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Volume 56 (2008)
- Issue 4 Pages 463-
- Issue 3 Pages 303-
- Issue 2 Pages 149-
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Volume 56, Issue 3
Displaying 1-12 of 12 articles from this issue
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KAZUKO FUJISAWA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 303-317
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purpose of the present experiment was to investigate how context or prior knowledge given to participants in advance would influence the correctness of their comprehension of messages that consisted of pictograms written with Japanese characters. University students (N=96) were required to interpret 2 messages comprised entirely of pictograms accompanied by Japanese characters. The 4 conditions were as follows: (a) no context was given in advance (NC),(b) information was provided about the sender and the sender's relation to the receiver (R),(c) a keyword for the topic was provided (K), and (d) all the above information was provided in advance (RK). The results showed that the context given in advance to the groups getting either a keyword or all the information played an influential role in the participants' understanding of the sender's intentions in the pictogram messages. This suggests that appropriate schemas were activated by this prior knowledge, and that that in turn may have facilitated the appropriate interpretation of the messages.View full abstractDownload PDF (1974K) -
From the Standpoint of Bakhtin's TheoryATSUSHI TAJIMA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 318-329
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present study investigated effects of educational intervention based on “revoicing” (O'Connor & Michaels, 1996), which is used to promote learners' discussions aimed at understanding, when they are learning scientific concepts. Following Bakhtin's theory,“understanding” was defined as interpreting the relation between a concept and everyday experience, as a result of discussions by the learners. University students (N=26) were divided into 13 pairs, and asked to produce an explanation of the relation between concepts and everyday experience, through discussions within each pair. If the students could not reach an understanding on their own, the experimenter provided revoicing intervention for the pair's discussions. The results revealed that revoicing intervention increased the number of transactive discussions (Berkowitz & Gibbs, 1983), which had the effect of establishing understanding. The number of metaphors from everyday experience that were used to explain the meaning of the concepts also increased. In summary, the revoicing intervention supported the participants in achieving an understanding of the concepts. It is possible that this intervention could have wide application in diverse educational practices.View full abstractDownload PDF (2177K) -
MUNETADA HARADA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 330-340
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present study explored the relationship between baseline instability of self-esteem and self-concept in late adolescence. Three times in 1 month, university students (N=243; average age 19.5 years ± 1.3 years) completed 2 instruments: the TS (Two-Sided)-WHY method, and the Mizokami Self-Evaluation Scale. From the resulting data, the relationship between instability of self-esteem and self-concept was examined. The results showed that instability of positive and negative self-esteem differed, depending on the extent of self-concepts and categories in each dimension. These results suggest that an intervention in the stability of individuals' self-esteem and self-concept may be effective for increasing positive self-esteem and decreasing negative self-esteem. However, instability of self-esteem is not necessarily negative, in that it gives individuals an opportunity to examine their self-concept and create important self-concepts.View full abstractDownload PDF (1965K) -
Correlation of Their Image of Teaching, Teachers, and Children with Their Observational SkillsTOMOTAKA MISHIMA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 341-352
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of practice teaching on the development of practice teachers' observational skills that are linked with images of teaching, teachers, and children. Practice teachers (N=53) recorded their impressions of a videotaped math class in an elementary school before and after they did practice teaching. The following aspects of the practice teachers' observational skills, as revealed in those reports, were analyzed: (a) the number of descriptions that identified problems in the class,(b) the number of descriptions that proposed alternative plans for the class, and (c) their evaluation skills. The major findings were: (a) both the number of problems identified and the number of alternative proposals generally increased after practice teaching,(b) the increase in the number of alternative proposals was correlated with a positive image of teaching and teachers, and (c) the experienced teachers had better class evaluation skills than the practice teachers did. Discussion of these findings referred to effects of practice teaching on the observational skills of practice teachers, and presented some pedagogical implications.View full abstractDownload PDF (2254K) -
AKIKO KAWASHIMA, KAZUMI MAESHIRO, MASUMI SUGAWARA, AISUSHI SAKAI, KYOK ...2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 353-363
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present study examined the mediational role of adolescents' appraisals of their parents' marital conflict on the adolescents' depressiye symptoms. The adolescents' fathers and mothers completed scales tapping marital attributions, which in turn assessed the seriousness of their marital conflict. The adolescents completed measures appraising their parents' marital conflict, their emotional bonding toward their parents, and their depressive symptoms. The results indicated that the more severe the martial conflict was, the more the adolescents felt caught between their parents, and that, in turn, the adolescents, regardless of their gender, felt threat and self-blame for their parents' marital conflict. However, the appraisals of threat and self-blame were linked with depressive symptoms only for the boys. Also, the seriousness of the marital conflicts was linked to the adolescents' emotional bonding toward their parents, especially their fathers. In terms of depressive symptoms, the significance of the adolescents' emotional bonding with the same-sex parent was indicated. Using triadic data, only the mothers' appraisals were significantly linked to the adolescents' appraisals of their parents' marital conflict, and neither the mothers' nor the fathers' appraisals were found to be directly related to the adolescents' depressive symptoms.View full abstractDownload PDF (1925K) -
KEISUKE TANIMURA, YAYOI WATANABE2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 364-375
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purposes of the present study were to examine (a) relationships between self-reports and others' evaluations of social skills,(b) links between self-impression and social skills, and (c) differences between cognition of social skills and social behavior. University students (N=113) completed a social-skills questionnaire, and then were divided into 2 groups. Each student was taken to the experimental room, where they met a stranger. The 2 individuals were asked to cooperate in planning a presentation by the experimenter. Their conversations were observed through a one-way mirror. The results showed that self-reported social skills were positively related to others' evaluation of an individual's social skills. The students who reported that their social skills were superior were evaluated more highly by others. The results also revealed that the students believed in making a good impression on the stranger. The students who reported that their social skills were superior tended to develop and maintain a conversation with the stranger by asking questions and so on in the initial encounter, although this seemed to be influenced by the stranger's gender, that is, whether the individual was the same or the opposite sex.View full abstractDownload PDF (1935K) -
A Longitudinal StudyAKIKO OHUCHI, SHIGEO SAKURAI2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 376-388
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present study examined changes in nonsocial play (reticent behavior, solitary-passive behavior, and solitary-active behavior) and the relations between nonsocial play and social skills and problem behavior for boys (N=50) and girls (N=35) in 2-year-course kindergartens. Children's nonsocial play was observed immediately upon their entering kindergarten (Time 1) and 6 months later (Time 2). Their social skills and problem behavior were rated by their teachers at Time 1, Time 2, and just before graduation (Time 3). The results revealed that the rate of reticent behavior decreased from Time 1 to Time 2. Reticent behavior was negatively related to assertive skills in both the boys and the girls. Solitary-passive behavior at Time 2 was related to low cooperative skills and high carelessness/hyperactivity for the girls, and predicted low assertive skills at Time 3 for the boys. There were no significant relationships to solitary-active behavior at the same point in time. However, one of them at Time 1 predicted subsequent low assertive skills for the boys, and one at Time 2 predicted externalizing problem behavior at Time 3 for the girls.View full abstractDownload PDF (1970K) -
Organizational Strategy Changes and Their OutcomesHIROKI YAMAMOTO, HIDEAKI SHIMADA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 389-402
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present article examines the hypothesis that improving the explicitness of signals by adding visual forms would support organizational strategy changes for prose memory in older adults, initiating a structure strategy and promoting prose memory that is the outcome of the strategy changes. In order to examine the above hypothesis, 90 older adults (mean age=69.77 years) and 90 university students (mean age=21.57 years) were asked to perform a sentence arrangement task, a recall task, and a reconstruction task. The results of these tasks were as follows: (a) Analyzing the frequency of modified arrangements in the organization process as a measure of strategy changes indicated that the older adults' strategy changes improved, depending on the explicitness of the signals, and that aging-related constraints were mitigated.(b) The results confirmed that strategy changes by the older adults that were initiated by the explicitness of the signals caused the effects processes extending to prose memory. Especially, signals with high explicitness improved both the organizational level and the reconstruction level of the older adults (reconstruction level is the degree to which people later are able to reconstruct what was implied). Conversely, signals with low explicitness had little effect on these variables. The present findings suggest that improving the explicitness of signals by adding visual forms would support organization strategy changes and promote prose memory in older adults.View full abstractDownload PDF (2348K) -
YAYOI OKUMURA2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 403-413
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSPeople sometimes evaluate emotions. For example, they are ashamed because they got angry. Or, to give another example, they feel that their sadness is important and necessary. The present study investigated people's negative and positive evaluations of their own emotions. In Study 1, university and vocational school students (N=558: 203 men, 338 women, gender not identified, 17) completed a questionnaire. A scale to measure the evaluation of emotions was developed, and its reliability and validity checked. Factor analysis of the scale yielded 3 factors:“negative self-conscious emotions about emotions,”“necessity of emotions,” and “sense of burden.” Participants in Study 2 were 190 of the students from Study 1 (67 men, 108 women, 5 gender unidentified). In this analysis, the relation between their evaluation of their emotions and their difficulty in identifying and describing their emotions (alexithymia) was examined. The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that the participants' negative evaluations of emotions (“negative self-conscious emotions about emotions” and “sense of burden”) were related to their difficulty in identifying and describing their emotions. These findings suggest that the evaluation of emotions plays an important role in the function of emotions as signals.View full abstractDownload PDF (1760K) -
Social Skills and Problem BehaviorAKIKO OH-UCHI, HITOMI NAGAO, SHIGEO SAKURAI2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 414-425
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSOne of the purposes of the present study was to develop a scale of young children's self-regulation that measured 4 aspects of self-regulation: self-assertiveness, self-inhibition, attention shifting, and attention focusing. A second purpose was to examine the balance of those 4 aspects in relation to social skills and problem behavior. The parents of 452 preschool and kindergarten children rated their children on the self- regulation scale; in addition, the teachers of 262 preschool children rated those children's social skills and problem behavior. Factor analysis (using the principal factor method, Promax rotation) identified 4 factors or subscales, and 23 items. The reliability and validity of the overall scale were confirmed. Cluster analysis of standardized scores on the 4 subscales identified 6 clusters. A comparison of the scores on social skills and problem behavior in each cluster indicated the following: It is necessary for the acquisition of desired social skills that all 4 aspects of self-regulation have high scores. Low scores on all 4 aspects were related to internalizing problems; high self-assertiveness scores combined with low self-inhibition and attentional control scores were related to externalizing problems.View full abstractDownload PDF (2076K) -
TOMOKO TAGAYA, KAZUYOSHI SASAKI2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 426-439
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe present study examined effects of social skills training conducted incidentally in a 4th grade classroom on the pupils' peer relations. In order to assess effects of the training, the children (N=51) were asked to complete 5 scales before and after the training. The scales included self-reported social skills, self-efficacy, ratings of their teacher's teaching style (accepting, demanding), likeability nominations of peers, and a sentence completion test (SCT). The training focused on 3 target skills: saying warm words, listening in a positive way, and self-control. The results were as follows: The training was shown to be effective for increasing the number of likeability nominations from peers and the children's cognitive appraisal of their peers. The changes in the children's scores on self-reported social skills were maintained at follow up 2 months after the training. The children who rated their teacher's teaching style as low on accepting and middle on demanding had greater increases in the social skills scores than did the children who rated their teacher's style as high on both accepting and demanding.View full abstractDownload PDF (2050K) -
KAZUKI SEKINE2008 Volume 56 Issue 3 Pages 440-453
Published: September 30, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 19, 2013
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSPrevious studies of the development of gestures have examined gestures in infants. In recent years, together with the rise of interest in spontaneous gestures accompanied by speech, research on spontaneous gestures in preschool-age children has increased. But little has been reported in terms of systematic developmental changes in children's spontaneous gestures, especially with respect to preschool-age children. The present paper surveys domestic and international research on the development of spontaneous gestures in preschoolers. When gestures seen in infants and preschool-age and older children were categorized, it was found that spontaneous gestures begin to appear together with speech semantically and temporarily by the end of the one-word period; during this same period, gestures that were seen earlier gradually decrease. It is suggested that the development of spontaneous gestures relates to a sentence level, not to a vocabulary level. Based on growth point theory (McNeill, 1992), it is also argued that spontaneous gestures develop with “thinking for speaking” and symbol ability.View full abstractDownload PDF (2563K)
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