The Japanese term“Katsu-danso”or“active faults, ”which was a technical term borrowed from natural sciences, has been widely used in Japan since the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Quake. The present study analyses based on social representation theory how this term has been used to familiarize unfamiliar events caused by this unprecedentedly huge disaster, and how it has been integrated into everyday knowledge. Content analyses of newspapers and magazine articles which covered the disaster were conducted. First, the author focused on metaphorical expressions about the term to investigate the anchoring process which was proposed by Moscovici as the first step of the familiarization. Secondly, precursory quake reports were highlighted. These reports are good illustrations of the objectification process, the second step characterizing social representation. For people often associated unfamiliar concrete phenomena, observed before the disaster, with the term in the retrospective statements they made after the disaster to objectify an abstract image of the term.

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The purpose of this study is specifying the factors which produce a spatial clustering of opinion that had been consistently found in Dynamic Social Impact Theory (DSIT). In this study, we constructed four models for the purpose of examining the efficacy of each variable used in DSIT. In Faction-size model and Accumulative-influence model, each cell had two continual variables which indicated the strength of individual. Here, Model A and B had only one variable. Model C had no differences among individuals of strength and model D had a distance variable called“neighbor”. The results showed that each model produced a spatial clustering and that strength and the number of individual were not requirements. This result suggested that an internal function of transforming the output into binary variable and a locally interaction are necessary conditions to produce a spatial clustering. In this study, we suggested the direction of developing of DSIT, and pointed out the problems about a broad interpretation and misdirection of DSIT.
Finally, it was argued that the problems which can occur in the process of constructing models in general by using computer simulation, and the perspectives of simulation studies in the future.

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Protection motivation theory (PMT) suggested by Rogers (1983) is one of the theories concerning threat appeal. The purpose of this study was to explore the determinants of preventive intentions for endocrine disrupters (estrogen mimics), by using the PMT framework. Independent variables were (1) threat (high or low), (2) response efficacy (high or low), (3) response cost (high or low), and (4) gender (men or women). Four hundred university students (200 men and 200 women) were assigned to one of 16 experimental groups. After experimental groups were exposed to threat messages, they were asked to respond to questionnaires. The results of ANOVA showed that preventive intentions for endocrine disrupters were promoted by threat and response efficacy, and the intentions of women were higher than those of men. Moreover, supplementary hierarchical regression analysis revealed that severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, self efficacy, intrinsic reward, gender and fear influenced the preventive intentions for endocrine disrupters.

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This study examined how the cognition of one's own social power in a group influences the perception of group variability among group members. A survey based on random sampling was conducted of the residents of a ward in Tokyo. The results showed that the more people thought about influences of their own power on other members in in-groups, the more they (a) perceived that their self was important, (b) felt appreciated by other members, and (c) felt a greater psychological distance from their fellow group members. Furthermore, the psychological distance from those members enhanced the perception of in-group variability. Implications for the study of group perception in intragroup contexts were discussed.

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The purpose of this study was to examine construct validity of vocational motive scale using the data of 230 university students. Subjects completed demographic measures and the self-report instruments of (1) vocational motive, (2) achievement motive, (3) power motive, (4) affiliate motive, (5) self-efficacy, and (6) self-efficacy for work activities. Correlation coefficients between vocational motives and achievement motives showed that both sub-scales of achievement motive had a positive relation to vocational motives in each sex. On the other hand, sex differences were observed in relationships between vocational motives and power motives, affiliate motives. Regression analysis predicting sub-scales of vocational motives revealed that self-efficacy for work activities uniquely explained variance of vocational motives after controlling self-efficacy. And each sub-scale of self-efficacy for work activities had a positive effect on relevant vocational motives. These findings clarify some aspects of vocational motives.

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In this article, we attempt to develop a theoretical formulation for psychological research on culture and cultural behaviors by re-analyzing the cultural psychological paradigm from the perspective of psychology of contingencies. Suggestions from this perspective for the research of cultural psychology are the followings: (1) Conditioning processes by which the principles of human behaviors are shaped, maintained, and changed are culturally commom; (2) Cultural differences in the psychological principles are caused by that the stimuli used in conditioning or the behaviors being conditioned differ across cultures; (3) The goal of psychology is not only to establish the psychological principles but also to identify the psychological processes by which the principles are shaped and maintained; (4) Understanding of the principles is different between cultures and, therefore, the utility of conditioning processes varies across cultures, (5) If a culture is theoretically idealized, it can be reproduced in laboratory, and cultural psychological research becomes possible at a laboratory level.

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