This paper reviewed developmental studies on children in infancy, early, and middle childhood. The target studies were research presentations in The Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Educational Psychology and journal articles published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology, The Japanese Journal of Psychological Research, and Japanese Psychological Research from July 2021 to June 2022. Trends in research areas and research methods of the studies were overviewed from a quantitative perspective. It became clear that research on children's social development and research on caregivers were predominant, so an overview of journal articles in these areas was conducted. Finally, directions for future research are discussed based on the review's findings.

  This paper reviews studies on adolescence into old age in the developmental division of the 64th Annual General Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology held online from August 10 to September 10, 2022, and journal articles published in five domestic academic journals. As a result, it was shown that many of the studies targeting adolescents were related to specific problems in school and campus life, and many studies targeting adulthood were related to problems faced in social positions. Additionally, future contributions of developmental research to practical support concerning the complementary use of qualitative and quantitative research are discussed.

  This article reviews recent research on teaching, learning, and cognitive domains from the perspective of language and communication. First, the papers published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology between 2021 and 2022 and research presented at the 64th annual virtual meeting of The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology are categorized and reviewed regarding language and communication. Second, the studies published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology in the past few years are compared to those published approximately 10 years ago, and similar research in other journals is also considered. Furthermore, recent research on language and communication and language as a research tool is discussed.

  This study provides a literature review of recent research trends in educational psychology, covering two main areas of interest. The first part summarized the posters regarding social psychology of education presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology and reviewed papers published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology from July 2021 to June 2022. The second part reviewed papers published in the same journal from 2019 to June 2022 with particular attention to how the studies treated participants' sex/gender. The analysis identified five categories: (1) participants of only one sex/gender were recruited due to interest in specific populations, (2) sex/gender was not mentioned, (3) sex/gender was mentioned in the methods section but no results regarding sex/gender were reported, (4) sex/gender was a control variable, and (5) sex/gender was considered in the analyses and discussions. Most research comprised the second and third categories. However, a few studies considered gender issues, highlighting the need for future gender-focused research. The review emphasizes the importance of considering participant sex/gender in educational psychology research.

  The present article aims to review the research trends on individual differences in personality variables published or reported in Japan in recent years, mainly from July 2021 to June 2022. This article also aims to discuss the current challenges and future perspectives in the area of individual differences research in Japan. In the review of individual differences research, this paper classifies personality variables into two broad levels: basic traits and characteristic adaptations. Previous studies focusing on the individual difference variables included in each level are reviewed, and their findings are summarized. Finally, we discusses the current challenges of a series of individual differences research in Japan for contributing to an integrated and comprehensive understanding of human personality. This study points out the lack of studies on interspecies differences in personality or on the uniqueness of each individual, the lack of focus on interactions, and the fact that basic traits are often not considered in the studies dealing with the characteristic adaptation level variables.

  This article reviewed current clinical psychology studies published from July 2021 to June 2022. During this period, several coronavirus restrictions were continued, so this paper focused on psychological problems during the coronavirus pandemic. The literature review showed that mental health problems were seen among in various ages and occupations, and it worsened lifestyle changes and the lack of support from others influenced mental health. The other topics relate to training curriculum, understanding the experience of the help professionals, and research based on positive psychology. Some research suggests the importance of cultural differences. The absence of studies about the mental health of infants, infant caregivers, and aged people is problematic. We should consider how to conduct research on people who have difficulty going online.

  In recent years, the concept of evidence-based practice (EBP), derived from the medical field, has been spreading to the field of special support education. In this article, after discussing the concept and caveats of the evidence hierarchy in EBP, domestic research trends on special support education reported from July 2021 to June 2022 are analyzed from the perspective of the internal validity of the research design. Among intervention studies, the majority of studies with group designs used a pre-post design with low internal validity, while about half of the studies with single-case designs used a multiple baseline design with high internal validity. Single-case designs are more likely to be valid than group designs in special needs education research which has difficulties in recruiting many participants and establishing a control group. Observational studies differed across studies in whether they adequately addressed the issues of confounding variables and selection bias, regardless of the type of study design. The concept of evidence hierarchies has utility as a simplified schematic, but the importance of being aware of the concept of internal validity behind it, rather than mechanically operationalizing it, was demonstrated.

  This paper reviews the trends in research on school psychology published in Japan during the year from July 2021 to June 2022 from the perspective of school clinical psychology. Although school psychology and school clinical psychology have contrasting characteristics in terms of disciplinary roots, approaches to practice, and research methods, there is an increasing demand for practicality in school psychology and collaboration with school clinical psychology, which is at a turning point in Japanese school counseling. As a result, while many of the papers presented during this period were related to psychoeducational programs that take advantage of the features of school psychology, there were also elements from school clinical psychology, such as program evaluation and detailed intersubjective understanding. As future issues, the author points out the importance of contributions to school settings through psychoeducational programs, the addition of school clinical psychology elements in both practice and research, clinical psychology training, and international information exchange.

  This study reviewed 28 research papers published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, from issue 3 of volume 69 to issue 2 of volume 70, to assess new research practices such as pre-registration, the use of the Open Science Framework, and statistical methods, including Bayesian methods. The results indicated that these new research practices were not pervasive in the journal. We also discussed new research practices and statistical methods from the severe testing perspective. In addition, a confidence curve was explained to visualize the results of statistical hypothesis testing. Finally, based on the insights from our results, several approaches were proposed to improve these new research practices and statistical analyses.

  In Japan, a set of psychological characteristics similar to "noncognitive skills" and "social and emotional skills" are often referred to as "noncognitive abilities." This paper reviews the basic ideas about noncognitive abilities and discusses issues from various perspectives. Noncognitive abilities are conceptually defined from four perspectives. First, the conceptual definition of noncognitive abilities is identified as including various psychological characteristics other than cognitive abilities. Then, three definitions of noncognitive abilities are outlined: measurability, predictability, and possibility of intervention. Measurability is discussed in terms of issues of reliability and validity, factor analysis models, and recent research trends in psychological skills. Predictability is discussed in terms of bandwidth-fidelity trade-offs, predictive power, and social outcome measures. Regarding the possibility of intervention, the issues of the perspective or position from which the intervention is made and the issue of the possibility of transformation of other psychological traits related to the psychological trait that was the target of the change are discussed. From the above discussion, issues to be further examined are summarized.

  The need for understanding and supporting gifted children is beginning to be widely recognized in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to promote an accurate understanding of giftedness and to develop research and practice in educational psychology based on this understanding. First, the definition and characteristics of gifted children are reviewed. Second, an overview of related research in Japan is presented: Third, four points of view that could be effectively incorporated into the study of giftedness are listed. (1) Clarify who needs support, since not all gifted children need special support. (2) Separate whether a child is gifted or not from whether or not he/she needs special support and programs. (3) Separate potential talent from whether or not it can be demonstrated. (4) Identify the elements of gifted education that exist in the current Japanese educational system and practices.