The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between narcissistic tendency and friendship in adolescence. Three hundred ninety-nine (399) first-year high school students, all male, participated in the study. Of those, 318 completed Narcissistic Personality Inventory-Short Version (NPI-S), a Friend Expectation Scale that asked how the student wanted his friends to behave toward him, and a scale of new friendship after entering high school (SNF). Eighty-one (81) students completed NPI-S, SNF, and a sociometric questionnaire. Results were as follows: (1) Students with high narcissism scores were more likely to want their friends to understand and trust them. (2) They tended to think that they were more successful in friend-making and peer group-formation after entering high school. And (3) classmates saw them as more popular and having more friends than those with low scores.

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This study examined persecutory ideation, a paranoid-like tendency. A scale was constructed to assess the tendency to have the ideation in normal young adult population. Eighty-five (85) undergraduates and 176 professional school students (70 men, 190 women, and 1 unknown) completed a questionnaire of Persecutory Ideation, other-consciousness, and self-consciousness scales. Factor analysis found two factors for PI scale: self-reference and suspiciousness. Regression analysis showed that suspiciousness was related to private self-consciousness, while self-reference was related to other-consciousness and public self-consciousness. These results indicated that persecutory ideation had two rather distinct components, and suggested that self-reference could be an expression of concern about others.

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The purpose of this study was to find out whether personality traits that increase symptoms of depression were common or different for men and women. Four temperament and three character traits based on the model by Closinger, Svrakic, & Przybeck (1993) were examined. A two-wave panel design was used to examine changes in the symptoms. Personality traits and symptoms of depression were assessed at Time 1; Negative life events after Time 1 and the symptoms again at Time 2. Hierarchical multiple regression of the data for women showed that the trait of high harm avoidance increased the symptoms, controlling for the number of negative live events. The same analysis for men showed that low self-directedness tended to increase symptoms of depression, though, not significantly. These findings indicated that high harm avoidance was a vulnerability factor of depression for women, but not for men.

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The purpose of this study was to standardize a Big Five personality inventory for generations separately. At first, Japan was divided into seven blocks, and forty-six local administrative areas in 23 prefectures were extracted. Then, four thousand and one hundred (4100) men and women were randomly selected from the areas' resident registers. In some blocks, like Shikoku and Okinawa, telephone directories were used instead. Forms with request for cooperation were sent by mail, and 1166 valid forms were returned. The respondents were divided into four generations: adolescence (12-22 years old), youth (23-39), middle age (40-59), and elderly (60 years old and over). An 'F' scale was constructed, to measure the tendency to choose infrequent responses. One-way ANOVAs were performed to check generation differences for each of Big Five scales, for men and women separately. No sex difference was found in fundamental scales, except O score. So, normalized T-scores were calculated on the cumulative proportions. E score was high in adolescence and elderly, but the higher the generation, the higher the other (A, C, N, and O) scores. These results were discussed in the context of societal demands and socially desirable responding.

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Comparing high and low compulsive checkers, this study investigated biases in processing of threatening information by anxious people. In an emotional Stroop task, high anxiety high compulsive checkers (N=16), high anxiety low compulsive checkers (N=14), and controls (N=16) were asked to name the background colors of neutral, anxiety-related, and compulsion-related words. One third of the words were presented subliminally, one third around the threshold, and one third supraliminally. The threshold and duration of subliminal presentation for each subject were determined in advance. Results indicated that high anxiety low compulsive checkers were slower than controls when naming colors of subliminal anxiety-related words. And high anxiety high compulsive checkers were faster than controls when naming colors of anxiety-related words presented around the threshold. Furthermore, they did not show a processing bias for subliminal compulsion-related words. Information processing of compulsive checkers was discussed in relation to obsessive thoughts.

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The present study examined how the self-concept changed and what influenced the change in social interaction. Two hundred and fifty-nine (259) undergraduates, 90 men and 169 women, participated in the study. They were asked to recall an occasion when a change occurred to their self-concept because of an interactional influence by another person, and complete a questionnaire concerning the occasion. Main results were as follows: (1) Self-concept changes due to such influence were classified into five categories: enhancement, organization, confusion, discovery, and understanding identity. (2) Interdependence and role behavior expectations between the two at the occasion were examined and several of their aspects had influences on the self-concept change. These results were discussed in the context of developmental processes of close relationships.

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