This paper analyzed how a 4 year old boy who had been labeled as 'difficult' became a full participant in the social community at nursery school, in his relationships with teachers and peers. The process of how he established his identity and was accepted and treated as a full member of the community was considered from a relational viewpoint, as an example of Lave and Wenger's (1991) "Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP). "Lave and Wenger conceived of identities as built upon long-term living relations between persons and their place through participation in 'communities of practice. 'Weekly longitudinal observations of the boy were made on videotape between April and December of 1993. Changes in his identity through interactions with peers and teachers in the participation process were evaluated and interpreted in relation to the transformation of the community as a whole, rather than to changes in the individual's internal functions or skills.

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This article presents a model of transition into the junior college environment, with regard to the mood and its causal attributions which are expressed by everyday language (Heider, 1958). Freshmen at a junior college completed the Visual Analog Mood Scale (VAMS : Shima et al., 1985) concerning mood attributions, at each weekly class between May and July of 1991. From an organismic-developmental systems perspective (Wapner, 1992), the longitudinal data were analyzed as a chronicle of the process of changes in multiple intentionality. Three main results were as follows. (1) The transition consisted of 3 periods : confusion, transitional work and focused work. (2) There were 4 types of transitional processes : estrangement, passive, active and unique. (3) The data on multiple intensionality of time and about students' absence from class supported the first 2 results. Based on these findings, we postulated a sequential transition process and internal "life space", and formed a transitional model with 4 main working hypotheses.

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This study examined the characteristics of children's performance of "te-asobi" a game which combines singing, hand play, and body movements. One- to 5-year old children (N=112) played a "te-asobi" game to a Japanese traditional nursery rhyme, "Genkotsuyamano-Tanukisan". The children's performances were analyzed according to six categories : (1) reproduction, (2) sequence, (3) rhythm, (4) wordings, (5) facial expression, and (6) posture. Age differences appeared in reproduction, sequence, and rhythm. The ability to reproduce a movement at age 5 was quite different that age 2. Sequencing ability between age 1 and 3, but this development ceased between ages 3 and 5. Synchronizing to rhythms became better between 2 to 3 years of age. Other dominant aspects of developmental change were discussed in the development of children's innate cooperation system and the growing psychological influence of social contexts.

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This study examined the relationship between sense of basic trust and time perspective in adolescence, from the viewpoint of Erikson's epigenetic developmental theory. Factor analysis was perfomed on all items of a Sense of Basic Trust Scale, Hopelessness Scale, and Experiential Time Perspective Scale. This yielded 4 factors : Hopelessnes-Hopefulness, Basic Trust and Time Continuity, Certainty about the Present and the Future, and Sense of Interpersonal Trust. The Basic Trust and Time Continuity Factor indicated a close relation between basic trust and self-continuity from past to present. Sense of interpersonal trust was less related to time perspective than sense of basic trust. This suggests that there is a conceptual difference between sense of basic trust and sense of interpersonal trust. Next, a covariance structure analysis was carried out to exmine the hypothesis that Basic Trust and Time Continuity influence Hopelessness and Certainty about the Future. The results showed that Basic Trust and Time Continuity influence Hopelessness, and that Hopelessness and Certainty about the Future influence each other.

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This paper examined identity formation in adolescence from the viewpoint of relatedness in interpersonal contexts. Based on a review of the literature on adolescent identity formation and other areas, a framework which emphasized relatedness was outlined, and the notion of identity was considered in relation to three points. First, researchers have to recognize that studying the way adolescents relate to others gives important insight into how adolescents form their own identity. Second, the process of identity formation consists of recognizing one's own viewpoint, internalizing others' viewpoints, and resolving disagreement between viewpoints through self/other mutual regulation. "Exploration" is the work of identity formation, and may be defined as a problem-solving process in which people make decisions about important life choices by considering, making use of, and negotiating with others. Third, social cognitive developments in adolescence are assumed to be the basis of the identity formation process. Finally, based on this examination, future research implications were discussed.

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This longitudinal study of 254 first-borns showed that infants' temperamental difficulties and their mothers' separation anxiety were associated with maternal stress about child-rearing when the children reached preschool age. As preschoolers, the children were classified as difficult on the Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ) if their mothers had rated them as high on withdrawal and low on adaptability in infancy. Mothers of these difficult preschoolers, compared to mothers of easy preschoolers, reported high child-rearing stress. Canonical correlations were computed between 3 factors of the RITQ (Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire) and the 9 dimensions of the BSQ. These analyses indicated that difficulty in care-taking and low adaptability during infancy predicted adverse temperamental qualities such as high activity, low adaptability and low persistence in preschool. Mothers of these preschoolers tended to have high child-rearing stress. Finally, mothers who reported high levels of separation anxiety in infancy had traditional attitudes toward maternal role, fewer opportunities to go out alone without their children, and high child-rearing stress when their children were in preschool.

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