The Annual Report of Educational Psychology in Japan

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Piaget (1896-1980) 's output was regularly formidable over a period of sixty years with posthumous publications continuing to appear in the decade after his death.If there is one single concept that pervades the entire oeuvre, it is equilibrium.Piaget's venture was the elaboration of a scientific epistemology.What Piaget calls genetic epistemology is fundamentally constructivist and its main objective is to study the transition from early, simple forms of knowledge to more complex and powerful constructs.To account for the dynamics of development moving in a certain direction, Piaget elaborated a model of equilibration with regulatory mechanisms.The origins of this idea go back to a novel entitled Recherche that Piaget wrote as a young man.Throughout his life he continued to refine this model;during the last decade of his life, he renewed his functionalistic vein, switching from research on structures to research on processes, analyzing cognizance, contradictions and dialectics in terms of the subordination of mental operations to broader forms of functioning and the opening up of new possibilities and necessities.

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This article is intended to provide an overview on the meta analysis of gender differences in U.S.A.The issue of gender differences in cognitive ability, social behavior and personality will be briefly reviewed. In addition, the studies on sex role, sex role attitude, sex differences of self concept and personality in the Japanese Journal of Psychology (1970-1996) were reviewed.

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On January 17, 1995 at 5: 46 am., the Hanshin area (Hyogo Prefecture) was hit for the first time in history by a severe earthquake with a high magnitude of 7: a type of earthquake unexpected in a greatly populated city.How did schools, having to face such a devastating earthquake, cope with the victims'casualities?Also, how much damage was done to school buildings or broken lines, and how schools did restart their activities? More than anything else, how did teachers involve themselves facing the deeply wounded hearts of young children and students?I would like to give a report from the actual scene on how teachers involved themselves directly regarding the earthquake disaster, and indirectly how dedicated they were toward the refugees, the schools and students.

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This paper shows how the results of research on cognitive aging converge to support the theory that slowing with age is centralized and systematic. Based on this observation, a technique for detecting early differences between normal and pathological change in cognition is proposed.

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