The purpose of this study was to examine the attitude changes that arose after individuals were exposed to a text-based discussion, based on the theories of group polarization. Two variables were manipulated: whether the participant had group membership during the discussion (whether they had the discussion with ingroup members or anonymous people), and the popularity of the participant’s opinion among the other group members (majority versus minority opinion). The effects of group membership and of being outnumbered with regard to one’s opinion on attitude changes were examined using Bayesian ANOVA. The experiment was conducted twice, and only the data obtained from the 68 participants who participated in both experiments were used in the analysis. The results indicated that when a participant’s opinion was in the minority during the discussion, their attitude was weakened. When a participant’s opinion was in the majority, and the discussion was held with anonymous people, their attitude was strengthened. These results suggest that when individuals were exposed to a text-based discussion attitude changes arose in a manner that was similar to the group polarization phenomenon.

This study involved qualitative research into the process of psychological recovery, specifically the process by which the subjects achieved psychologically stable states after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). The process responsible for psychological recovery after the GEJE has been implicitly assumed to resemble that seen in the victims of other disasters. However, recent disasters have led to considerable damage, and people have been living in shelters and temporary housing for extensive periods of time. This severe experience undoubtedly left people prone to dying alone or committing suicide. Therefore, this study analyzed discussions with sufferers to assess the process of psychological recovery that they underwent during the 7 years following the GEJE. As a result, the psychological changes that they experienced were grouped into 6 patterns. Moreover, it was assumed that the process of psychological changes is affected by implicit causes and factors that trigger stress reactions, which can become chronic. In addition, by examining individual psychological changes after the 1st, 4th, and 7th years, idiosyncratic traits were found in each phase. Based on these findings, longitudinal psychological changes and their potential causes are discussed, and the sufferers recognized that their serious stress reactions could become chronic.

The autonomous and controlled motivation at work scale for older Japanese bridge workers was developed, and its relationships with organizational factors were investigated in this study. The data for a sample of 1,130 older bridge employees (M_age: 62.02 years, SD: 1.97, range: 60–77; males: 95.0% (n=1,074), females: 4.2% (n=48), unknown: 0.7% (n=8)) were analyzed. First, in an exploratory factor analysis two autonomous motivation factors (i.e., “intrinsic, contribution, and self-fulfillment” and “acquisition and growth”) and two controlled motivation factors (i.e., “security and salary” and “maintenance of activity levels”) were extracted. Second, multiple regression analysis indicated that “communicating with their subordinates” and “objective management interviews with their supervisor” predicted the subjects’ autonomous motivation at work, whereas no such relationships were seen for controlled motivation. These results suggest that organizational factors play an important role in the promotion of autonomous motivation among bridge workers in Japan.

The present study sought to examine the effects of the shift-and-persist strategy on the psychological outcomes of individuals with a low socioeconomic status (low-SES). Although previous research has shown that this type of strategy has beneficial effects on the physiological responses and health of individuals with low-SES, its effects on psychological outcomes have not been thoroughly studied. The present study investigated the relationship between shift-and-persist tendencies, childhood SES, and depressive tendencies using two samples. We performed multiple regression analysis of the obtained data. The results of study 1 (N=99 female undergraduates) showed that an individual’s tendency towards depression was negatively related to their persisting tendency, but not their shifting tendency. This relationship was replicated in study 2 (N=662 working adults). Although the results do not correspond with previous research, our finding that persisting is connected to psychological outcomes, such as depressive tendencies, is important.

Previous research has demonstrated that when people have to choose a product for which they do not have a preference and can observe their partners’ choices in advance, they are more likely to imitate their partners’ choices when choosing privately, whereas they are likely to choose differently when they are with their partners. The present study extends this evidence by testing Japanese participants and examining individual differences in the need for uniqueness. Despite the Japanese cultural norm of interdependence, which is positively associated with conformity, less than half of the participants imitated their partners’ choices, whether they chose privately or publicly. Moreover, people with a high need for uniqueness tended to choose a different option when choosing in front of their partners. Implications for the consequences of social influence are discussed.

Shimizu, Nakashima, and Morinaga (2016) reported that tendencies consistent with defensive pessimism (DP) are positively associated with considerate and respectful behavioral intentions toward strangers. However, two limitations hinder the generalizability of their findings: (1) their participants were exclusively female students of a women’s junior college, and (2) the cognitive strategy scale used in their study did not take all four types of cognitive strategy; i.e., DP, strategic optimism (SO), realistic pessimism (RP), and unjustified optimism (UO), into consideration. We replicated Shimizu et al. (2016) with adult respondents and used a different scale to enhance the generalizability of the results. Japanese adults (N=337) participated in an online survey. Path analysis of their responses indicated that a relationship exists between DP and behavioral intentions, which was consistent with the findings reported by Shimizu et al. (2016). The study also produced exploratory evidence that individuals that exhibit UO show less considerate and respectful behavioral intentions in interpersonal contexts than those who display SO or RP.