The purpose of this study was to investigate the appearance and function of spontaneous “Kusho” behaviour among Japanese adults. It was defined as writing like finger movement without any physical and visible trace.
In the first experiment, 105 female college students engaged Kanji grapheme integration task (TABLE 1). Subjects were asked to integrate Kanji after presentation of two or three Kanji graphemes. While the subjects were performing in this task, the appearance of “Kusho” and the type of this behaviour were observed. The results showed that 100% of them did “Kusho”. And two types of this behaviour were identified such as 1) writing on any parts of body (e. g. knee, palmetc.) with visual monitoring, and 2) as writing in the air without visual monitoring.
In the second experiment, using the same task as in experiment 1, the function of “Kusho” behaviour was investigated under three conditions: 1) writing on the white paper with subject's index finger with visual monitoring, 2) writing in the air without visual monitoring, and 3) any “Kusho” behaviour being prohibited. In each condition, Kanji graphemes were presented in a visual or auditory form. 60 subjects engaged in 12 Kanji grapheme integration task which contained 4 types of Kanji pattern (TABLE, 2). Two-way ANOVA (presentation modality: 2three “kusho” condition) showed two factor's interaction was significant. In the visual presentation, two types of kusho showed highly effect, but in the auditory condition, kusho writing in the air without visual monitoring revealed no effect (FIG. 1).
From these results, the effect and the nature of “Kusho” behaviour were discussed in the viewpoints of the functional role of motor imagery.

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The present study had two pourposes. The first was to develop the projective instrument for measuring interpersonal values and the second was to explore the interpersonal values of adolescents by using such instrument in order to discuss the value of the method.
A projective instrument for interpersonal values based on the Thematic Apperception Test was constructed. Then, an attempt was made to examine validity and reliability of the instrument, and its relationship with the questionnaire instrument designed to assess the similar interpersonal values. Four picture stimuli were selected, which represented two different interpersonal settings, a) peer relations and b) father-son relations. This measure asked the respondents to classify the 18 value items into six categories (like a Q-sort method), in order of importance of the hero in the picture in accordance with the situation that each picture represented. The 247 male subjects answered the test, and their responses were analyzed by means of the Q-modefactor analysis. As a result, 4factors were extracted and each individual had 4 composite scores (Q factor loadings). Next, to show the relation of responses on each picture individual composite scores were correlated among 4 pictures. The correlation coefficients computed between same interpersonal settings were found high and significant, while those computed between different ones were relatively low and mostly nonsignificant. This result suggested that the same set of pictures represented the same contents as expected. The Result of comparing projective measure with a self-report instrument based on the questionnaire containing the same 18 value items indicated that on fatherson settings inter-correlations between the two instruments were relatively low. This meant that the same individual described or portrayed his own values differently on the two instruments. The above result might partly be attributable to the problem of reliability ; alpha coefficients for each of 4 dimensions were not high enough.
The findings on the difference in responses between university and high school students, and between delinquents and nondelinquents were as follows.
1) There existed significant differences in composite scores between university and high school students only on stimuli of the father-son settings. These differences were found related to items such as “self-control” and “cheerfulness.”
2) Delinquents responded significantly low for items related to “independence” and “courage” on stimuli of the father-son settings comparing to nondelinquent subjects.
3) The tendency of interpersonal values on “tenderness” being more important than “intelligence” was commonly seen in both self-report and projective responses by almost all subjects.
The difference between subject groups being mainly found in responses on the projective measure, it was suggested that this projective instrument might make more detailed description of the interpersonal values than the self-report one.

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This study was based on:
(1) the construction of an identitiy status scale based on the examination and refinement of the identity status concept used by Marcia, J. E.
(2) the examination of a status distribution within the university student population.
(3) the evaluation of the significance of crises and commitments in eleven psychosocial areas and three developmental periods.
(4) the examination of the features of each identity status.
After reviewing and examining previous studies, the following two questionnaires were compiled, and administered to 170 male and 140 female under graduates. The first composed of an identity status scale defined six identity statuses based on three variables: present commitment, past crisis, future commitment pursuit. The second is composed of a crisis-commitment questionnaire measuring the level of crisis and commitment in eleven areas (e. g. relations with family members, life styles and values, etc.) and three developmental periods (i e. the present, the time following students' admission to the university, and the second year of high school).
The validity of the identity status scale was checked using the responses of three apathetic clients as a standard of comparison.
The principal results were as follows:
(1) Both identity diffusion status and foreclosure status represented only four percent of the tota sample.
(2) Identity diffusion-moratorium intermediate status represented about fifty percent of the total sample.
(3) In males, the level of crisis and commitment in the areas of “future occupation” and “life styles and values”, and the level of commitment in the area of “study”, varied significantly among identity statuses.
(4) In females, the level of crisis during “the time following students' admission to the university”, and the level of commitment in such areas as “relations with friends of the same sex”,“study”,“future occupation”, and “life styles and values”, varied significantly among identity statuses.
(5) Such areas as “political attitude-activity” and “religion” were not significant in the formation of university students' identity statuses. The features of each identity status and sex differences were also closely examined, especially in relation to the level of crisis and commitment following admission to a university.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the role played by information on the character's goals in comprehension and production of a picture story. Sixty 4-year-old, 5-year-old and 6-year-old children were divided into two homogeneous groups (10 subjects each) at each age level, and assigned to one of two conditions: the goal condition with given instruction on the character's goals, and the control condition without information about the goals. The children were shown the story consisting of 24 pictures without text. They were asked to describe each picture and, after seeing all the pictures, to recall the story without pictures, to answer fifteen questions about the contents of the story, and then, to reconstruct the narrative sequences. The results showed that the children in the goal condition, even 4-year-olds, could interpret the pictures as a story, while the children in the control condition often failed to integrate the pictures in terms of a story context. In the recall and comprehension tasks, these trends were emphasized, i. e., those parts of the descriptions that were best integrate into a story were recalled and comprehended best, while nonintegrated descriptions tended to be forgotten. It was shown that the goal instruction enhanced especially the performance of younger children.
It is suggested that production and comprehension for coherent narrative sequences involve the retention of the goal structure or theme in an integrated unified representation of the meaning. Further, the underlying processes of integration are stable across ages, suggesting that children have some fundamental causal structures from early childhood.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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