This study examined the effect of the situational factors and the regional factors. These data were collected from the participants of the simulated society game (SIMSOC). There are two rich regions and two poor regions in SIMSOC. In this study, the participants were recruited from college students, and they were randomly assigned to each region. The participants were required to rate perceived procedural justice of decisions in their region, equity of distribution about property in their region, equity of stock level about property in each region, and the degree of satisfaction with their situations. The results showed that the situational factors and the regional factors had influenced on the satisfaction with their situations. These findings mean that the satisfaction with their situation depends on the social situations and regional factors.

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The present study investigated a role of NPO supporting adoption between couples who cannot have their own children and children who cannot be raised by their birth mother. Specifically, a NPO named ‘Motherly Network’ that was established to seek new types of adoption was focused on. Based on a field study, characteristics of ‘Motherly Network’ were found from the process for adoption, enlightening activities for communities. In order to conquer negative images of adoption,‘Motherly Network’ embedded birthmothers in their network, and requested adopted parents to provide continual contribution as a supporting member of ‘Motherly Network’. Additionally, it is suggested that a seminar before adoption is functioned as attempt to construct transcendentality for couples’ new life with their unseen adopted children. Such transcendality have been kept by continual relationships between ‘Motherly Network’ and adopted parents.

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Four studies examined findings by Kosugi & Yamagishi (1998) that high-trusters presented with negative information about others exhibit a more pronounced response than do low-trusters presented with the same information. Survey 1 showed that the general trust scale used by Kosugi & Yamagishi (1998) did not provide an appropriate index for the investigation of the relationship between people’s general trust level and the patterns of their responses to information about others’ trustworthiness. Given the results of survey 1, two experiments and a mail survey were conducted using a different measure of general trust. The results demonstrated that low-trusters were strongly affected by positive information about others and quickly express an inclination to trust the target individuals. The findings of the three studies illustrate that the responses of high-trusters and low-trusters form a symmetric pattern, and each group’s strategy can be interpreted as an adaptation that helps to increase actors’ opportunities to interact with others.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of seriousness of a situation on the judgment of help-giving and Weiner’s (1995) cognitive(attribution)-emotion-action model. Participants read four scenarios which were composed of seriousness (High: a person collapsed on the roadway-Low: a person collapsed on a sidewalk)×type of victim (ill-drunk). Then, the participants were asked for judgments of help-giving, seriousness, attribution about the situation and affects to the victim on each scenario. As the result, the participants in the high seriousness-drunk condition rated the judgment of help higher than the participants in the low seriousness-drunk condition did. This result suggested that the judgment of help has became high because the seriousness has became high. However, there was no difference in the judgments of help between the high seriousness-ill condition and the low seriousness-ill condition. This result suggested that the judgment of help has decreased because the participants in the high seriousness-ill condition have attributed responsibility to the victim. And the results of correlation analysis suggested that the correlations between the judgments of help and attribution within the drunk condition were greater than those within the ill condition.

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The collective protection motivation model on the effects and mechanism of threat appeal persuasion for collective coping behavior proposes that four appraisals that are formed by eight cognitions determine collective behavioral intention. This study explored its validity. Independent variables were threat appraisal (high, low), coping appraisal (high, low), self appraisal (high, low), social appraisal (high, low), and gender (male, female). Seven hundred and seven college students (365 men and 342 women) were randomly assigned to one of the 34 conditions (32 were experimental conditions and 2 were control conditions), and they read a questionnaire including persuasive messages concerning dioxin problem and responded it. Althogh all the predictoins were not supported, the results showed that collective behavioral intentions of both sexes were generally promoted by threat appraisal and coping appraisal. Collective behavioral intention of male subjects was only marginally promoted by social appraisal.

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There are negative and positive studies about the effect of loneliness on personal relationships and character building. These differences aren’t only on the theoretical sides but on the practical views of loneliness: whether loneliness as a personality or as an experience. When considering loneliness as an experience, the coping behaviors to loneliness are included in “loneliness” and it is thought to have positive effects on later social behaviors and psychological traits. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effect that loneliness experiences had on present affiliation motive and social skills. The variables that referred the past loneliness experience were the strength of loneliness and the coping behaviors to loneliness. The questionnaire survey was conducted on fifty-nine female university students. The hierarchical regression analysis revealed: (a) the more active problem centered coping behaviors they had done in the past loneliness experiences, the higher affiliation motive they had, (b) the more passive problem centered coping behaviors they had done, the higher social sensitivity they had.

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Japanese have a biased tendency to view themselves as being more ordinary than ordinary people (Ohashi & Yamaguchi, 2004). The existence of such bias, which overemphasizes one’s ordinariness, suggests that being ordinary person may be desirable in Japanese culture. The present study hypothesized that being ordinary is associated with desirable traits and higher likeability in Japanese culture. Japanese university students (N=150) and adults (N=61) were asked to evaluate one of six target persons, who were described either as ordinary, ordinary in a good sense, ordinary in a bad sense, extraordinary, extraordinary in a good sense, or extraordinary in a bad sense. Results supported the hypothesis: Ordinary people, as compared with extraordinary people, are more likeable and they are perceived as having desirable traits to a greater extent. In addition, impressions about ordinary people are similar to those about people who are ordinary in a good sense, whereas impressions about extraordinary people are similar to those about people who are extraordinary in a bad sense (student sample) or at least worse than extraordinary people in a good sense (adult sample). Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

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