Professor Akiba pointed out,as a genetic task to be executed in psychology of adolescence,theoritical research of personality development along with a certain attempt to solve practical problems. He somewhat criticized the opinion sustaining that violence at school was an expression of needs and desires of present young people.Instead,he felt such behavior was a rather distcrted and primitive expression hardly finding “youth-likeness” in such behavior. To prove his statement he compared responses of second and fifth grade school students (15,000 in all);for example,to the question:“From whom do you expect a disciplinary or guiding support,or a warm,careful or trusting attitude ?” he found that 75% of those students chose “none” out of the following words “father,mother,brother,relatives, teachers,” with no significant differences as to grade, locality and sex.He considered that the cause to the above results was vagueness in children's values or value-feelings as to what were the most important demands from the above mentionned adults. A historical and social analysis of value-feelings was urgently and badly needed.
Professor Takahashi offered the following three points to the psychologists of adolescence,asking for a thorough study from the point of view of “life-long developmet of psychologists.”
First,violence at school should be merely considered as a protest more than anything else.There must be other reasons than “crowed psychology”. Secondly,the phenomenon seemed to be more than just an emotional problem but being connected to some cognitive aspects such as low grade in school achievement.Third,data collection by means of teaching practice and case study was necessary in order to do longitudinal observation and analysis from the angle of life-long development psychology, in relation to the question of continuity-discontinuity in human development.
Professor Kozawa pointed out the following three problems regarding teacher-student relationship: 1) in any research in psychology of adolescence efforts through an idiographic approach should be better emphasized than an application of general principles regarding daily life of young people.2) A more interpersonal or relational approach between a researcher and his subjects (adolescents) should be favored in order to obtain frank and accurate feelings from them,even in the case of students' violence.3) For college students taking courses for a teacher's certificate,a course on psychology of adolescence Should be taken with more emphasis on practical experiences through which each of them could be better aware of the “own self” and its “meaning” in any educational phenomenon (such as violence at school);such courses would allow college students to become high school teachers with a better and wider knowledge of a human being.
Professor Susumu Toda pointed out that the phenomenon of violence in schools was not only shared by violent students but was also more or less attributed to a prevailed expression of “adolescent-likeness” which had not changed itself but,form time to time,has been inclined to appear as a natural reaction to “distortion” in our society.Such distortion in society and politics had become so intensified in school education that a solution to the problem has been considered impossible unless a certain measure be taken on the improvement of society and politics,Psychology of adolescence should function not only on a nomothetical point of view but also as a practical study encouraging development of youth and their teachers in an active participation in educationol guidance.
Professor kato made comments mainly in relation to a needed students' experience responsibility in their daily life,and he emphasized a predictive and historical viewpoint in the psychology of adolescence.
