Self-compassion and coping play important roles in the prevention or aggravation of stress response. However, less is known about how self-compassion and coping are linked to burnout, which is the specific stress response in professional caregivers. In this study, we examined the relationships between self-compassion, adaptive and maladaptive coping styles, and burnout controlling for the influence of work stressors on burnout in Japanese professional caregivers for the elderly (124 care staff and 132 home-care workers). The results of structural equation modeling provided two different models linking self-compassion to burnout via coping styles in care staff and home-care workers. The root mean square error of approximation in each sample was .056 and .053, respectively, which suggests that the data largely fit the model. These findings suggest that incorporating self-compassion training into a traditional model of stress management is effective in preventing burnout in professional caregivers.

Perceptual symbol systems theory has discussed the intimate relationship between language and perception. Many studies have shown that perceptual simulation occurs during sentence comprehension. However, previous studies in sentence production, in which participants were asked to produce a sentence based on pictures, had not addressed the question of whether perceptual simulation plays a role during sentence production. In this study, we investigated whether perceptual simulation occurs during sentence production using word sets. Participants were first presented three words (e.g., egg/refrigerator/skillet) and asked to produce a sentence from two of the assigned words (e.g., egg/refrigerator or egg/skillet). Then they were presented with a picture of the object (e.g., a whole egg still in its shell, or a cracked egg) and asked to judge whether the pictured object was in the sentence production phase. Results revealed that responses in the picture judgement task were faster when the image in the sentences the participants produced matched that of the pictured object. This result suggests that perceptual simulation plays an important role in sentence production.

This study explores the factors associated with the quantity and quality of children’s testimony in police interviews, focusing on the characteristics of the crime, child victims, interviewers, and interview surroundings. We collected 137 cases of children interviewed as victims of a crime by administering a questionnaire to police officers in charge of the cases across Japan. Categorical principal component analysis, applied to the officers’impressions of the child’s accounts, yielded two aspects of the testimony: the quantity/quality of testimony, and the level of usability in the investigation. Regression analyses with variable selection revealed variables associated with these two aspects. The quantity/quality of testimony was associated with the characteristics of the crime, and the interviewer’s investigation experience, empathy, and history of participation in training, while information usability was related to the children’s characteristics, and the interviewer’s opportunities to talk with children other than their own, outside of work. The timing of the interview was also suggested to be involved in the two aspects of the children’s testimony. Limitations of this study are discussed for future studies.

This study examined the semantic organization of positive emotions among university and graduate students in Japan. A total of 100 participants individually sorted 132 positive-emotion words into categories using flash cards. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the sorted terms yielded a comprehensive map of the concept. We found, at the highest level of abstraction, two large distinctions: “other-oriented positive emotions” and “self-oriented positive emotions.” The former included (a) aijo (love), (b) kantan (wonder), and (c) ikei/sonkei (awe/respect), while the latter included (d) nagomi/yorokobi (peacefulness/joy), (e) ikigomi (enthusiasm), and (f) hokori (pride) at the basic level. Further, these basic categories contained 11 subordinate categories. These findings suggest that in semantic organization, positive emotions are generally classified according to the self–other dimension and that 11 subordinate categories have different features.

Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that one likes, that one finds important, and in which one invests time and energy. These activities are eventually internalized as part of one’s identity. The Dualistic Model of Passion posits the existence of two types of passion - harmonious and obsessive passion (Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand, 2015). These two types of passion have been assessed through the Passion Scale (Marsh et al., 2013). The purpose of the present study was to develop a Japanese version of the Passion Scale and to evaluate its reliability and validity. In Study 1, Japanese university students completed a questionnaire that examined the relationship between the Passion Scale and measures of flow, concentration, anxiety, shame, depression, wellbeing and positive and negative affect. In Study 2, we examined the test-retest reliability. The results provided support for the two-factor structure of the Japanese Passion Scale and showed high reliability and validity. Overall, this evidence supports the practical applicability of the Japanese Passion Scale.

This study focuses on perceived functions of studying for the high school entrance examination and investigates the effect of these functions on individual differences in academic performance and depressive mood. In the prestudy, 325 potential items concerning the functions were obtained from 93 students (35 boys, 58 girls) in the 9th grade during the high school examination period. In the primary study, 311 students (163 boys, 148 girls) in the 9th grade participated in the questionnaire survey. The result of factor analysis revealed five potential functions: improving academic behaviors, enhancing a sense of competitiveness, analyzing one’s level of understanding, considering a career goal, and enhancing a sense of time constraint. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that the function of the analyzing one’s level of understanding and enhancing a sense of competitiveness were positively correlated, and the considering a career goal was negatively correlated with academic performance. The results also showed that the enhancing a sense of time constraint was positively correlated and the improving academic behaviors were negatively correlated with depressive mood.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Sensory Gating Inventory (SGI; Hetrick, Erickson, & Smith, 2012) and to examine its reliability and validity. SGI measures abnormalities in the quality of sensory input, heightened awareness of background noises, and poor selective attention at the phenomenological level. The questionnaire was completed by 515 university and graduate students. The questionnaire package included 3 scales; 35 items from the Japanese version of SGI, 27 items from the Japanese version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS; Funahashi, 2011), and 25 items from the Japanese version of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ; Yamada, 1991). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the Japanese SGI had an acceptable level of internal consistency. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to examine reliability and showed high values. Correlation analyses showed that the Japanese SGI and Japanese HSPS or CFQ were moderately positively correlated. This study suggests that the Japanese SGI is reliable and valid. It can be used to screen for abnormal sensory gating before physiological or behavioral inspection.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between resilience and age in Japanese adults. Participants were Japanese adults (N = 5,143; 3,078 men and 2,065 women, mean age = 49.62 years, SD = 10.76, age range = 20–69 years). They responded to the Bidimensional Resilience Scale, examining innate and acquired factors of resilience. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted, and the results indicated a linearly increasing trend for resilience with age in acquired resilience factors that are strongly related to character. Additionally, a linearly increasing trend with age was also indicated in innate resilience factors that are strongly related with temperament. A significant correlation was observed with the squared term of age, suggesting a curvilinear relationship. These results suggest that resilience in Japan increases with age, which corroborates the findings of previous international studies; however, the status of age-related changes differs slightly based on whether the resilience factors are innate or acquired.

Depression is a heterogeneous disorder, and a subtype with atypical symptoms called “modern type depression” (MTD) has been recently proposed in Japan. The present study explored perceptions of MTD among healthcare providers, with the aim of contributing to debates on how to deliver effective treatments for MTD. Survey participants were 86 nurses and 60 professional caregivers working for a general hospital. They read two vignettes that described fictitious individuals with either traditional type depression with melancholic features, or MTD, and then answered how they perceived these individuals on Likert-scale items. A series of paired t-tests showed the following cognitive biases on the MTD vignette: (a) the possibility of being diagnosed as depressed, the severity of symptoms, and the effectiveness of psychotherapies were rated lower; (b) lower intentions of helping those individuals and stronger rejecting attitudes were expressed; (c) the precipitating cause of the disorder was more frequently attributed to internal and controllable factors. The discussion highlighted how these cognitive biases held by healthcare providers lower the quality of treatment of MTD.

To investigate the effect of continuous focused attention on change detection, Nakashima & Yokosawa (2018) conducted a single object change detection task, manipulating blank durations and locations of study and test images (same/different). They suggested that attention can focus on a local area during a brief blank period, and that continuous focused attention facilitates only the detection of occurring change. We examined this suggestion further. To examine the possibility that observers strategically move attention during a long blank period rather than attention being spontaneously disengaged from a focused area, the image location condition was blocked. Additionally, the numbers of change trials and no-change trials were equated, in contrast to the larger number of change trials in the previous research. Even with these changes in method, our experiment showed that the change detection performance in the same location condition was better in the short blank than the long blank condition only in change trials. Thus, we suggested that attention certainly focuses on an area only briefly and facilitates change detection.