The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of stimulus cues involved in the categorization of people on person memory and impression ratings. We conducted two experiments based on a paradigm developed by Taylor et al., (1978). In experiment 1, the experimenter showed the subjects a group discussion by way of a tape-recorder and slides, so that the subjects were exposed to both the voices and faces of the speakers. The gender of the speakers and the degree of masculinity-femininity in speech content were independently manipulated. In Experiment 2, the experimenter presented the subjects a group discussion, not with their voices or faces, with the gender labels of the speakers, thus gender cues were reduced. The results show that the effects on person memory did not change across these two experiments, but that those on impression ratings were clearly varied. Impressions of the speakers were determined depending on the masculinity-femininity of speech content. We discuss our findings in terms of independence of two tasks, the pervasiveness of accentuation effects caused by gender of the speakers, and automatic/controlled processes.

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Two laboratory experiments were conducted to assess effects of self-handicapping on receivers' perceptions related to the ability of self-handicapper and on receivers' attraction for self-handicapper. Two independent variables were manipulated in a 2×2 factorial design: (1) acquired self-handicapping (present vs. absent) and (2) claimed self-handicapping (present vs. absent). The results for acquired self-handicapping were as follows; it reduced the perceived performance level of the self-handicapper but it had no effect on the perception of the ability of the sdlf-handicapper and on the attraction for the self-handicapper. In addition, the results for claimed self-handicapping were as follows; it reduced the attraction for the self-handicapper but it had no effect on the perceptions related to the ability of the self-handicapper. These results are dicussed as positive and negative effects which self-handicapping as an impression management strategy has.

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Two kinds of trust-general truat and particularistic trust-are theoretically distinguished. An experiment simulating buyer-seller relations successfully tested the following hypotheses concerning the effects of social uncertainty and subjects'general trust upon (a) commitment formation between a particular buyer and a seller and (b) the buyer's particularitsic trust in the seller. First, social uncertainty promoted commitment formation. Second, commitment formation promoted one partner's trust n the other (which we called particularistic trust). Third, as a result of the above two effects, social uncertainty promoted the general level of particularistic trust in a group. Fourth, general trust, which was defined as a general belief in human benevolence, suppressed commitment formation. However, the fifth hypothesis based on the second and the fourth hypotheses was not supported. That is, general trust did not suppress particularistic trust.

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The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that, when subjects judge whether a stimulus presun who is described with some traits and behaviors true of a blood-typical stereotype, they will selectively use the traits and behaviors consistent wiht the stereotype. In Experiment 1, 86 female undergraduate subjects were randomly divided into two groups (Type-A- and Type-B- blood groups). The subjects of Type-A- and Type-B- blood groups first judged whether a stimulus person was true of the stereotype for people who have Type A and Type B bloods respectively. Then, the subjects of both groups were asked to point out the traits and behaviors of the person they paid attention to in the judgment, and to rate the impression they formed of the person on the bipolar adjective scales. Although the results for the attention measure did not support the hypothesis, those for the impression measure supported it. In Experiment 2, 146 female undergraduate subjects were divided into four groups (Type-A-, Type-B-, Type-O-, and Type-AB- blood groups). The results for both measures supported the hypothesis.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of trait shyness on interpersonal cognition. Twenty seven subjects who were high in a self-rated trait shyness scale and twenty four who were low in it conversed with an unknown opposite-sex partner. The subjects (a) rated their impression of their partner, and (b) guessed the partner's rating for themselves. The partners and observers rated the impression of subjects. The main results were as follows. (a) Shy subjects perceived their partner's impression of the activity-related dimension negatively. (b) Shy subjects guessed that they were perceived negatively by their partners. (c) The discrepancy between shy subject guess and observer rating appeared in two cognitional dimensions. These results were discussed in terms of the possibility of a negative perception bias on the part of shy subjects.

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A mathematical model is proposed to explain leadership effectivess, depending on the performance-maintenance (P-M) theory of leadership. In the modle, effectivess of P (or M) leader behavior is represented as a logistic equation of P behavior (or M behavior) where a so-called carrying capacity coeffcient was nonincreasing (or nondecreasing) function of P (or M) behavior. Effectiveness of combined P and M behaviors is represented as either (1) the sum of effectiveness of the two behaviors, (2) the product of effectiveness of the two behavior, (3) the sum of marginal effectiveness multiplied by the amount of behavior of P and M behaviors. The latter is assumed more necessities for collaboration among members to be effective. The model reproduces empirical findings in the past that more P behavior combined with more M behavior is most effective on the long term basis and Pbehavior combined with few M behavior is the most effective on the short term basis. Furthermore, it is suggested that more M behavior should be required even on the short term basis in the latter among the three types of the formulation of effectiveness in the above.

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When asked to generate any self-related information, subjects generally produce a higher recall score than when asked to recall experimenter-given information. This is known as the self-generation effect. To explain this effect, Itsukushima et al. (1992) proposed network theory of memory. In this theory, it is hypothesized that in the self-generation condition the subject can create necessay nodes and connect these nodes strongly to old and well established self-networks. The level of activation in the network is strong enough to make the spreading of activation. In the given-information condition, subjects might not fully create the necessary nodes, resulting in a weak connection to the self node. As a result, the level of activation itself might be weak.
To test this hypothesis two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to add adjectives to the objects in a different sentence completion tasks. In experiment 2, subjects were asked to add adjectives not only to the object but also to the subject (that is, the name). In both experiments the newly added modifiers in the self-generation condition showed higher recall results than those in the name-given condition. This suggests that new nodes which represent sentence elements such as subject modifiers and object modifiers are formed during their sentence completion. These results are interpreted by the sperading activation from the self node to the relevant nodes. In addition, the relationship between self and memory was discussed.

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According to distraction-conflict theory, the observer (distracter) can elevate the performer's drive by provoking attentional conflict. It is predicted that the observer who brings the dissonant information is more distractive for the performer than that of the consonant information. Self-esteem scale was administered to 179 undergraduates and 80 high-scored students were selected as subjects. The 2×2 factorial design (dissonant and consonant conditions by observed and unobserved situations) was used. Dissonance was manipulated by asking subject's defects, and putting him/her-self to write them down. The main effects of dissonance factor were found in correct response for both simple and comolex tasks. These results only confirmed the energizing effect of cognitive dissonance. On the contrary, the main effect of the observer was found in error response for complex task. This result slightly suggested the validity of distraction-conflict theory.

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The purpose of this study was to examine whether outcome feedback of pop psychological tests influences human behavior and to compare the strength of the influence with that of academic psychological tests. The authors conducted an experiment in which sixty-four female subjects took a pop or an academic psychological test. Subjects who took each test received a bogus feedback implying that they were extravergent or intravergent. The results showed that subjects who received the feedback of extravergence were more active in interacting with a stranger than those who received the feedback of intravergence, whether they had taken the pop or the academic test. This suggests that outcome feedback of pop tests, like that of academic tests, can influence human behavior and cause a self-fulfillment phenomenom. The results also showed that subjects who took the pop test felt better about themselves than those who took the academic test. A supplementary survey was also conducted to investigate the characteristics of sentences of each feedback.

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The present research investigated the effects of high threat on compliance, when the strength and importance of a freedom were low (low prerequisites for reactance arousal). This research varied attitudinal freedom and threats to it. Subjects read the prosecution summary for a court trial, and about half of the subjects were further informed of the defense's claim, which suggested that innocence was equally possible (high prerequisite condition). A low-, moderate- or high threat message, advocating that the defendant was guilty, contained respectively 0, 3, or 6 high-pressure statements. The predictions were as follows: (a) Under low prerequisite, moderate threat would decrease compliance, whereas high threat would increase it; (b) under high prerequisite, the greater the threat, the less the compliance. The significant prerequisite × threat interaction on the post-communication measures of opinion confirmed the predictions. The significance of these results, for the complex interplay between the strength and importance of a freedom and the magnitude of threat to it, is discussed.

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The purpose of this study is to find major factors to enhance public acceptance of a variety of technologies or its products by using multiple regression analysis, and to classify them by use of cluster analysis. The results are as follows. First, it was found that three factors identifiable as “the necessity”, “the beneficialness to the global environment” and “the trust in the enterprise” are useful variables for multiple regression analysis. Second, it was also discovered that cluster analysis made it possible to classify each matter roughly into two groups. One group was regarded as positive group, and another group was regarded as negative group.

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The purpose of this study is to examine a psychological process of decisioft making which is based on numerical expressions, in order to discover whether there should be differences between “objective” and “subjective” probabilities. Subjective probabilities were measured by using the method of Tanaka (1993), while objective probabilities were given by a weather forecast and a forecast of passing the examination by a preparatory school's trial examination. The result indicated that there were differences between “objective” and “subjective” probabilities in decision-making, and the both viewpoints were necessary for it.

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