This study tested the hypothesis that German children have an independent self-concept while Japanese children have an interdependent self-concept. In interviews with 8-year-old Japanese (n=20) and Germans (n=30), girls described themselves as well as two significant others (a best friend and a teacher), and compared themselves with both. The results included the following cross-cultural differences. 1) Both in self- and other-descriptions, the Japanese children produced more interpersonal-oriented utterances than did Germans, and the German children made more individual-oriented utterances. 2) In comparisons between themselves and teachers, Japanese were more inclined to point out common characteristics while Germans emphasized differences. This cultural difference was not seen in children's comparisons with their best friends. 3) German girls expressed a more negative attitude towards identification with other persons than did the Japanese. These results confirmed the original hypothesis. In addition, the object specificity of self/other relationships and the psycho-social implications of the results were discussed with regard to cultural meaning systems.

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This study showed how children write letters and become literate in preschool. Content analyses were conducted on 1082 letters written over a 7 month period by 141 preschoolers. Findings included the following. (1) Most preschoolers wrote letters addressed to classmates and wrote the recipients' names and classroom names on the letters. (2) Many letters written by younger preschoolers consisted only of pictures, with little or no verbal contents. It seemed that younger children wrote letters just for the sake of writing, and to give something to a friend rather than to interact or communicate. (3) The contents of letters changed with age. Older children's letters tended more to convey messages or answer questions. (4) There were individual differences in the ages at which children became interested in writing letters. These results suggest that early childhood education should encourage children to write letters whenever possible.

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The present study clarified why it is difficult for children to compare lengths of duration for 2 moving objects using the knowledge "duration = temporal end point-temporal start point. "To explain the difficulties, we analyzed the judgements of 5 to 11 year old children (n=73) on Piagetian tasks where 2 cars ran in the same direction and on 4 kinds of easier tasks. The simplest tasks were to compare the durations for 2 cars which were shown without movement on a CRT display. The main results were as follows. (a) Preschoolers could neither use nor learn to use the knowledge. (b) Some 2nd graders could use or learn to use the knowledge for the easiest tasks without movements and spatial lags. (c) Most 4th and 6th graders were not spontaneously aware of use of the knowledge, but could learn to use it even for the difficult Piagetian tasks. (d) It was difficult for 4th graders to transfer use of the knowledge to similar tasks.

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This study investigated psychological processes in the transition to first-time fatherhood, i.e., the relationship between men's feelings about fathering before childbirth and their subsequent attitudes toward parenting after childbirth. Husbands first reported feelings of responsibility to support their families, and confidence that they would be come good fathers. Six psychological factors characterized men's feelings about becoming fathers : "feeling restricted" "development of the baby's personality as part of one's own self" "worry or anxiety about the baby emotional readiness to be a father," "Joy of becoming a father," and "confidence about being a good father. "Men who scored high on measures of affiliation and autonomy tended to rate themselves positively on readiness and confidence. But men who felt more restricted before the child's birth later found it difficult to play with children or understand their feelings. Additionally, these "restricted" individuals tended to be very focused on their own selves and emotional changes.

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This study focused on the individual differences in two aspects of preschoolers' self-regulation : self-assertion and self-inhibition. Mothers of 75 boys and 75 girls rated their children on the Approach, Adaptability, and Mood scales of the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire when the children were 11 months old. When the children were 3 years and 7 months old, mothers completed the Behavioral Style Questionnaire and an additional questionnaire concerned with children's conflicts and maternal discipline techniques. When their children were 4 years and 1 month old, mothers completed a questionnaire about self-regulation. The results showed that behaviorally uninhibited children were high in self-assertion, whereas children rated high on adaptability and good mood were highly self-inhibited. Children rated high on both self-assertion and self-inhibition were temperamentally easy and were exposed to more reason-based discipline techniques from mothers. Finally, an experimental and observational study conducted on 40 preschoolers revealed that self-assertive children had been behaviorally uninhibited in toddlerhood and temperamentally easy in infancy. The findings demonstrated that self-regulation consists of two processes : the internalization of rules and the control of behavior.

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This study investigated mother-child picture book reading, with regard to children's involvement and mothers' support. A cross-sectional sample of 66 Japanese mothers and their 10-, 12-, 15-, 18-, 21-, 24-, and 27-month old children were observed and their utterances were analyzed sequentially as each dyad read 3 books for 5 minutes. The older groups of children used conventional labeling without hearing prior conventional labeling by mothers. These older children also responded to requests for information by mothers with conventional labeling. The mothers demanded a more active role from the older children, by initiating conversation with a request for information more often. Mothers also elaborated the conventional labeling of older children more often. These results show that with age children take an increasingly active role producingc onventional labels in mother-child conversation. They also indicate that Japanese mothers, as their children get older, used instructional strategies such as decreasing the degree of scaffolding and incorporating children's conventional labeling into more complex conversational structures.

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