In Study 1, ideas about morals, facts, ambiguous facts, and taste were investigated among younger children, first-, second-, and third-grade elementary school students (N＝253). Next, a child with the identical opinion (A) and a child with the opposite opinion (B) were identified. Participants were asked: “Do you think that only one belief is right, or are both beliefs are right?” (understanding of relativism) and “Do you want to play with Child A/Child B?” (tolerance). False-belief tasks were also conducted with younger children. Depending on the task, even younger children could understand relativism. Each age group of children made judgments about the four domains. In tolerance judgments, the moral domain became differentiated with increasing age. Understanding of relativism was not observed for taste, perhaps because the desirable taste of ice cream used in the task might have been positive for all children. There were also correlations between Theory of Mind and understanding of relativism. In Study 2, a supplemental experiment was conducted using vegetables, considered to be less attractive than ice cream for children. The results indicated that understanding of relativism increased for the vegetable task.

View full abstract

This study elucidated how mothers conceptualize personal entitlement and how their children acquire their own conceptions of personal discretion. Married Japanese women and 34 of their children (mean age＝5 years 10 months) participated in interviews. Mothers' conceptions of personal entitlement were assessed by using scenarios of conflicts between a husband and wife. The women were also presented with four situations that depicted children's defiance in moral, conventional, personal, and prudent (showing care and forethought) events. Children of participants were presented the same picture-scenarios as their mothers. Mothers who had “independent” conceptions of spousal relationships showed a strong tendency to persuade their children repeatedly when they engaged in improper behavior. The results suggest that maternal concepts of personal entitlement are reflected in the social context of the child's moral development at home, and influence the development of the child's sense of personal discretion.

View full abstract

According to social domain theory, thinking takes place in three different domains – the moral, the societal, and the personal, or in coordination among these three domains. The present study examined (1) the effects of audience differences on children's domain coordination, and (2) the difficulties children experience in domain coordination when writing arguments about school rules. Fourth graders (N＝30) were assigned to an “old friend condition” or a “transfer student condition.” In each condition, children were asked to produce a piece of writing to persuade the target audience to abide by the school rules. The reasons children listed were then categorized according to domains of thinking. The results showed the following: (1) children generated more reasons based on the societal domain in the transfer student condition, and more reasons based on the personal domain in the old friend condition; and (2) the degree of difficulty children had in writing was positively correlated with the number of reasons they generated. These results suggest that the children recognized the need for domain coordination and could coordinate domains according to their audience.

View full abstract

This study investigated whether negative outcomes constrain young children's understanding of false beliefs on morally relevant false belief tasks. Participants (3–6 year-olds, N＝71) were presented with three kinds of morally relevant false belief situations, in which the same false belief accidentally caused morally negative, positive, or neutral outcomes. In addition to identifying an actor's false beliefs, children were asked to evaluate the act itself and to justify their evaluations. The results showed that young children gave fewer correct answers under negative and neutral conditions of morally relevant false belief tasks than they did on standard false belief tasks. Even children who passed the false belief tasks were affected by morally negative outcomes in evaluating the acts, but they gave more intentional reasons to justify their evaluations than did children who did not pass these tasks. These findings suggest that identifying morally relevant false beliefs is a challenge for young children because of their bias against negative outcomes, and also due to the inherent complexity of such situations.

View full abstract

The goal of this research was to clarify the moral development of children through moral lessons at school, based on a sociocultural approach. Descriptions of morality related reading provided by first grade elementary school children were treated as language mediated morality, and changes in these descriptions were analyzed longitudinally over a five-month period. We found that participants initially copied the sample expressions when they described “mind expression cards” that were used to express their emotions visibly in class, but at a later age they began to rearrange the expressions or to create original expressions. In addition, most students who rearranged expressions wrote multiple thoughts and noted the conflicts among their ideas. This exploration of moral development through moral lessons therefore suggests that children appropriate language representing multiple points of view into their own expressions. This language can be considered “vernacular moral language.” However, the data also suggest that this moral developmental shift was not a step upward in a hierarchical progression, but rather a spiral progression depending on the changing contents of lessons and “mind expression cards.”

View full abstract

This research examined the reliability and validity of the Cognitive and Emotional Empathy Scale for Children (CEES-C) and investigated differences by gender and grade level in empathy. It also examined the relationship between empathy and prosocial and aggressive behavior among Japanese elementary and middle school students. Participants were 546 elementary school children (grades 4–6) and 646 middle school students. Factor analysis of the CEES-C revealed six factors. Cognitive empathy was comprised by two factors: “sensitivity to others' emotions (sens)” and “perspective-taking (pt).” Emotional empathy involved four factors: “sharing of others' positive emotions (sp),” “sharing of others' negative emotions (sn),” “good feelings toward others' positive emotions (gf),” and “sympathy for others' negative emotions (sym).” Among both elementary and middle school students, sens and sym had a positive relationship with prosocial behavior. In addition, for upper division elementary school students, gf had a negative relationship with aggressive behavior. Finally among middle school students pt had a negative relationship with aggressive behaviors.

View full abstract

There has been a recent growth in neuroimaging research to unveil the neural basis of empathy. This article reviews some of these neuroimaging studies and findings regarding empathy, in contrast with traditional definitions and theories of empathy. Recent research indicates that empathy as related to physical and social pain activates brain areas assicuated with (a) involvement in processing mirrored feelings of one's pain (e.g., anterior insula cortex, anterior cingulate cortex), (b) understanding action (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis), and (c) mentalizing (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction, precuneus). It has also been suggested that these brain areas play an important role in affect sharing and understanding of other people's feelings, both of which are integral components of empathy. In addition, it has been observed that the emotions of other people do not always automatically elicit empathic responses in observers, because empathic brain responses are sometimes modulated by situational factors and observer characteristics. A newly emerging topic in this field is the investigation of the neural basis of prosocial behavior.

View full abstract

This paper first reviews previous studies by contrasting prosocial behavior with moral development, both of which have been the focus of many developmental psychologists. Many researchers in this area have considered the question of how individuals may acquire more effective ways to regulate their emotional responses or social relations, and learn to guide their behavior in moral or virtuous ways. Therefore, to build bridges between research and practice researchers have introduced moral education, social skills training, or social and emotional learning into schools to prevent crises in behavior like bullying. Recently, these approaches seem to be gradually integrating as a united intervention framework, because there is a consensus that students need cognitive, behavioral, and affective skills to effectively enact key roles in a given social context at schools. The implications of the current trend are discussed in terms of improvement of both social competence and moral character.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify theories of character education and to describe how character education is practiced in the U.S.A. First, the word ‘character’ was defined. Next, the eleven principles of CEP (Character Education Partnership) and its strategies were described to identify the goals of character education. In addition, excellent practices at several American schools and three centers which advised the schools were introduced based on our visits to these institutions. The relationship between character education and positive psychology was examined, and differences between character education and other strategies including SEL, assertion skills, etc., were discussed in relation to the positive development of students. Finally, the difference between moral education in Japan and character education was discussed. It was apparent that character education is one of the comprehensive school reform movements that have applied many theories from developmental psychology.

View full abstract

Are we born to be inherently prosocial? More boldly stated, are we born to be inherently good? Recent studies of infants have revealed the possible presence of prosociality in early life. However, discussions about prosociality itself in the literature on developmental science have been limited. To address such a gap in the literature, this paper sought to illuminate the nature and transformation of prosociality, based on empirical and developmental research. Accordingly, it included a discussion about how people may form and maintain prosociality in our society, with reference to theories of evolutionary biology. This was followed by a review of empirical evidence on prosociality from infancy to preschool age, which provided evidence of the inherent nature of prosociality and its gradual transformation with age. Further, the transformation of prosociality was described in consideration of factors that affect its development. Finally, this paper provided tentative suggestions for future research that would clarify the mechanisms of the emergence of prosociality and its gradual transformation with age.

View full abstract

School events (called gakkou gyoji in Japanese) are part of the national curriculum, yet little is known about the developmental significance of school events. The purpose of this study was to explore the retrospective meaning ascribed to school events from the perspective of individuals who had been involved in such activities. University students (N＝670) were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences in school events at secondary school. Six aspects of meaning were identified: feeling positive about group activities, becoming considerate of others, getting exhausted with group activities, becoming active in the resolution of problems, improving of leadership proficiency, and increasing commitment to school activities. The results revealed that (1) among the dimensions of involvement, only engagement was associated with all aspects of meaning; (2) among activity qualities, goal-oriented behavior was strongly associated with engagement; and (3) agreeableness had a moderating effect on the association between activity quality and engagement. These findings suggested that school events can have developmental meaning and significance as life events. Further longitudinal research is needed to examine developmental outcomes and processes, while considering individual personality characteristics.

View full abstract

This research studied the structure of “Ibasho” (sense of own place) among upper elementary school children, from the perspectives of psychology and education. It examined gender differences and developmental changes in “Ibasho,” and the main results were as follows. First, statistical analyses yielded four factors: “Sense of Perceived Acceptance,” “Sense of Fulfillment,” “Sense of Self-Affirmation,” and “Sense of Relief.” The hypothesis from the field of education that “Sense of Fulfillment” and “Sense of Self-Affirmation” would represent one aspect of “Ibasho” was supported. In addition, one aspect of “Ibasho” that had been found in a previous study of adolescents (“Sense of Authenticity”) was not identified by the present study. It is possible that “Sense of Authenticity” is not yet an important element of “Ibasho” prior to adolescence. Second, 4th graders felt more “Sense of Perceived Acceptance” and “Sense of Self- Affirmation” than did 5th and 6th graders, and felt more “Sense of Relief” than did 5th graders. Third, girls felt more “Sense of Perceived Acceptance” and “Sense of Relief” than did boys.

View full abstract

Response styles may prolong and increase depression among children and adolescents. The purpose of the current study was to develop a Response Styles Questionnaire for Middle School Students (RSQ-MS), based on data from a sample of 4th through 9th grade school children (N＝5,217). Drawing on previous questionnaires which measured responses styles, a total 16 items were generated that were assumed to represent four factors: Rumination, Problem-Solving, Escape from Thinking, and Distraction. As predicted, the results of an exploratory factor analysis indicated that four factors could be derived from the RSQ-MS. Correlations among these factors were similar to the correlations found in previous related studies, and the subscales of the RSQ-MS exhibited acceptable levels of Cronbach's alpha. In addition, the Rumination subscale was positively correlated with depression and aggression, and the Problem-Solving and Distraction subscales were negatively correlated with depression and aggression. These results were in line with the results of past research, which suggests that the RSQ-MS has strong construct validity.

View full abstract