The purpose of the present study was to find which diathesis-factor variable(s) predicted the incidence of persecutory thoughts in the diathesis-stress framework. Questionnaires were administered to 117 college students three times at two-week intervals. At Time 1, the diathesis factor was assessed with 17 probable variables, which had been selected from various questionnaires. At Time 2, persecutory thoughts during the period, and at Time 3, persecutory thoughts and stressor events between Time 2 and Time 3 were assessed. Setwise hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to predict the change in the incidence of persecutory thoughts between Time 2 and Time 3. Results revealed significant interaction effects between stressor and two diathesis variables: resentment and hearing negative voice. Students with high scores on the two diathesis-factor variables showed an increase in persecutory thoughts when they reported to have experienced more stressor events.

View full abstract

In this study, we attempted to develop scales that measure subjective self-disclosure adequacy and disclosure-recipient responses, which would be used in qualitative study of self-disclosure. With results of an open-ended questionnaire study of college students, we constructed four scales: 12-item adequate and 23-item inadequate disclosure scales, and 22-item positive and 22-item negative recipient response scales. Each of the four consisted of three or four subscales. The four scales had high internal consistency and exhibited good test-retest reliability. Results also showed some concurrent validity for the scales. Finally, directions for future research were discussed.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a high level of ambiguity intolerance could be related to different cognitive appraisal and coping in three stress situations. We also expected gender difference in the relationship. One hundred twenty-nine college students (55 men and 74 women, aged 19-25) participated in the study. They were asked to complete Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance (MAT-50), cognitive appraisal, and coping scales. Path analysis showed that women high on ambiguity intolerance tended to cope actively without cognitive-appraisal mediation, and men high on the same tendency to cope actively, sometimes with the mediation, in such stress situations as being under social evaluation. These results suggested that ambiguity-intolerant women tended to act directly, while intolerant men had differentiation and complication in the coping process, and tended to cope in a variety of forms, especially under social evaluation.

View full abstract

The purpose of this research was to extract personality trait words from Koujien as preparatory investigation in a lexical approach to the big five; to evaluate their appropriateness as personality trait words; and finally to provide researchers with a collection of basic personality trait words. In Study 1, four psychology-major students, under explicit rules of extraction, collected 950 words from the dictionary. In Study 2, three psychology-major students scrutinized the collection, and deleted 14 words that they judged inappropriate. Also, about 300 words each were allocated, and 341 undergraduates made judgment to cross out words that were not suitable for personality description. Assuming less than 20% for the cross-out rate, 752 words were left. In Study 3, 125 undergraduates crossed out 174 words of the Tsuji list (2001), and 25 of the Aoki list (1971a), leaving 157 words of the former list and 23 of the latter. With the three studies, 536 nouns, 144 adjectives, 110 verbs, 37 adverbs, and 107 compound words, 934 in total, were collected.

View full abstract