Japanese Psychological Research最新文献

This study investigates how international students' identification with various social groups to which they belong influences their (mal)adjustment to the host country. One hundred and forty-three international students were asked to report their identification with people from their home country, international students, and foreign people, as well as their perceived discrimination, homesickness, and loneliness. The results revealed more harmful effects of group identification than protective effects. Identification with people from their home country was positively associated with homesickness, but slightly buffered the harmful effect of discrimination on loneliness. Identification with international students was negatively associated with loneliness, but strengthened the harmful effect of discrimination on homesickness. Identification with foreign people was positively associated with discrimination and loneliness and also strengthened the harmful effect of discrimination on homesickness and loneliness.

When the location of NIMBY (not in my backyard) facilities is focused, legitimate decision-making rights tend to be preferentially given to local residents, an attitude defined as a superior legitimization of the concerned parties. Moral foundations and empathic concern are hypothesized to predict the process of superior legitimization of the concerned parties. We conducted an experiment wherein participants evaluated the legitimacy of residents and government agencies in view of the site selection of a geological disposal facility focused on ingroups or outgroups. In both groups, the legitimacy of the residents was notably higher, and the roles of moral foundations and empathic concern on the judgment of legitimacy were indicated. One reason why residents are self-evidently legitimatized superiorly in the context of NIMBY facilities, therefore, should be that such judgments are based on intuitive moral judgment and empathic concern.

Although refugees often face competition in their efforts to survive and achieve upward mobility, little is understood about their psychological processes concerning competition. In this regard, we attempted to assess the extent to which North Korean refugees (NKRs) engage in social comparisons and exhibit competitive attitudes compared to their South Korean (SK) host citizens. We targeted NKRs and SKs, as we could control for the shared cultural heritage. First, we tested measurement invariance to determine whether there was a psychometric equivalence in the two latent constructs of social comparison concerns (SCCs) and competitive attitudes (CAs) between NKRs (n₁ = 214) and SKs (n₂ = 472). Partial scalar invariance was established to demonstrate the association between SCC and CA, suggesting that only certain aspects of the two latent constructs were comparable between NKRs and SKs. Compared to SKs, NKRs exhibit a significantly higher level of SCC for self-evaluating abilities and opinions of individuals and their significant others, and CA about interpersonal and goal competitiveness with a medium effect size.

Social exclusion increases appetitive responses. Whether the feeling of hunger, the preceding phase of the appetitive response, is enhanced by exclusion remains unclear. To better understand the psychological mechanism behind the promotion of appetitive responses, we investigated whether the feeling of hunger is stronger after social exclusion than after inclusion. We manipulated participants' social exclusion status using a computer programmed Cyberball game in which they were either excluded or included by two other players in a ball-tossing game. We measured hunger as a subjective experience immediately after the game. The results indicated that participants who were socially excluded reported an increased feeling of hunger compared with those who were included. It indicates that when the feeling of hunger is evoked, appetitive responses occur when people are socially excluded.

In recent years, mindful eating (ME) as a psychological intervention to improve eating behavior has attracted scientific attention. ME is related to mindfulness and is defined as “a non-judgmental awareness of physical and emotional sensations while eating or in a food-related environment.” The major purpose of this study is to develop a Japanese version of the Mindful Eating Scale (MES) or MES-J and examine its psychometric properties. A web-based survey company collected data from 440 adults in Japan (mean age = 42.58 years, SD = 15.54 years). Confirmatory factor analysis performed on the MES-J showed the highest fit of a correlated model with two method factors. Cronbach's αs of the full scale and six subscales were from .67 to .88. Moreover, a subset of the participants (n = 206) completed the MES-J 4 weeks after the initial testing. Results showed moderate test–retest reliability. Moreover, construct validity was supported as the full scale and subscales of the MES-J (except for the Awareness subscale) showed a moderate positive correlation with mindfulness and small to moderate negative correlations with experiential avoidance, perfectionism, and negative body image. However, the Awareness subscale showed a small negative correlation with mindfulness and a small positive correlation with perfectionism. Our findings confirm that the MES-J has sufficient reliability and validity, but further investigation is needed as our findings regarding Awareness tended to differ from those of the original study.

In recent years, globalization has increased the opportunities to work with workers of other nationalities, and it is predicted that interpersonal conflicts will arise in many aspects of the globalized workplace due to differences in values. Although appropriate apologetic behavior is necessary to solve this problem and maintain stable interpersonal relationships in the workplace, previous studies have suggested that there may be cultural differences even in apology behavior and intention. In this study, we focused on cultural differences in apology behavior and intentions in the workplace, taking into account the situational factor of responsibility as a distinctive factor in the workplace. We conducted a web-based survey of 413 corporate employees in three countries: Japan, China, and Malaysia. The results showed that Chinese are more likely than other countries to recognize guilt but are less likely to offer a direct apology or explanation of the situation or cause. In contrast, Japanese tend to be reluctant to propose measures to prevent recurrence or to offer compensation for loss. Furthermore, while Malaysians are more likely to apologize with the intention of seeking a settlement of the situation than other countries, this tendency is more pronounced in situations where they are responsible.

We evaluated the effects of cultural intelligence (CQ) on perceived stress and explored the factors associated with CQ. We constructed a model that included the antecedents that may affect the CQ based on hypotheses derived from a preliminary feasibility study. The main study comprised an Internet survey of Japanese workers who were currently working or had previously worked overseas (n = 296). The Expanded Cultural Intelligence Scale (E-CQS) was used to assess the CQ and the Perceived Stress Scale was used to assess the cognitive appraisal of stressors. The path analysis results showed that “Self-efficacy to adjust” in CQ was influenced by all explored antecedents and negatively related to perceived stress. This suggests that facilitating the antecedents of CQ and developing “Self-efficacy to adjust” may ameliorate perceived stress in overseas Japanese workers.

A social environment, such as relational mobility, which represents the availability of opportunities to develop new relationships in society, cultivates an individual's psychology and social network. Generalized trust, which represents trust among people in general, is a tendency to expand individuals' social ties in a fluid society. Using the data of 170 students, we analyzed whether an individual's belief of generalized trust and perception of relational mobility are related to the social network. We conducted a survey to assess psychological measures and social networks under the COVID-19 pandemic for first-year university students. The analyses revealed that generalized trust was significantly associated with the presence of outdegrees (i.e., the nomination of close friends) and the absence of indegrees (i.e., being nominated by others). In contrast, perception of relational mobility was not significantly associated with generalized trust and any social network measures. Behavioral trust, measured using a Trust Game approximately 6 months later, was not significantly associated with network characteristics. The results support the argument that the belief of generalized trust functions as a psychological mechanism to expand individuals' relationships in their social networks.