The purpose of this study was to test the psychological stress model on the relationship among junior high-school friends. Students (n = 523) anonymously completed the school stressors scale (the 6 items on relationships among friends), the cognitive appraisals scale (the 2 subscales on controllability and influence), the stress coping scale (the 3 subscales on positive coping, support seeking and avoidant coping), the stress responses scale (the 4 subscales; on irritated-angry feelings, helplessness, depressive-anxious feelings and physical state) and the perceived social support scale (5 supporters; father, mother, brothers/sisters, teachers, and friends). The results of the analysis of covariance structures based on the Psychological Stress Theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) indicate that the model presented in this study fitted the data well. Moreover, we made the following findings. (1) Cognitive appraisals influenced the selection of coping strategies. (2) Support seeking played an important role in increasing both positive coping and avoidant coping. (3) Avoidant coping increased stress responses directly but positive coping decreased them indirectly. (4) Support seeking increased the sense of controllability of stressors.

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The purpose of this research was to use a psychophysiological reactivity model to investigate the influence of antagonistic humor on anger and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) in hostile young men. Sixty male students with extreme scores on the Japanese version of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire were assigned to either the hostile group or the non-hostile group. After the subjects completed an anger arousal task following a baseline state, half of them in each group were randomly given either antagonistic-humor stimuli or neutral stimuli. There were no significant differences in aroused anger or CVR between the groups exposed to antagonistic- humor stimuli, although heart rates decreased significantly in these subjects compared to those exposed to neutral stimuli. These results do not support the hypothesis that antagonistic humor decreases aroused anger and CVR in hostile young men, which might be attributed to a lack of laughter. Future studies should test the effects of antagonistic humor on anger and CVR in hostile young men while investigating the effect of their own laughter on these responses.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a new Desirability for Control (DC) scale that incorporates the condition where the subject of control is both the self and others. Study 1 examined the reliability and the validity of the scale. Factor analysis was performed on the data obtained from 430 college students. The result showed that the DC scale consisting of 26 items had five factors. These were Internal control, External control, Decisiveness, Subordinate avoidance, and Preparation-Prevention. The results indicated that the scale had both test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The DC scale had moderate correlations with the Locus of Control scale, the Coronary-Prone Type scale for Japanese student and the Multidimensional Perfectionism scale. In Study 2, we examined the influence of desire for control and perfectionism on the stress-coping process. Students with high scores on desire for perfection, concern over mistakes, doubt about actions and external control tended to have higher stress responses. External control was positively related to passive coping. However, Internal control was not directly related to the strength of stress responses.

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Coping flexibility is defined as; “the management of coping strategies in correspondence to changes of controllability in stressful situations”. It is considered an important factor in decreasing stress responses. The desire for control is an individual factor that obstructs coping flexibility. The present study examined the effects of the desire for control on the adoption of coping strategies and stress responses in situations when controllability declined. Twenty-five subjects with high desire for control and 25 with low desire for control were selected by the Desirability of Control Scale. We generated controllability of aversive situations by using gradually decreasing ratios of answerable mental arithmetic tasks through the experimental sessions. Subjects with high desire for control tended to adopt a problem-focused coping strategy in spite of the decline of controllability. These subjects also showed a high depressive mood and high systolic blood pressure. These results indicated that coping persistency might cause high effort and stress.

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This study examined the effects of subjective differences in cognitive demand on eating control mechanisms. As a task with high cognitive demand, 53 female students were asked to have their photographs taken. Forty-five students who accepted the request were classified into four categories, 2 (high cognitive demand, low cognitive demand) × 2 (dieter, non-dieter). The results indicated that the “high demand-dieter” group significantly decreased eating restraint under pressure, whereas the “high demand-non-dieter” group actively restrained eating through self-regulation of food intake. Moreover, there were differences in the high and low demand diet groups in terms of motivation, strategy, and the condition after the diet.

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To investigate the relationship between Atopic dermatitis (AD) related stressors, cognitive appraisals, coping strategies and psychological stress responses in adult patients with AD, we administered the AD Stressor Scale, Cognitive Appraisal Scale, Tri-axial Coping Scale 24, Stress Response Scale-18, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to 104 patients.
The results were as follows. (1) AD related stressors were positively correlated with psychological stress responses, (2) the “impact of stressors” appraisal was positively correlated with psychological stress responses, (3) “avoidance-like” coping was positively, and “positive thinking-distraction” coping was negatively correlated with psychological stress responses, (4) the “impact of stressors” appraisal was positively correlated with “problem solving-support seeking” coping and negatively correlated with “positive thinking-distraction” coping, and “controllability” appraisal was positively correlated with “problem solving-support seeking” coping.
The results of this study suggest that intervention to lower the “impact of stressors” appraisal and “avoidance-like” coping, and to raise “positive thinking-distraction” coping can improve psychological stress responses in adult patients with AD.

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The purpose of this study is two-fold; (1) to translate the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) into Japanese and to investigate its internal consistency and test-retest reliability, (2) to test the factor structure of the LOT-R (one-factor model versus two-factor model) by conducting confirmatory factor analyses. Data from 619 undergraduates were analyzed to investigate the internal consistency and factor structure, and data from 220 undergraduates were analyzed to examining the test-retest reliability. Both internal consistency and test-retest reliability were confirmed; Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the test-retest reliability coefficient were .62 and .84, respectively. The confirmatory factor analyses supported the two-factor model rather than the one-factor model. Cultural differences between the East and the West in the factor structure of the LOT-R were discussed.

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