Eighteen young females performed two kinds of mental tasks, an Internally-Generated Mental Arithmetic task (IGMA: serial subtraction) and an Externally-Presented Mental Arithmetic task (EPMA: continual subtraction). Both tasks were equal in establishing active coping, but EPMA made participants attend more to an external stimulus. The expected reaction patterns were vascular-dominant (blood pressure elevation mainly due to an increase in total peripheral resistance) for only EPMA, or cardiac-dominant (mainly due to an increase in cardiac output) for both IGMA and EPMA. The results showed that vascular-dominant patterns were evoked during EPMA, while mixed (moderate increases in both cardiac output and total peripheral resistance) reaction patterns were evoked during IGMA. Post-task questionnaires confirmed that attention to an external stimulus was required much more in EPMA than in IGMA. These results indicate that the vascular-dominant reaction pattern was evoked in the state where attention to an external stimulus was heightened. The implications of the present findings are discussed in term of how to interpret the hemodynamic reaction patterns during mental stress.

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This study examined the effects of biased retelling by having participants retell negative experiences as positive autobiographical memories. Undergraduates in the biased-retelling condition (N=21) retold their experiences preparing for university entrance examinations as “happy”, while undergraduates in the recalling (control) condition (N=23) again narrated their actual experiences. Then both groups were asked to recall their initial experience. Their initial memories were compared to those after the biased retellings or repeated narrations. In the recall of the autobiographical memories after the biased retellings, the results showed significantly increased positive emotional words and decreased negative emotional words. The emotional values of the central and peripheral concepts of the harsh experiences changed in the direction of “happy” in the biased retelling condition compared to the repeated recalling condition. Furthermore, the changes in the emotional values were more prominent in the central concepts of undergraduates'experiences.

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This study investigates the effect of speech estimation on social anxiety to further understanding of this characteristic of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). In the first study, we developed the Speech Estimation Scale (SES) to assess negative estimation before giving a speech which has been reported to be the most fearful social situation in SAD. Undergraduate students (n=306) completed a set of questionnaires, which consisted of the Short Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (SFNE), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), the Social Phobia Scale (SPS), and the SES. Exploratory factor analysis showed an adequate one-factor structure with eight items. Further analysis indicated that the SES had good reliability and validity. In the second study, undergraduate students (n=315) completed the SFNE, SIAS, SPS, SES, and the Self-reported Depression Scale (SDS). The results of path analysis showed that fear of negative evaluation from others (FNE) predicted social anxiety, and speech estimation mediated the relationship between FNE and social anxiety. These results suggest that speech estimation might maintain SAD symptoms, and could be used as a specific target for cognitive intervention in SAD.

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The Brief Core Schema Scales (BCSS; Fowler, Freeman, Smith, kuipers, Bashforth, Coker, Hodgekins, Gracie, Dunn, and Garety, 2006) were devised to assess schemata concerning the self and others. In the BCSS, four schemata——Negative Self (NS), Positive Self (PS), Negative Others (NO), and Positive Others (PO)——are assessed by means of self-ratings. In this study, we developed the Japanese version of the BCSS (JBCSS) and reported the reliability and validity of the scales, using Japanese undergraduates. There were 200 students in the first survey (Time 1) and 128 in the second survey (Time 2). The results revealed that the JBCSS had a four-factor structure, good internal consistency, and acceptable test-retest reliability. In addition, multiple regression analyses with schemata as the independent variables and paranoid ideation and grandiose ideation as the dependent variables indicated that negative schemata about the self and others were generally associated with paranoid ideation, and positive schemata about the self were associated with grandiose ideation. The analyses suggested that the JBCSS had good reliability and validity as a measure of schemata about the self and others related to paranoid and grandiose ideation.

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This study investigated some discriminative features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with both clinical and normal samples using a self-report questionnaire. This questionnaire was administered to 116 clinical outpatients (diagnoses: thirty two BPD; twenty four schizophrenia; twenty six depression; twenty nine neurosis; and five other mental disorders) and to 216 college students as a normal sample. Factor analysis produced six factors: emptiness; hallucination and egorrhea; distortional body image and acts of self-inflicted injury; impulsive acting-out; loss of emotional control; and grandiose omnipotence. Distortional body image and acts of self-inflicted injury discriminated BPD the most from the other samples. No significant differences were seen between the BPD and Schizophrenia samples in terms of the hallucination or egorrhea subscales. An intense loss of emotional control, particularly control of negative emotions such as rage, was apparent in the clinical samples, which was not evident in the normal sample.

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The present study developed and evaluated the Automatic Thoughts List following Dilatory Behavior (ATL-DB) to explore the mediation hypothesis and the content-specificity hypothesis about the automatic thoughts with trait procrastination and emotions. In Study 1, data from 113 Japanese college students were used to choose 22 items to construct the ATL-DB. Two factors were indentified, I. Criticism of Self and Behavior, II. Difficulty in Achievement. These factors had high degrees of internal consistency and had positive correlations to trait procrastination. In Study 2, the relationships among trait procrastination, the automatic thoughts, depression, and anxiety were examined in 261 college students by using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that the influence of trait procrastination on depression was mainly mediated through Criticism of Self and Behavior only, while the influence of trait procrastination to anxiety was mediated through Criticism of Self and Behavior and Difficulty in Achievement. Therefore, the mediation hypothesis was supported and the content-specificity hypothesis was partially supported.

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Perfectionism is usually reported to have adverse affects on psychological health, but recent multidimensional research indicated that a “tendency to set high personal standards” is weakly correlated with reduced depressiveness. The present study categorized subjects using a cluster analysis with factors closely related to psychological health such as adult attachment styles and perfectionism, and examined each factor's contributions to psychological health. Among subjects with high personal standards, the study found a group with a secure attachment style who are psychologically adaptive and another group with a non-secure attachment style who are maladaptive. The results suggest that setting high personal standards by itself does not promote psychological health, but rather that there is an interaction with other factors such as preoccupation with one's mistakes and doubting one's own actions which also influence psychological health.

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This study examined mother-daughter communication in two tasks. Adolescents (N=41) from two age levels (mean age=13.45 and 20.50 years) participated with their mothers in solving math questions and decorating a mirror. Their utterances were coded into fifteen categories based Condon, Cooper and Grotevant (1984). The results showed that the communications of adolescents differed according to their age level. Older adolescents (college students) associated with their mothers on equal terms while accomplishing the tasks. In contrast, younger adolescents (junior high school students) were supported by their mothers. These differences were also evident in the mothers' data.

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Paired-comparison is a well-known and effective method for scaling stimuli. In situations where judgment is affected by multiple factors, it is necessary to take these multiple effects into consideration. However, there is no very effective method to deal with this problem, especially when the data is binary. This study is to propose a new method that expands the Bradley-Terry model to overcome this problem. The proposed method allows estimation of both the scaled value of each stimuli and the influence of each factor. This article includes an analysis of the real data of a sensory test to verify the efficacy of the proposed method. Lastly, a possible expansion of the Bradley-Terry model for more general situations is discussed.

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The mental and physical health of defensive pessimists (DPs) is generally worse than that of optimists. However, some DPs who accept their pessimistic thinking style are in good health. This study examined the health of college students who were DPs related to how they accepted their thinking style. In Study 1 (F=211, M=131), self-esteem was compared among DPs, strategic optimists (SOs), and depressed persons (DEPs). In Study 2 (F=376, M=251, not indicated=5), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ28) was compared among these groups. ANOVAs revealed that DPs were healthier than DEPs in self-esteem and on the GHQ28, but worse than SOs in self-esteem. However, ANCOVA examining self-esteem with acceptance of their thinking style as a covariate showed that DPs were better than DEPs and as good as SOs in health. Regarding the acceptance of their thinking style, DPs scored worse than SOs. This study concluded that DPs in better health had better acceptance of their pessimistic thinking style.

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