The primary goal of the present study was to investigate the mediational function of situational coping in the causal relationship between hostility and health status. In addition, the factorial validity and reliability of the situational version of the General Coping Questionnaire (GCQ) were tested. The dispositional version of GCQ has been standardized by Sasaki and Yamasaki (2002). The Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire, and the GCQ were administered to 454 university students. The results indicated the factorial validity, internal consistency, as well as the normal distribution of scores in the situational version of the GCQ. Furthermore, a positive causal relationship between hostility and situational emotion expression, as well as a negative relationship between hostility and situational cognitive reinterpretation and problem solving were demonstrated. Moreover, the detrimental influence of hostility on health was confirmed. The results also suggest that there are certain positive causal relationships between situational coping and ill health, although situational coping did not improve ill health. Differences between the findings of previous and current study are discussed.

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During a six-month period, a weight reduction program using behavior therapy was conducted for elderly women at a fitness club. Participants were divided into three groups: (1) Group 1, underwent behavior modification: (2) Group2; underwent nutritional education and traditional exercise guidance, and (3) Group 3, undertook neither behavioral modification nor nutritional education. The results indicated that a significant reduction in weight and fat free mass, as well as an increase in physical fitness was observed in the behavior modification group compared to Group 2 that did not undergo behavior modification. Behavior modification improved the attendance in the programmed, reduced the role of snacks as a proportion of total energy intake and promoted exercise outside the fitness club. Moreover, after terminating the program, continued use of the fitness club was significantly higher in the behavior modification group. The frequency of using the fitness club and weight maintenance after the terminating the program was negatively correlated. (r= -.68, p<.001)

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The relationship between patterns of coping with daily hassles and stress responses among middle-aged and elderly Japanese retirees was investigated. TAC-24 (Kamimura et al., 1995) used as a stress coping scale, and the Japanese version of GHQ-28 (Nakagawa & Daibou, 1985) used as a stress response scale, were administered to a sample of 273 people aged 50-70. Results of cluster analyse indicated that coping patterns in the sample could be classified into five types: (a) high scores in “Catharsis”, “Plan drafting”, and “Avoidance-like thinking” and low scores in “Giving up” (CL1), (b) low scores for each kind of coping (CL2), (c) high scores in “Plan drafting” (CL3), (d) high scores for each kind of coping (CL4), and (e) high scores in “Giving up” (CL5). Results of a one-way analysis of variance revealed that participants who belonged to the CL4 group tended to show more stress responses than participants in other clusters. These results suggest that knowledge about coping patterns of Japanese middle-aged and elderly people is important for planning effective coping strategies.

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The effects of physical variables and interpersonal relationships on appearance-related body consciousness in adolescent women were examined. The participants (n=238) were classified into four groups based on their dieting experiences: non-dieters, healthy-dieters, light-dieters, and heavy-dieters. Results indicated that non-dieters, healthy-dieters, and light-dieters manipulated their appearance as a way of self-expression to their friends. Particularly, light-dieters sometimes adopted hard dieting methods to improve their physical attractiveness and gain a sense of superior appearance over their friends, even while maintaining friendly relationships. On the other hand, heavy-dieters who had repeated several hard dieting methods regarded their own body as fat, and practiced dieting for fear of being left behind by their friends because of their body and weight.

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This study examined how fantasy affects mental health. College students (N=438) completed (1) the Multiphasic Fantasy Inventory that measures: the content of fantasies, the recognition of own fantasies, the roles and the influence of fantasies, the conditions for fantasizing and fantasizing tendency; and (2) the Subjective Well-being Inventory. A series of t-tests revealed that participants scoring high on mental health scored low on “fantasies of encountering misfortunes, ” “doing fantasy at the unpleasant conditions” and “fantasy can't be controlled.” There were significant differences between high and low scorers on mental health with regard to “vividness” and “absorption” items in the seven-item fantasizing tendency scale. These results suggest that characteristics of fantasy are related to mental health.

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A brief scale for measuring subjective well-being in family caregivers was developed and its reliability and validity was examined. Items for the scale were chosen from the scale of positive affect, life satisfaction index, and morale scale. Family caregivers who had mainly cared for elders with disabilities (N=171) filled out the subjective well-being index, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D), and the Disabilities of Elders (measuring cognitive impairments, decline of activities of daily living, and problem behaviors). Results suggested that the internal consistency of the subjective well-being index was sufficiently robust to warrant further study. Moreover, the significant relationship betweenthe disabilities of elders, the depression of caregivers and subjective well-being indicated well-being, suggest the validity of the new scale.

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A stress coping scale for high school student was developed by identifying 66 items related to stress coping by administering an open-ended questionnaire to 1196 Korean high school students in Seoul. Another sample of high school students in Seoul rated these items using a 4-point scale. Factor analysis and item analysis extracted 22 subscales consisted of 41 items. Seven integrated scales were constructed through factor analysis of these subscales. For practical use, percentile and T-score were computed to serve as norms. Furthermore, 308 high school students completed the stress coping scale, and 116 students among them completed the same scale after one month, in order to determine the test-retest reliability of the scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for cross-validation of the scale. The results indicated that the stress coping scale has sufficiently high reliability and validity.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-disclosure style and the level of recipients' depression on responses to self-disclosure. University student participants (n = 112; 67 males and 45 females; mean age 20.56, SD=3.73) rated their positive and negative affects (Time1). Then, they read a randomly assigned depressive, or non-depressive disclosure script (Gurtman, 1987). Following this, they again rated their positive and negative affects (Time2), as well as how they would react to the self-disclosure. The results suggested that there is an interactive effect of self-disclosure and depressiveness of the recipients, on negative affects of the recipients. Future studies should be conducted to examine the mechanism of these interactions in more detail.

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