The Annual Report of Educational Psychology in Japan

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In the last decade, researchers in labor economics and related areas have become more interested in personality traits as determinants of success in the labor market. Recently, psychologists and economists in the US and other Western countries have been carrying out several collaborative works focusing on this topic. This research may have a profound impact on labor economics, educational policies, and related areas. We conclude from this research that (i) evaluation of educational reforms based on changes in scores of cognitive skills might be insufficient, and (ii) educational policies should consider programs that improve noncognitive skills for children who live in an environment that is not conducive to skill development. The present article reviews recent research on the relationship between wage and “noncognitive skills,” a new concept put forward by a James J. Heckman a Nobel Prize laureate in Economics. This review focuses on personality traits as noncognitive skills. Although there are several indicators of success in the labor market, such as job satisfaction, in this article, we focus on wage as it is considered the most important indicator of worker productivity and an important outcome of education. I also show some results by using data from a relatively large sample survey conducted in Japan, and provide some discussions on the future direction of research on this topic.

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The present article reviews our studies concerning “Assumed Competence Based on Undervaluing Others (AC),” which I, along with other researchers, have conducted to explain a feature of modern youth for nearly ten years. First, it introduces the studies examining three unique and important features involved in the new concept of AC: classifying AC by self-esteem into competence types, confirming unconsciousness of AC by the relation with implicit self-esteem, and checking whether AC is characteristic for only the youth or not. Next, the present article reviews our main studies on AC conducted to examine seven aspects of AC. The studies demonstrate that AC is likely (1) to accompany negative emotions, (2) to form bad interpersonal relations, (3) to be determined by parental behavior and developmental tasks, (4) to inhibit learning and motivation, (5) to bring about problem behavior, (6) to reduce career commitment, and (7) to be explained by cultural difference in each country. Finally, this article discusses some problems and the need for future studies.

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This article reviews recent experimental studies conducted in Japan on interpersonal communication. Then, the necessity for studies with a multichannel approach, including the integration of verbal and nonverbal communication is discussed. Next, studies on triadic communication and interpersonal communication from the standpoint of the observer are introduced. Furthermore, issues related to the relationship between studies on interpersonal communication and the construct of social skills, which has recently become a popular study topic, are examined. Finally, four issues are suggested : the explanation of the inner processes of the participants, the necessity for considering the participants’ cultural backgrounds, the interest in the study of other fields, and the need to investigate the relationship between interpersonal communication and well-being.

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This present study reviews a current situation and task in a study of creativity to create our sustainable innovation. The study of creativity has had important problems: “creative education” and “creative problem solving” for 40 years. The creative education demonstrates children can acquire feelings of self-determination and self-competence with frequent repetition of the learning through trial and error, or insight. On the other hand, educational tools provided enough evidence of effectiveness on creative problem solving of nursing education, human resource development on business, and Japanese language education. In particular, the use of brainstorming card game suggested that (1) the brainstorming differed from debate or discussion in a variety of ways, and (2) the brainstorming was useful of not only learning skills of problem solving, but also building human relationship. We expect educational tools provide new methods to build human relationship, and contribute to development of personality formation for creative leadership.

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