Qualitative approach to processes of inter-individual Kotsu acquirement

The purpose of this research was to understand and clarify the process of inter-individual Kotsu acquisition. Kotsu is essentially a trick to learn skills in Japanese, and how individuals gain it is important. One participant who had experienced the process of acquiring Kotsu, together with the first author, was selected, and a second-person approach was adopted. A club-juggling task was used as the athletic task. Data were collected through the observation and the reflection of the participants. Modified Grounded Theory Approach was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that eight intra-individual categories, eight inter-individual categories, and two performance categories were classified into nine category groups and five core categories. The correlations among the categories were used to develop a conceptual model. The performer of the athletic task acquired Kotsu with the partner by experiencing a reversal between the feeling state and the result state in the intra-individual domain and the independent state and dependent state in the inter-individual domain. Eight types of transactional states were experienced through the reversal of four paired meta-motivational states: groping, expansion, conflict, coaction, diffusion, adhesion, obsession, and coexistence. In conclusion, Kotsu is a feeling acquired through repeated reversals.