The present study investigated the relation of the words and facial expressions in a wrongdoer's apology to effects of the apology on the recipient. After 200 junior high school students read a fictitious story about trouble with their best friend, they were given 1 of 6 types of apology, either in a sentence with a picture, or only in a sentence. The recipients' evaluations of the effectiveness of the apologies and the extent of their displeasure and forgiveness were measured. The words in the apologies and apologies with a picture of a guilty face were evaluated as the most effective, with participants reporting an easing of their unpleasant feelings. On the other hand, in the conditions in which the words in the apology sentence and the picture of the facial expression were inconsistent (e.g., apology words and a non-guilty face), the apology was not accepted and the participants' discomfort was not alleviated. These results suggest that junior high school students may use both apologetic words and facial expressions as cues. Furthermore, the findings suggest that junior high school students may be in a transitional period in which they are able to consider both the words of an apology and the apologetic person's facial expression.

  The present article reports the development of an easier method for classifying types of procrastination. Undergraduates (N=974) completed an awareness of procrastination scale, the Japanese version of the General Procrastination Scale, and the Decisional Procrastination Scale. Cluster analysis using multivariate normal mixture models showed that the participants could be classified into 4 types. In order to select important variables for classification, an importance index was calculated by a random forest, after which a decision tree for classification was conducted without using multivariate analysis. The decision tree reliably reproduced the classification that had been obtained by the clustering method. The variables that were important for the decision tree were optimistic thinking, negative feelings during and after procrastination, and scores on the Decisional Procrastination Scale. The results of a validation study, comparing the 4 types with depression, effortful control, and academic performance, described features of each of the 4 types. The 4 types could be named negative feeling type, optimistic type, task prioritizing type, and emotional control type.

  The present study examined the interrelationships of (a) post-divorce co-parenting and children's adjustment, and (b) externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and prosocial behavior in children's adjustment over time. Mothers (N=500) who had been divorced for less than 2 years and were living with their children (2-17 years old) received follow-up assessments after 3 and 6 months. Data from 3 time points were analyzed using a cross-lagged effects model. Conflictual co-parenting was found to have a positive effect on externalizing problems; and externalizing problems had a positive effect on internalizing problems. However, internalizing problems had a negative effect on prosocial behavior. In addition, a negative relationship was found between internalizing problems and prosocial behavior. The relationships among the variables were discussed in the context of the developmental cascade. Suggestions for interventions and support based on these results include the importance of considering controlling conflictual co-parenting after divorce and of focusing on children's externalizing problems.

  The present study, preparatory research for the development of a psychoeducational intervention to promote body appreciation (positive body image), examined a model that proposed that self-compassion, gratitude, and the influence of media may affect body appreciation, links of body appreciation to intuitive eating, and life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling of data from 264 university students partially supported the hypothetical model. For both men and women, gratitude promoted self-compassion, and self-compassion promoted body appreciation. Additionally, gratitude directly promoted body appreciation. Although media influences did not promote body appreciation, they promoted intuitive eating in both men and women. In addition, body appreciation promoted intuitive eating and life satisfaction in both men and women. These findings contribute to an understanding of the development of body appreciation, and may point to possible intervention targets relating to body appreciation.

  In the present study, in order to examine changes in students' use of strategies and the processes behind individual differences in those changes, a researcher (the first author) taught a vocabulary learning strategy, and a teacher (the second author) supported the use of that strategy, to 33 students in 1 tenth-grade class. The strategy taught involved relating English words to other information. The data were the strategies used by the students from April to July and in the following February. The results revealed that the use of the strategy taught continuously increased. Interviews were conducted with 3 students who began to use the strategy more frequently in their daily studies, and 2 students who did not use it much after the researcher's instruction. The students who used the strategy reported that they had recognized problems with their vocabulary learning strategies used before the instruction, and that they had realized the effectiveness of the new strategy compared to what they had been doing. On the other hand, the students who did not use the new strategy very much had not been aware of any problems with their vocabulary learning. These results suggest that the strategy taught by this researcher-teacher collaboration may have long-term effectiveness. It is important to compare a target learning strategy to learners' prior strategies.