The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of strategies for checking failures in problem solving on question-generating and academic help-seeking, after evaluating the adequacy of intervention with the strategies. An exploratory study showed that high school students perceived a need for help-seeking to check their failures in mathematics. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with the results from Study 1 (participants: 313 high school juniors) revealed that having a learning goal influenced help-seeking indirectly via the use of checking strategies. Based on those results, Study 2 examined the effects of strategy training. High school students (73 juniors) participated in the experiment. The results showed that high achievers in mathematics generated more questions than low achievers did. However, both high and low achieving students generated fewer general questions and more task-related questions. These results suggest that strategy training improves the quality of questions generated, regardless of differences in students' achievement in mathematics.

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In the present study, the robustness of the Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) Test was examined against response bias, using paired comparison methods expressed by structural equation modeling. The EQ test was then standardized. In Experiment 1, paired-comparison and Likert-type EQ tests were administered to 140 participants in recruitment and non-recruitment situations, in order to evaluate the robustness of the test. Standard deviations, effect size, and convergent validity showed that in both situations, the paired comparison test was more robust against response bias than the Likert-type test. In Experiment 2, in order to stabilize the scoring, data obtained from another set of 383 participants were added to the data from Experiment 1. Items on the test were then divided into 10 subsets, yielding parallel tests, and the correlation of scales among those tests was calculated. The parallel tests were showed to have concurrent validity.

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The present study had 2 purposes. The first was to develop a scale to measure middle-school teachers' concerns about their relations with their students. Second, the relation between the 3 scales developed (a teachers' concerns scale, a scale of teachers' coping with their concerns, and a scale measuring supports for the teachers) and changes in the teachers' perception of their students after they had had some problems with them, was examined. Included in the changes in the teachers' perception of their students was the opportunity that the teachers had to become better teachers because they understood their students better as a result of coping with the problems they had had with them. The data came from a questionnaire completed by 290 middle-school teachers. Factor analysis of the data from the teachers' concerns scale revealed 4 main factors: “feelings of opposition to the students,” “feelings of difficulty when teaching the students,”“lack of acceptance of the teachers by their students,” and “dissatisfaction with their relations with their students.” Furthermore, multiple regression analysis revealed that all 4 of the factors from the teachers' concerns scale correlated significantly with changes in perception of the students that were reported by the teachers after they had had to deal with problems with the students. It was suggested that the teachers' troubled feelings were not only negative but also had a positive side for the teachers. Cognitive change as reported on the teachers' concerns scale was correlated significantly with all reports of changes in perception of the students.

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The present study compared preschoolers' judgments of provocative, retaliative, and punitive aggression. Preschoolers (36 boys, 30 girls; average age 61 months, range 50 to 73 months) were presented with 3 picture stories in which the main character showed either provocative, retaliative, or punitive aggressive behavior. Following each story, the children were asked to judge (1) whether the aggressive behavior was right or wrong,(2) whether they would like to play with the main character, and (3) whether they would behave like the main character. The results were as follows: (1) The children judged provocative aggression to be explicitly wrong; however, their judgments about retaliative and punitive aggression were equally divided.(2) The children reported that they would like to play with the main character when he or she showed retaliative or punitive aggression, however, they rejected playing with the main characters who showed provocative aggression.(3) The children reported that they would show punitive aggression, but that they would not show provocative or retaliative aggression. The results indicate that preschoolers at these ages have already acquired a rudimentary understanding of retributive justice, and that they tend to justify retaliative and punitive aggression.

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Factor analysis of data on the Japanese Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R) from a sample of 284 Japanese infants revealed differences in factor patterns between Japan and the United States (Study 1). The procrustes solution showed that the Orienting/Regulation factor was not replicated. On the basis of our hypothesis concerning cultural differences in the interpretation of infant behavior, Japanese mothers were given each infant behavior item from the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and asked to choose 1 of 14 behavior categories, corresponding to the different dimensions of the questionnaire, that most appropriately fit that behavior (Study 2). The results were that 7 out of 15 infant behaviors in the original “Activity Level” category were considered by the mothers to represent “Distress to Limitation.” Also, 7 of the 16 infant behaviors relating to sleeping in the original category “Distress to Limitation” were not considered to represent it. This suggests that, for Japanese babies, sleeping might not be a confining situation. These results support the idea that culture plays a role in shaping infants' temperament through the actions of caregivers. The data are discussed in terms of different conceptions of self-regulation, which reflect cultural differences in child care and the cultural view of children.

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Recent research on goal effects has indicated that conscious and unconscious goals share similar characteristics and functions. However, the extent to which these 2 forms of goal pursuits differ, and under what conditions, is unclear. In the present study, 2 experiments utilizing a suppression paradigm were conducted to demonstrate the difference between suppression that is induced consciously via instructions, and suppression induced unconsciously via egalitarian goal priming. Experiment 1 demonstrated that unconscious suppression did not lead to paradoxical effects, a by-product accompanying conscious suppression. Those participants who were instructed to avoid stereotyping foreigners during a writing task engaged in more stereotyping in a subsequent impression-formation task. This result was not found in the unconscious suppression group. In Experiment 2, based on the assumption that unconscious suppression is more efficient than conscious suppression, it was predicted that unconscious suppression would be less resource-consuming. A self-report measure after the suppression task indicated that only the participants in the conscious suppression condition reported increased fatigue. However, performance on a subsequent anagram task indicated that the performance of both groups was equally degraded, and no difference was observed between the 2 groups in the amount of ego-depletion.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine factors leading to an adaptive transition from junior high school to high school.(In Japan, compulsory education ends with the ninth grade, and high school is optional.) High school students (N=480) completed questionnaires 3 times: at the start of their sophomore year in May, in October, and at the end of the school year in March. The final sample was 176 students (82 males, 94 females). The results showed that having autonomous motivation to enter high school predicted willingness to attend school and satisfaction with school life. On the other hand, the absence of self-determined motivation to enter high school was predictive of maladjustment. It was suggested that continuing one's education in high school with a sense of autonomy could lead to school adjustment.

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The purposes of the present study were (1) to establish listening to recitations (listening to others read aloud without looking at the printed letters) as a new form of reading, in order to clarify the structure of attitudes regarding listening to recitations and to develop a scale for measuring them, and (2) to clarify the effect of the amount of time spent in such listening on attitudes regarding listening to recitations and on reading quantity. Results of a preliminary study investigating attitudes regarding listening to recitations in 322 sixth graders indicated that attitudes regarding listening to recitations (19 items) consisted of a 4-factor structure: comprehension (5 items), positive behavior (7 items), imagination (4 items), and motivation (3 items). Next, attitudes toward listening to recitations and reading quantity were measured in 279 sixth graders, who had been divided into 3 groups: (1) listening to recitations twice a week,(2) listening once a month, and (3) not listening to recitations. Results from measures taken after 3 and 6 months indicated that (1) positive attitudes regarding listening to recitations, and especially comprehension and imagination, were promoted by continuing such listening over a longer period, and (2) continuing to listen to recitations increased reading quantity.

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The present study examined the effectiveness for Japanese beginners learning the voice tones of the Chinese language of a newly developed teaching method based on the Verbo-tonal method (VT method) which uses body movements. The hypothesis was that body movements are useful for distinguishing and learning to pronounce 4 different kinds of voice tones, so that with a body-movement based teaching method, beginning learners can do voice-tone learning more effectively and appropriately in a shorter period of time. University undergraduates (N=35) in a basic Chinese class were taught 2 sessions a week, 90 min. per session, using the new teaching method. After 7 weeks, the students were given a test, including the task of dictating and pronouncing the voice tone of monosyllables and two-syllable words, and completed a survey questionnaire. The constructive method for hypothesis testing was used. The results revealed that the subjects obtained high scores on almost all tasks. The results from the questionnaires also supported the hypothesis.

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The purposes of the present study were to develop a reciprocal teaching strategy to induce conceptual change, and to examine the effectiveness of the teaching strategy in elementary school science lessons on electric circuits. Participants in the study were the 30 students in a fourth grade class. Coding analysis and interpretive analysis of transactive discussions were used to evaluate conceptual change occurring during cooperative discussion during the lessons and to analyze variables that might be affecting change. The results were as follows: (1) In the initial phase of cooperative discussions, a teaching strategy of predicting and theorizing induced the students' activities of analyzing the task and the situation by themselves and with others,(2) in the development phase, a teaching strategy of summarizing results allowed the students to specify explicitly differences between their own ideas and those of others, which resulted in conceptual conflict, and (3) in the final phase, a teaching strategy of coordinating the predictions and theories to the results integrated the students' ideas so that conceptual conflicts were resolved. These results suggest that, in the course of reciprocal teaching, when maximum conceptual conflict was induced and discussions reached deadlock, a strategy incorporating thinking guidance for coordinating the predictions and theories to the results properly facilitated conceptual change.

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The present study examined the effect of social skills training (SST), including rehearsal of game activities. Participants were 3 elementary school boys (1 fourth grader and 2 fifth graders) with learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or Asperger syndrome. The boys' behavior during free time was rated on 4 categories of interaction among children, and on a social skills scale. After training, 2 of the boys' cooperative behavior improved, and they had a reduced amount of aggressive and negative behavior, but the third boy did not improve. Because after the social skills training involving rehearsal of game activities, the behavior of some but not all the boys changed, this suggests that each disability requires its own method of social skills training. Remaining problems are assessment, and how to achieve generalization.

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The present study examined the process of establishing a school counseling system, including psycho-educational services, in a junior high school. Analysis of 4 years of practice by a health teacher in the school counseling division of a junior high school showed that there were 4 stages in the development of the school counseling system. In the first stage, teachers at the school reported that their students needed psycho-educational services. In the second stage, the health teacher started coordinating services. In the third stage, the school counseling system weathered some crises. Finally, in the fourth stage, the school counseling system was established with the help of the management of the school. This analysis revealed the following: (1) With the introduction and then withdrawal of a school counselor, the school counseling system and the role of the staff of the school counseling room changed; (2) coordination was carried out by a team in which the health teacher was the key person; (3) the school counseling system that was established effectively utilized the helpers available at any given time. Provision of total psycho-educational services was made possible as the establishment of the system progressed.

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[in Japanese]

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