Japanese Psychological Research最新文献

Migration experience has a profound impact on psychological health and well-being, but relatively little is known about how spatial relocation affects turnover intention in the labor market. This study attempted to examine the effects of spatial migration experience on turnover intention. Using individual-level survey data on people's migration experience and career development from Japan, we verified the central hypothesis that internal migration has positive effects on later turnover intention by employing both linear and ordered probit regressions. Further, several robustness checks were conducted in order to address endogeneity issues. We first corrected for the self-selection bias in two ways, adding the number of companies worked for as a control variable to partly capture the individual psychological factors and estimating with the treatment effects model. Then a sub-sample regression was used to eliminate the bias from active migration due to job change. All confirmed the positive effect of migration experience on turnover intention.

The purpose of this study is to investigate psychosocial factors (independent and interdependent self-construal, emotional support) that may influence the health and well-being of people with diabetes in an interdependent culture. We conducted a cross-sectional survey on outpatients of type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus in Japan (N = 180, age 22–88 years, M = 62.48 years), to examine their independent and interdependent self-construal, perceived emotional support, and well-being (interdependent happiness). HbA1c data was obtained from their recent health record via their endocrinologists. Correlation analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to examine the relation between these variables. Patients' well-being correlated positively with age, independent self-construal, perceived emotional support, and negatively with HbA1c levels, but did not correlate with interdependent self-construal. SEM showed that, after controlling for age and gender, independence was related to perceived emotional support and well-being, which were in turn related to lower HbA1c levels. Our research suggests that, for people with diabetes in Japan, independence rather than interdependence is associated with their psychological well-being and health outcome.

Studies of group interventions on social relationships among patients with cancer have suggested that such interventions can increase patients' social support and help build social support networks, which are expected to reduce the sense of loneliness among them. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate the relationships between participation in group therapy and social relationships among patients with cancer. Seven participants with various types of cancer participated in group therapy and were interviewed at a medical institution in Japan. They were asked about changes in their social relationships after being affected with cancer and taking part in group therapy. We conducted qualitative analysis and identified 11 categories related to changes in social relationships after being diagnosed with cancer (e.g. “shrinkage or lack of social networks, weakening of density”). Six categories related to changes in social relations after taking part in group therapy were identified (e.g. “expanding support networks and increasing density”). The findings suggest that participation in group therapy may supplement the social relationships of patients with cancer who have experienced a reduction in, or insufficiency of, social relationships. In particular, we suggest that participants in group therapy might be receiving emotional/informational support and companionship from the other participants, including patients with the same disease, and from the medical staff.

This study examined the relationship between self-compassion and turnover intention among early career nurses in Japan, as well as the mediating effects of nursing job stress, burnout, and work engagement. A total of 326 nurses, with over 5 years of experience, participated in a web-based survey. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the relationship between self-compassion and other factors related to turnover. Self-compassion, job stress, burnout, work engagement, and turnover intention were assessed using the Japanese Burnout Scale, Nursing Job Stressor Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Self-Compassion Scale. The model fit indices showed acceptable estimates. Self-compassion was negatively associated with nursing job stress and burnout and positively associated with work engagement. Moreover, conflict with other nursing staff and quantitative work were positively associated with burnout, whereas qualitative work was negatively associated with work engagement. However, nursing role conflict was negatively associated with burnout and positively associated with work engagement. Burnout predicted turnover intention, whereas work engagement did not. Thus, increasing self-compassion may reduce stress among early career nurses and reduce turnover intention.

Unlike in Western cultures, where meeting others' expectations is considered incompatible with individual agency, social expectations tend to be internalized and congruent with the self in Eastern cultures, where meeting others' expectations has been shown to promote effort and satisfaction. However, considering cross-cultural differences in mind-reading, research has yet to clarify whether directly expressing social expectation has the same effects as inferring social expectation from others' messages. With the aim of disentangling the effects of expressed and inferred social expectation on prosocial behavior, two online studies employing teamwork scenarios, in which participants (donors) had the opportunity to help other people (targets) by putting effort into a common task (prosocial effort), were conducted in Japan and the United States. The strength of expressed social expectation was manipulated within subjects in Study 1 (N = 439) and between subjects in Study 2 (N = 560). The effect of expressed social expectation did not differ by culture, but inferred social expectation positively predicted prosocial effort only in Japan. The findings hint at the importance of mind-reading and subjective perceptions of others' needs in Japan.

Beneficiaries can have prior expectations of not receiving benefits and imagine ex-post that benefits were not given. The present study examined the preregistered hypothesis that these two kinds of absence simulations increase gratitude. Both Studies 1 and 2 were conducted in a Japanese university. In Study 1, reading a manipulated vignette made participants in the absence simulation condition expect not to receive a benefit, while those in the control condition were made to expect to receive it. In Study 2, after reading a benefit-receiving vignette, those in the absence simulation condition imagined the situation where they did not receive it, while those in the control condition again imagined receiving it. In both studies, all the participants rated their gratitude for certain fixed benefits in each vignette. Results showed that gratitude in neither of the two absence simulation conditions was higher than that of the respective control conditions, suggesting that simulating the absence of benefits does not increase gratitude.