The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of and remedies for a earner’s low task persistence. In Experiment 1, 48 participants were assigned to two groups (24 each) and the number of times participants gave up was manipulated by presenting unsolvable anagrams (experimental and control groups). The results revealed that task persistence and task-specific self-efficacy decreased in the experimental group for which the frequency of giving up was increased. In Experiment 2, 72 participants were assigned to three groups and the timing of an intervention with instructions for solution strategies was manipulated (pre-task intervention, mid-intervention, and control groups). The results revealed that in the mid-intervention group, the intervention prevented participants from decreasing their task persistence and task-specific self-efficacy indicated in Experiment 1. These results suggest that voluntary giving up of learners is a cause of their low task persistence, and the timing of intervention to improve learners’ self-efficacy is important.

This study investigated the moderating effects of children’s conflicting relationships with their best friends on how positive parent-child relationships buffer against children’s externalizing problem behaviors directly or through their self-esteem. It also examined whether this moderating effect was conditional on children’s age. Nine hundred and twenty-six elementary and junior high school students completed the questionnaire, which covered their sense of trust in parents, self-esteem, conflicting relationships with best friends, and externalizing problem behaviors. The results of a mediation analysis revealed that children’s high sense of trust in parents buffered against externalizing problem behaviors by enhancing their self-esteem. However, moderated mediation analyses indicated that children with highly conflicting relationships with their best friends reduced the buffering effects of children’s sense of trust in parents on externalizing behaviors both directly and through their self-esteem. These findings were discussed in terms of the children’s conflicting relationships with their best friends and the children’s perception of ego-threat.

Through art appreciation, viewers are sometimes inspired to express or implement creative ideas. Such an experience is thought to be important for art learning. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire to examine how art appreciation promotes creative inspiration in non-experts. We hypothesized that: (a) individual experience with art-related activities and self-evaluation of artistic expression affect creative inspiration, mediated by the method of appreciation of artworks; and (b) the type of artworks affects creative inspiration, mediated by the method of appreciation of artworks. The participants were 373 adults, who were not art professionals (179 women, age: M = 45.02, SD = 13.45, range: 20–69 years). The data were analyzed using structured equation modeling for the two hypotheses. The two hypotheses were mostly supported, suggesting that self-evaluation of artistic expression and the type of artworks (especially classical works of art) influence creative inspiration, mediated by the method of appreciation of artworks. However, experience with art-related activities has no significant direct effect on the inspiration to create something.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Social Emotional Health Survey, which measures multiple positive aspects of secondary school students, and to examine the scale’s reliability and validity. In study 1, 3,044 high school students were asked to complete the questionnaire. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the theoretical model comprising 12 measured indicators that form four domains (beliefin-self, belief-in-others, emotional competence, and engaged living) that, in turn, contribute to one underlying meta-construct called “covitality”. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that students with a high covitality score had significantly higher scores for school connectedness and life satisfaction, and a significantly lower score for psychological distress, showing sufficient concurrent validity of the scale. In study 2, 106 students were asked to complete the questionnaires to examine the scale’s test-retest reliability and concurrent validity using related Japanese scales. The results showed that the scale has sufficient test-retest reliability and concurrent validity with the other Japanese scales.

This study investigated the recognition of and first aid strategies for depression in a close friend among Japanese university students. A total of 1,500 university students were asked to identify what was wrong with a vignette portraying depression and to report their first aid strategies or intentions. First, only 26.14% of participants correctly identified the person as having depression. Second, although the most common responses to the vignette were to listen to the person or to intend to do so non-judgmentally; much less common responses were to encourage professional help-seeking and to intend to do so. Japanese university students were less likely to intend to use the range of helpful first aid strategies while also taking care of themselves. Third, correctly recognizing depression was positively correlated with helpful first aid strategies and intentions (except for listening non-judgmentally in the depression vignette and encouraging self-help), and was negatively correlated with harmful first aid strategies. There is room for improving first aid strategies in Japanese university students when considering depression.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the validity of an item set of simile interpretations for metaphor research. We conducted three tasks. In an interpretation generation task, 50 university students generated up to three interpretations for each of 120 simile expressions collected by Nakamoto and Kusumi (2004). In a conventionality rating task, 24 university students rated the conventionality of vehicles based on the most typical interpretation collected in the interpretation generation task. In a metaphor preference rating task, 24 university students rated their metaphor form preference. Our results showed significant positive correlations between topic-vehicle similarity ratings collected in a previous study and the number of interpretations. In addition, linear regression analysis of the metaphor preference rating showed significant positive effects of vehicle conventionality, topic-vehicle similarity, and entropy. These results solidly replicated the results reported in previous studies and confirmed the validity of an item set of simile interpretations. The usefulness of simile interpretations collected in this study for future metaphor studies is discussed.

It is necessary to develop the effective psycho-educational concepts and materials to enhance the uptake behavior of appropriate specialized institutions of mental health care, such as psychiatric clinics or centers providing psychotherapy. In this research, we developed the core concepts and materials, which can be used for the Web sites, or pamphlets intended to enhance appropriate uptake behavior, by conducting internet-based research and a formative interview based on a social marketing approach. As a result of an analysis of 819 first-time users of mental health care services that met eligibility criteria, descriptive characteristics of the uptake behavior for mental health care were revealed and the differences in mental health care literacy between people with a shorter distribution of the untreated period (DUI) and a longer DUI were clarified. By formative research based on the social marketing frame-work, we developed core concepts and materials consisting of the characteristics of the people with a shorter DUI (WHO), the messages about preventing a longer DUI (WHAT), and effective methods for presentation and communication (HOW).

Psychological-experimental training is a popular method of education for psychology courses. Although it is possible that a training menu can affect undergraduate’s skills and later understanding of psychology, there is no systematic research about what theme is likely to be included in the menu. Training syllabi from Japanese universities were collected and the similarity structure of selecting themes was analyzed. Four ways of arranging themes were found: preferring classical and standard themes; preferring recent and flexible theme; emphasizing clinical demands; and abstract themes based on research methods. The relationship among the themes was interpreted with the similarity structure. A possible determinant of theme selection was discussed in terms of student’s cognitive demand.

People with low self-esteem, when experiencing a threat to self-evaluation, reportedly tend to place higher value in a romantic partner as an indirect form of self-enhancement. This study examined whether such an indirect form of self-enhancement is also found when considering a close friend. Participants’ trait self-esteem was measured. Then, they participated in an experiment in which they experienced (or not) a threat to their self-evaluation. They were subsequently asked to evaluate their close friends and acquaintances using trait adjectives. The results showed that participants with low self-esteem valued their close friends and acquaintances highly when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not experience one. Meanwhile, participants with high self-esteem devalued their close friends but not their acquaintances when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not. These results suggest that people with high self-esteem devalue their close friends as an indirect form of self-enhancement. We discuss the need to examine the effects of the difference in relationship quality between a close friend and a romantic partner, as well as the cross-cultural differences in indirect forms of self-enhancement.

This study aimed to test the validity of social identity theory (SIT) and bounded generalized reciprocity hypothesis (BGR) to explain ingroup cooperation in real social groups. Each of the validity of SIT and BGR have been discussed by social psychologists for a long time. However, recent studies indicate that both theories could explain ingroup cooperation simultaneously. Nakagawa et al. (2015) showed that ingroup cooperation among Japanese fans of a baseball team was derived from the psychological mechanisms predicted by both theories. The present study tested the reproducibility of these results when the cost of cooperation was emphasized. Japanese fans of all 12 baseball teams (N = 1,635) participated in this experiment. In each scenario, the cost of helping was emphasized, and reciprocal expectation was manipulated by knowledge about the feeling of belonging by participants and their partner’s group. The results showed that ingroup cooperation was shown by the psychological mechanism of BGR more than SIT when the cost of cooperation was emphasized.

This research aimed to identify manipulable variables that moderate the effects of behavioral assimilation to age stereotype (BAAS). From a contextual behavioral perspective, individuals who are cognitively fused with the conceptual self could be more vulnerable to the age stereotype. A total of 100 older adult participants were assigned to one of two conditions: age stereotype condition; or neutral information condition (i.e., control condition). Individual differences in “cognitive fusion with conceptual self,” “general cognitive fusion,” “mindfulness,” “perspective taking,” and “acting actively and flexibly in the world” were considered as moderator. Results indicated that “cognitive fusion with conceptual self” significantly moderated the effects of BAAS: participants who were more cognitively fused with the conceptual self were more vulnerable to the age stereotype. No significant moderating effects were found for the other four variables. These findings suggest that if the cognitive fusion with the conceptual self was modified the effects of BAAS would be mitigated.