Teachers develop their expertise through career formation and psychological development, in association with personal, social, and historical factors. To understand how these factors were associated with teachers' development of expertise, this study examined the life stories of 11 expert teachers and clarified how they changed psychologically at turning points in their professional development. An especially important historical factor was change of the public educational system, i.e., in association with the introduction of the new curriculum of "seikatsu-ka" (life studies). Some factors overlapped, and teachers had the opportunity to reflect on their practices. This encouraged them to change their educational viewpoint from teacher-centered to child-centered, stabilize their educational view, or to establish their identity by finding challenges in their work. Teachers matured in educational view or practices by finding meaning and by evaluating events at turning points positively. It was suggested that teachers generally improved in expertise, and in their career and psychological development, by reflecting on and finding meaning in their practices.

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This research investigated individual differences in young children's emotional regulation. The focus was on comparing how 2- and 3-year old children respond to frustration, specifically on changes in patterns of distress and positive emotions. The study also analyzed the emotional regulation behavior of three-year olds. Participants were 32 mother-child pairs. The results revealed three types of emotional regulation with regard to change patterns in children's distress: "continuance", "soothing", and "non-expression." There were also two sub-types of emotional regulation in the positive emotion range. Many children who expressed distress at age two did not express distress at age three, and many children who did not express positive emotions at age two expressed positive emotion at age three. With regard to emotional regulation behavior, flexible choices increased more at age three than at age two. These results showed that the three-year olds came to regulate their emotions with increasing autonomy and adaptation.

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This study investigated the influence of enjoyment of learning and motivation on two aspects of lifelong learning: active involvement (effortful study at the present time) and volition (will power to continue studying over an extended time period). In Study 1, students (N=365) at an open university completed a questionnaire. The measure of enjoyment consisted of three subscales ("knowing," "thinking," "practical"). For students under age 64, enjoyment of "knowing" influenced both active involvement and volition, while for students aged 65 and older enjoyment of "thinking" had different effects on their active involvement and volition depending on their level of educational background. In Study 2, 21 older students took part in interviews. Students with a higher educational background reported "enjoyment of a broad variety of thinking" which occurs in relating things across disciplines. This tendency influenced their volitional aspect of lifelong learning. Students with high school education or less reported "enjoyment of depth and diversity of thinking," which occurred when acquiring different perspectives from their own, and which was related to their active involvement in lifelong learning.

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In Study 1, 5-year-olds (N=34) completed the Prosocial Self-Perception Scale, consisting of 6 items about how preschool children thought they should be (prosocial self-norm) and could be (prosocial self-evaluation). Their interactions with peers were also observed during free play. Prosocial self-evaluation scores were negatively correlated with onlooker/unoccupied behavior, and were positively correlated with frequency of associative play. In Study 2, 5-year-olds (N=29) took the Prosocial Self-Perception Scale, and prosocial situations (facing the distressed situation, helping strategies) were also observed during free play. The children who thought they could be prosocial faced and helped their friends with situations of distress more than did other children. In addition, these children faced their friends' distress more in associative play than did other children. These results suggested that prosocial self-perception was related to prosocial behavior in the context of free play.

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The proportion of Japanese students who intend to choose professional-type career is expected to increase in the future. The purpose of Study 1 was to construct the scale to measure preferences for professionalism. This scale was divided into five components that sociologists believe define a profession: altruism, autonomy, learning and development of knowledge and skills, qualification, and cooperation with co-workers. University sophomores (N=207) completed a questionnaire to assess preferences for professionalism. A factor analysis yielded five factors corresponding to the above five features, and a Professionalism Preference Scale (PPS) was constructed consisting of five subscales. The purpose of Study 2 was to reveal preferences for professionalism that could influence the vocational decisions of students who intend to become doctors. Ninety-six university sophomores who were scheduled to enter medical school completed a questionnaire including the PPS. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that both preferences for 'cooperation with co-workers' and 'learning and development of knowledge and skills' could influence vocational decisions.

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This research investigated how spontaneous gestures during speech represent "Frames of Reference" (FoR) among preschool children, and how their FoRs change with age. Four-, five-, and six-year-olds (N=55) described the route from the nursery school to their own homes. Analysis of children's utterances and gestures showed that mean length of utterance, speech time, and use of landmarks or right/left terms to describe a route, all increased with age. Most of 4-year-olds made gestures in the direction of the actual route to their homes, and their hands tend to be raised above the shoulder. In contrast, 6-year-olds used gestures to give directions that did not match the actual route, as if they were creating a virtual space in front of the speaker. Some 5- and 6-year-olds produced gestures that represented survey mapping. These results indicated that development of FoR in childhood may change from an egocentric FoR to a fixed FoR. As factors underlying development of FoR, verbal encoding skills and the commuting experience were also discussed.

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Numerical classifiers are morphemes that follow numerals when counting objects. In Japanese, classifiers for counting inanimate objects and those for counting animals are different. The present study investigated whether ontological knowledge about the animate/inanimate distinction helps children to acquire numerical classifiers. Four year-olds (N=21), 5 year-olds (N=26), and 6 year-olds (N=27) answered questions about whether a puppet was using classifiers correctly to count objects. It was predicted that it would be easier for children to identify the puppet's errors when counting inanimate objects with the wrong animal classifier, compared with detecting errors when animals were counted using the wrong animal classifier. The results confirmed this prediction, but only for the 6 year-old participants. This suggests that from age 6 children can utilize ontological knowledge about the animate/inanimate distinction when deciding what classifier to use to count objects. In addition, even the 4 and 5 year-old children were able to correctly use the classifiers corresponding to a basiclevel category.

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This study utilized a Religious Consciousness Scale based on the "religiosity" described by Glock (1962) and Verbit (1970), and Helping Behavior Scales, to study a sample of junior high and senior high school students (N=1,999). In addition to studying the relation between religiosity and helping, it examined developmental differences in the Christian religiosity of Christian School students (N=1,881). The results suggested that "being Christian" and "having Christians in one's family" are important aspects of religiosity for christian students. The data also showed age differences between junior high and senior high school students. Finally, analysis of the relation between Christian religiosity and helping behavior of junior high and senior high school students (N=183) showed that first-generation Christians and second-generation Christians had different features.

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