Abstract
This article reviewed 245 studies in social psychology among the 570 studies reported at the 53rd annual meeting of the Japanese Educational Psychological Association. In this fiscal year, the number of studies of school organization and a teacher or a group of teachers had increased. The interest in themes such as children’s human relationships and classroom adaptation remained high. This article also reviewed the trends in social psychological studies about human relationship published in Japan over the last year. The themes of these studies included (1) conformity to deviant behaviors and social comparison in the classroom, (2) intimacy, exclusiveness, and the dilution of adolescent human relationships, (3) the function of intimate relationships on an individual person (e.g., relational efficacy, social motivation), (4) the negative aspects of human relationships (e.g., relational aggression, withdrawal), (5) coping behaviors, affects (e.g., guilt, gratitude, and empathy), and social skills that support human relationships. It was revealed that recent ambitious studies attempted to comprehend human relationship as an intersubjective concept and understand human interaction processes.
