N.Nishihira( YamanashiU niv.),t he organizer,e xplainedt he plan of this symposiaa s follows.
This symposiaw as especiallyo rganizedw ith youngerr esearchersa s centralf igures,a nd reporters were required to present their theoretical and practical views as to designs, prespectivesa nd dreams of the future research. Moreover,t o focus the discussionh, e introducedt he subjectr egardingt he necessityo f systematizinga nd theorizingn umerousd ata of investigationas nd researchesp resentedup to this time.
Reporter, S. Yamaguchi (Okayama Univ.) presented the problem of the leisure of adolescents of today and insisted the necessity to establish method of ecological study, letting researcherst hemselvesb e identifiedw ith adolescentsb, ecauset oday's study of adolescent had been superficialf,a r from their actual realities.
ReporterM. Fukutomi( TokyoG akugeiU niv.)p resentedt he problemm ainlyr egrading to the sex of adolescencea nd laid stress on the followingt hree points.
(1) As to the sex, investigatorso f adolescentp sychologyw ere apt to observea dolescence from their own frame of reference.
(2) Whenw e tried to understandu niversali mage of adolescencew, e had to consider that the problemo f generationa nd socialityw ere necessarilym ixed w ith it.
(3) We alwaysh ad to put the starting point of study on adolescenceh imself.
ReporterR. Yamada (YamanashUi niv.)p resentedt he problemr egardingt he methodt o studyw ered ividedi nto two. one is approachf rom outside,t he other is into insidei nquiring the meaning,n amely phenomenologicaml ethod. and the latter was more appropriate method. He also emphasized that the problem of ego was the central one of adolescent psychologya,n dm an shouldb e undersoodb oth as multi-dimensionaelx istancea ndf rom the social and historical standpoint.
Discussions
The issues debated were:
The issues debated were (1) Each reporter criticizedt,h e fact that psychologistos f adolescenceup to date were apt to understand the adolescent from outside aparting from him and insisted that future researches should be carried on getting into the adolescent (or from the view poin more closelyc onnectedw ith him).
Counterarguments of rather elder psychologists were that the method to observe apart from adolescence also should be approved, because to get into him did not mean always to speak or behave with him, and to understand adolescent was possible through the phenomenological method. to gaze at him continually and to investigate the meaning of his speach or behavior.
(2) The necessity to establish the systematic theory of adolescent psychology was emphasized, and every participants acknowledged that utmost efforts should be exerted to explore the direction toward the theorizing and systematizing by means of integrating considerable volumes of raw data and results of various investigations.
