The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology

The Development of Emotional Understanding : Inferences about the Present Situation and Others' Thoughts

Ryota Aso, Shunichi Maruno

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 1-11
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.1

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

The present study investigated the development of temporally extended emotional understanding. It was assumed that understanding based on inferences related to the present situation (i) was transferred to inferences about others' thoughts (ii). (i) referred to inferences about others' emotions derived from cues, i.e., attribution as an emotional cause after receiving an external cue. (ii) referred to inferences about the thoughts of "the other who remembered the past after receiving a cue," whereby the cue was not considered to be an emotional cause. To test this model, 60 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds responded to stories in which they had to understand the emotions of a story character either through (i) or (ii). Participants gave inferences and explanations about the story character's emotions. The results showed that while 3-year olds could reach a temporally extended emotional understanding only through (i), (ii) was possible after 4 years of age.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1478K)
Learning to Solve Mathematics Problems : The Impact of Incorrect Solutions in Fifth Grade Peers' Presentations

Miho Kawasaki

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 12-22
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.12

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

The present research examined how elementary school children learned from other children's solutions to mathematics problems. Participants were 170 fifth-grade elementary school students. The children solved mathematics problems that they had not yet learned, according to a pretest. Upon completion of the tasks, one participant presented his/her solution to the class, and then their teacher explained the correct solution. In the Correct-Correct condition, one of the children presented a correct solution; in the Incorrect-Correct condition, one of the children presented an incorrect solution. Finally, children solved similar problems on a post-test. The results showed that the Incorrect-Correct condition was especially beneficial for those who had used the same solution as that presented by a peer. This finding suggested that contrasting a correct solution and an incorrect solution was helpful for children who used one of these solutions, because it promoted meta-cognitive understanding of the correct solution.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1560K)
Developmental Change in Strategies for Weight Seriation, from Perceptual Operations to Transitive Inferences

Naoko Sonoda, Shunichi Maruno

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 23-35
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.23

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This study examined developmental changes in transitive inferences by analyzing strategies for solving a weight seriation task. Participants (134 children ages 5-12 years, and 17 university students) performed under two experimental conditions. In Condition A, participants could use kinetic perceptual cues. In Condition B, participants were not allowed to use such cues, and therefore could only employ formal transitive inferences. The results clarified the change between the stage of perceptual operations to the stage of using formal transitive inferences. Seven-year olds could solve the task in Condition A, but only children from age 12 were able to solve the task in Condition B. In addition, to employ a formal transitive inference participants had to compare elements in two forms (lighter and heavier) with a fixed anchor. Finally, university students selected from a variety of strategies for different tasks. These results were consistent with the overlapping waves model (Siegler, 1996).

View full abstract

Download PDF (1737K)
An Observational Study of Social Comparison by Kindergarten Children in Japanese Culture

Toshitake Takata

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 36-45
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.36

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

Kindergarten children (68 boys and 67 girls) were observed in a naturalistic setting, to clarify the contents and functions of social comparison activity in Japanese culture. Each social comparison statement or behavior was categorized for content (ability, possession, status, activity, or trait) and form (referencing, cognitive clarity, direct evaluative, indirect self evaluative, indirect other evaluative, similarity, competitive, or modeling). The results indicated that (1) older preschoolers, especially girls, were more engaged in a referencing form of social comparison; (2) they engaged considerably in the evaluative form of social comparisons, direct or indirect; and (3) boys engaged in comparison more with the competitive function and less with the similarity function, compared with girls. These findings were discussed in terms a Japanese cultural view of self.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1362K)
A Developmental Study of Pointing during Joint Picture Book Reading : A Longitudinal Study Comparing Picture Book Reading and Building Block Construction Settings

Yoko Sugai, Kiyomi Akita, Makiko Yokoyama, Sachiko Nozawa

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 46-57
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.46

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This research examined the development of children's pointing behavior and joint attention during mother-child reading of picture book reading. Twenty children and their mothers were studied longitudinally at ages 18, 30, and 36 months. The study compared pointing behavior between picture book reading settings and building block settings. The main findings were as follows. First, the frequency of mother-child interaction was greater in the picture book setting than in the building block setting. Second in the picture book setting the frequency of child's pointing gradually decreased between 18, 30, and 36 months of age. It was suggested that this downward trend for pointing would continue in children over the age of 36 months. Finally, in the picture book setting, mothers and children pointed not only to pictures and letters on the page but also to objects in the real world, which led to discovery of new objects. These results revealed the important characteristics of pointing during joint picture book reading.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1597K)
Parental Behavior and Children's Perceptions as Mediators of the Effects of Marital Conflict on Children's Depressive Symptoms

Tatsuo Ujiie, Katsumi Ninomiya, Atsushi Igarashi, Hiromitsu Inoue, Chi ...

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 58-70
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.58

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This study examined how marital conflicts affected depressive symptoms of middle school children, based on a sample of children and their parents in Aichi and Fukushima Prefectures (N=2,038 trios). In previous studies two alternative types of mediating models had been proposed and tested alternatively: (1) a marital conflict spillover parental behavior model, and (2) a child perception/reactivity model. The present study incorporated these two mediating models into a single model. The results indicated that parental marital conflict indirectly affected children's depressive symptoms. Marital conflicts affected parents' harshness toward their children, and the effects of parental harshness were mediated by children's perception of the parents as cold. Previous studies had shown that children's sex mediated the influence of marital conflict on children's depression, but the present study suggested that the predictive model applied to both girls and boys.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1715K)
A Developmental Analysis of Modes of Reasoning on the Bayesian Drawing-of-Lots Problem Using Number Format, Frequency Format and Probability Format

Tomoko Itoh

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 71-82
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.71

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

Junior high school students and university students responded to the Bayesian Drawing-of-Lots Problem using three formats of information: a number format (Itoh, 2008), a frequency format, and a probability format based on Gigerenzer's (e.g., 1991) criticism of the heuristics and biases approach (e.g., Kahneman & Tversky, 1973). A developmental analysis showed that regardless of formats: (1) correct answer rates were low; (2) few participants committed "base-rate neglect"; (3) even university students often committed "joint occurrence," i.e., confusion of P (H|D) with P (H & D); and (4) there was a developmental difference in levels of answers between junior high school students and university students. The results suggested that the fundamental reason for difficulty with the Bayesian problem was in the structure of the problem, i.e., a participant competence factor. Difficulties may not have been due to performance factors such as how problems were represented although Gigerenzer (e.g., 1991) suggested that difficulties were due to such factors.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1636K)
A Mother's Retelling of Experiences about Her Child's Desire to Live with Another Gender

Sachiko Shojima

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 83-94
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.83

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This paper presents a case study of a mother ("M") whose child ("A") told her that she had a gender identity disorder and wished to live as a male after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Longitudinal interviews were conducted 3 times over an 18-month period, beginning two years after A's coming-out. The perspectives adopted for analysis were (1) the process by which M retold her experiences with A, (2) M's self-narrative in retelling her experiences with A, (3) M's reconstxuction of the narrative during the interviews. The A-M relationship improved across the 18-month period of interviews. Overall, the process of M retelling her experiences was related to a reorganization of her life experiences, and addressed the fundamental issue of her existence as A's mother. In generating M's narrative, the existence of others (peer and interviewer) was important. It appeared that M's retelling of remorse reflected her lifespan development as a mother, rather than sequential stages of parental adjustment. In addition, the role of the interviewer was understood as helping to elicit M's narrative.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1729K)
Young Children's Understanding of Changes in Physical Appearance Associated with Old Age

Nobuko Nakashima

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 95-105
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.95

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This study investigated children's understanding of changes in physical appearance in old age, e.g., wrinkles, gray hair, and hair loss. Participants were four-(n=26)and 5-year-olds (n=33), and adults (n=24). Most 5-year-olds (but not 4-year olds) understood that people were likely to exhibit changes in wrinkles and hair in old age, more than the changes in body size typically observed between childhood and early adulthood. In addition, most 5-year-olds and adults, but not 4-year olds, chose internal bodily causes (e.g., decreased vital power to grow hair) rather than artificial external causes (e.g., losing hair by cutting) or psychological causes (e.g., hair loss due to anxiety) as explanations for age-related changes in old age. These results suggested that understanding of changes associated with old age changes dramatically between ages 4 and 5. These developmental changes were discussed in terms of young children's naive biology, and acquisition of vitalistic causality.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1473K)
The Effects of Interactions with an Adult Based on Body Movement, on Children's Metaphor Comprehension

Kaoru Miyazato, Shunichi Maruno, Kenichiro Hori

Article type: Article
2010 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 106-117
Published: March 20, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: July 27, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.21.106

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

Show abstractHide abstract

This study examined the underlying reasons for children's ability to comprehend abstract metaphors in symbolic play situations. Children ages 4 to 6 were assigned to 4 experimental conditions and asked to comprehend metaphors based on non-verbal contextual cues. Under the condition of interactions based on bodily movement, children interacted with an experimenter using the body. In the condition of interactions using dolls, they interacted with an experimenter using dolls. In the moving dolls condition, they moved dolls according to a story. Finally, in the condition of watching immobile dolls, they listened to a story while watching immobile dolls. The results indicated that children could comprehend psychological metaphors more properly under the condition of interactions using the body than under the other conditions. It was suggested, with caution and based on further analysis, that emotions help children to comprehend psychological metaphors.

View full abstract

Download PDF (1574K)

Register with J-STAGE for free!