The purpose of the present study was to examine a personality factor (Rejection Sensitivity : RS) and situational factors (e.g., the relation between the speaker and the listener, and reactions of surrounding friends) as determinants of listeners’ reactions to aversive jokes. In the present study, listeners’ reactions included compliant reactions, avoidant reactions, and emotionally expressive reactions. University students (169 men, 247 women, 1 person gender not reported) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 specific situations, such as one in which the listener’s best friend is the speaker, and surrounding friends laugh at the joke.  The participants were then asked to estimate the frequency of their reactions to aversive jokes in the situation to which they had been assigned.  A 3-factor ANOVA mainly showed that participants who were high on rejection sensitivity estimated a low frequency of complaint reactions in situations in which their best friend was the speaker and surrounding friends did not laugh at the joke, whereas those participants estimated a high frequency of compliant reactions in situations in which their best friend was the speaker and surrounding friends did laugh.  These results indicate that the participants high on rejection sensitivity assessed the possibility of rejection in each situation and selected their reaction in relation to self-protection.

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  The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between self-confidence in communication and identity.  In study 1, 254 university students (18 to 25 years old, average age 19.8 years ; 118 men, 136 women) completed a questionnaire.  A Self-confidence in Communication Scale (SCS) was developed that had 3 subscales : the confidence to communicate your intentions, the confidence to suppress your intentions, and the confidence to understand others’ intentions.  The results of α coefficients showed sufficient reliability ; correlations between communication skill, self-monitoring ability, and self-esteem demonstrated the validity of the Self-confidence in Communication Scale.  In Study 2, 384 university students (18 to 25 years old, average age 19.8 years ; 165 men, 219 women) completed a questionnaire, and the relation between the Self-confidence in Communication Scale and the Multiple Ego Identity Scale (MEIS) was examined.  Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the stability of the Self-confidence in Communication Scale.  The goodness of fit was not sufficient, but the stability of the factor structure was confirmed.  The results of a correlational analysis between the Self-confidence in Communication Scale and the Multiple Ego Identity Scale showed that the Self-confidence in Communication Scale was strongly related to psychosocial self-identity.

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  Self-determination theory postulates multiple motivational constructs (external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation) along the autonomy-control dimension.  The purpose of the present study was to use meta-analytic procedures to examine developmental changes in the relations among motivational constructs.  From 27 articles gathered from a comprehensive literature review, 35 correlation matrices were collected.  Students from elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, and university were compared. The population correlations among motivational constructs were estimated, and factor analyses were performed on the matrices of the estimated correlations in each group of students.  The results showed that the correlations among motivational constructs varied with the students’ level of education.  Controlled motivation (external regulation and introjected regulation) and autonomous motivation (identified regulation and intrinsic motivation) were relatively independent in the elementary school and university students, whereas all the motivational constructs were positively related in the junior and senior high school students.  The important of educational instruction considering developmental differences in motivation was discussed.

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  The present study aimed to identify factors predicting level of parents’ involvement in their elementary school-age children’s homework.  Parents of 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th grade children (N=525) completed questionnaires assessing parental self-efficacy, perception of life context for involvement (time and energy, skills and knowledge, and financial capability), and 4 types of parental involvement.  The results revealed that parents’ perceptions of the amount of time and energy, or skill and knowledge levels, predicted their level of involvement.  This indicates that parents’ perceptions of their life context are significant enough to enable a prediction of their involvement.  Even when parental self-efficacy was high, if parents perceived low levels of time and energy, or knowledge and skills, that enabled a prediction of a low level of parental involvement.  Additionally, the parents who were often absent when their children returned home from school reported low levels of time and energy, and the single mothers reported low levels of financial capability.  This suggests that the actual social situation of the parents indirectly affects parental involvement through parents’ perceptions.

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  The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between people’s perceptions of artistic creation and their motivation for artistic expression and art appreciation.  Based on a hierarchical model, it was hypothesized that stereotyped perceptions of artistic creation might reduce motivation for artistic expression and art appreciation, mediated by low self-efficacy in artistic expression and negative perception of art.  First, a preliminary survey was conducted in which university students were asked about their perceptions of art and artistic creation, using a free description method.  Next, 306 Japanese undergraduate students completed a questionnaire ; the data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling.  The results showed that (a) self-efficacy in artistic expression highly affected motivation for artistic expression and art appreciation, and (b) stereotypes about artistic creation contributed negatively to self-efficacy in artistic expression.  These findings suggest that enhancing self-efficacy in artistic expression through relaxing stereotypes about artistic creation might be effective in facilitating both artistic expression and art appreciation.

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  The present study examined relations between learning motives and strategies used in preparation and during lectures on learning English.  Factor analysis of the data from a pilot study conducted to develop a questionnaire about strategies in preparation and during lectures identified 4 factors relating to strategies in preparation : “looking up”, “conjecturing meanings”, “reviewing previous texts”, and “help seeking”, and 3 factors relating to strategies during lectures : “grasping the main points”, “note-taking”, and “passive listening”.  In the main study, Japanese high school students (N=1,148) completed a questionnaire composed of items about learning motives and strategies used in preparation and during lectures.  Path analysis revealed a relation between learning motives and strategies used in both preparation and during lectures, and a relation between preparation strategies and strategies during lectures.  These results suggest that there is a direct relation between preparation strategies and strategies during lectures, so that teaching students preparation strategies, as well as intervening with respect to learning motives, might be useful for fostering effective strategies during lectures.

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  In the present study, 10 high school teachers were interviewed in order to examine how emotions experienced by those teachers when teaching relate to the cognitions, actions, and motivations that underlie their professionality.  The data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach.  The phenomenon of emerging emotions was described.  The teachers’ emotions emerged from a complex mechanism involving their teaching strategies and their students’ behavior, resulting in mixed emotions that depended on the situation.  In the phenomenon model that was generated, 5 patterns were identified : immediate achievement of psychic rewards, emergence of flexible cognitions and creative thoughts, negative feedback loops, reflections following teaching that led to improvements, and reflections during teaching and changing paths.  Those patterns were based on the kind, strength, and objects of the teachers’ emotions.  Positive emotions heightened teachers’ energy, motivation, and concentration, and promoted improvements in their practice, immediate decision-making, and creative thinking.  Negative emotions reduced the teachers’ physical and cognitive potential.  However, self-conscious emotions promoted reflection both during and following teaching, and enabled the teachers to improve their practice and enrich their classes through improvisation.

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  The present study examined, in the context of fear-appeal research, effects of disaster education for elementary school children on their affect and cognition, as well as on the children’s guardians’ disaster preparedness actions. Fifth and sixth graders (N=135) completed questionnaires just prior to disaster education, just after disaster education, and 3 months afterwards.  At all administrations of the questionnaires, items dealt with fear of earthquakes, perceived susceptibility to threats, perceived severity of threats, and perceived response efficacy.  In addition, just after the disaster education, questions were asked about perceived self-efficacy toward their guardians and the students’ intention to talk about the content of the disaster education with their guardians.  In the 3-month follow-up, questions were added about actual transmission of the content of the disaster education and their guardians’ actual disaster preparedness actions.  The results showed that just after the disaster education, the children’s affect and cognition were heightened, but at the 3-month follow-up, their affect and cognition were found to have returned to the pre-training level.  Furthermore, heightened fear and perceived self-efficacy heightened the children’s intention to talk with their guardians, heightened intentions facilitated actual transmission, and facilitated transmission promoted the guardians’ actual disaster preparedness actions.

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  In the present study, a series of activities was designed in an attempt to improve English phonological learning skills of Japanese children.  The activities included analyzing English words into phonemes and blending phonemes into English words using letters, pictures, and actions representing phonemes.  The following conditions were compared : (a) Phonological Training I, in which thirty-five 5- to 6-year-olds participated in the activities ; (b) Sound Experience, in which twenty-six 4- to 6-year-olds listened to DVDs of English sounds ; (c) Phonological Training II, in which twenty-two 4- to 6-year-olds listened to the DVDs and then participated in the activities ; and (d) Control, in which 69 children (mean age 6 years 8 months) engaged in no activity related to the program.  The children in both of the Phonological Training groups were better at repeating 1-syllable English words out loud than were the children in the Control condition.  The children in the Phonological Training II group were better at recognizing phonemes of English words and made more correct responses on English non-word repetition tasks than the children in the other 3 conditions.

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  The present article reviews a growing body of research on the processing of multiple texts, focusing on critical integration as higher-order literacy, and synthesizes that literature.  Critical integration was defined as the processes and products of integrating information from multiple texts, based on critical thinking, in contrast to complimentary integration.  Critical integration is particularly important with respect to discipline practice, discipline-based education, and involvement in civic society.  The present author proposes that critical integration is composed of 3 key components : textual evaluation, understanding of intertextual relations, and reconciliation.  Reasons why novice students have more difficulty than discipline (quasi-) experts in critical integration were discussed in terms of reader variables, namely, strategy use, task representation, and personal epistemology.  Finally, intervention programs aimed at improving students’ competence in critical integration were evaluated, and directions for future research were discussed.

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