help-seeking is high. Moreover,there was a significant effect of geographical,economical,and time factors in perceived behavioral control.

This study examined the reliability and validity of Japanese psychological reactance scales. A total of 167 undergraduates completed a questionnaire of Therapeutic Reactance Scale (TRS), the Hong Reactance Scale (HRS), the Uniqueness Scale, and the Collectivism Scale. They also received messages involving three persuasion situations that were either high or low in terms of threat, and were asked to describe their reactions to them. The author categorized the reactions into three: acceptance, indirect resistance, and direct resistance. Reliabilities of the reactance scales were satisfactory. Their scores positively correlated with uniqueness scores, and negatively with collectivism scores. Those high on reactance proneness were less persuaded in two of the three situations. But in the third, an HRS by threat interaction was observed, indicating that only those who were high on reactance proneness under the high-threat condition showed resistance to persuasion. These results suggest that the Japanese versions of reactance scale were reliable and valid. However, the assertiveness aspect of TRS may not be appropriate for the definition of reactance. The influence of culture on psychological reactance was also discussed.

The present research investigated the effects of high threat on compliance, when the strength and importance of a freedom were low (low prerequisites for reactance arousal). This research varied attitudinal freedom and threats to it. Subjects read the prosecution summary for a court trial, and about half of the subjects were further informed of the defense's claim, which suggested that innocence was equally possible (high prerequisite condition). A low-, moderate- or high threat message, advocating that the defendant was guilty, contained respectively 0, 3, or 6 high-pressure statements. The predictions were as follows: (a) Under low prerequisite, moderate threat would decrease compliance, whereas high threat would increase it; (b) under high prerequisite, the greater the threat, the less the compliance. The significant prerequisite × threat interaction on the post-communication measures of opinion confirmed the predictions. The significance of these results, for the complex interplay between the strength and importance of a freedom and the magnitude of threat to it, is discussed.