This study aims to clarify the function of cram schools’ counseling support for students and parents from the cram schools’ perspective and to investigate the relationship between providing counseling support and variations in cram school teachers’ job satisfaction and exhaustion. Survey participants consisted of 440 cram school teachers. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that counseling support was divided into 3 functions: (a) providing care and support for students; (b) facilitating students’ communication with their parents; and (c) being empathetic towards parents. Furthermore, satisfaction was classified into impact on students and self-sufficiency, while exhaustion was classified into being busy and patient and failure to respond to student needs. Structured equation modeling found that cram school teachers who were satisfied with their impact on students provided more of the 3 types of counseling support mentioned above. In addition, cram school teachers who were exhausted by the failure to respond to student needs provided more care and support for students.

Faces and clothing are clues to interpersonal perception. However, it is not known whether perceptions of faces and clothing are interacting with each other. We examined the effects of facial attractiveness on subjective ratings of clothing attractiveness. Participants were shown pictures of a person wearing a T-shirt in which the faces and shirt designs were manipulated. The faces were either male or female, attractive or unattractive. Participants were instructed to rate the attractiveness of the shirts, not the faces. Nevertheless, attractive female faces increased shirt attractiveness ratings, irrespective of the participant’s gender. Attractive male faces only slightly increased shirt attractiveness ratings. Gender differences and individual variability in visual attention were not responsible for these effects. The current results more likely reflect social or cultural factors, such as the higher priority placed on female facial attractiveness than male facial attractiveness in today’s society.

This study examined the types of positive meanings derived from positive and negative past experiences and explored their effects on identity development in adolescence. Participants (494 undergraduates) were asked to recall a single or series of past events that they considered to be the most influential to their current definition of self and sense of who they are. Next, they completed the Identity Scale, Centrality of Event Scale, and other instruments for measuring benefit-finding. Several types of positive meaning—personal growth, attainment of new perspectives and values, interpersonal growth, and positive changes in family relationships—were derived from both negative and positive events central to identity. In addition, “acceptance and personal growth” from negative events and “attainment of new perspectives and values” from positive events were mainly responsible for higher identity achievement levels. Perceiving positive past events as central to identity directly promoted identity achievement. This suggests that, in addition to helping with engagement in positive meaning-making, support or interventions that actively integrate past positive experiences in the life story might lead to identity development and mental health.

This study examined the effects of concealment on physiological and psychological responses during the Concealed Information Test (CIT). Sixty police officers who volunteered for the study were randomly assigned to either the one non-concealing group (truthful response group) or two concealing groups (“Yes”-only or “No”-only response groups). They underwent the CIT and completed questionnaires about affect and anxiety. Although no significant differences were observed in tonic physiological responses, affect, and anxiety between the non-concealing and concealing groups, the concealing groups had significant differences between critical and noncritical items in skin conductance response (SCR), heart rate, normalized pulse volume, and respiratory speed. In the non-concealing group, only differences in SCR were observed. These results suggested that concealment during the CIT affects phasic physiological responses to stimuli independently of the effect on tonic physiological responses, affect, and anxiety.

The purpose of the present study was to develop a scale to assess school engagement in junior high school students. Participants were 1,044 junior high school students in grades 7 to 9. Factor analysis resulted in a scale that consisted of emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, and cognitive engagement. The scale had high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Moreover, the results of correlation analysis indicated that (a) emotional engagement is related to feeling adjusted to the school, (b) behavioral engagement is related to intrinsic aspirations, and (c) cognitive engagement is related to meta-cognitive strategies. These results showed that this developed the school engagement scale for junior high school students had a certain level of reliability and validity. Future directions of this research are discussed.

A Japanese version of the Self-efficacy for Statistical Literacy Scale was developed. In a preliminary study with college students (N = 110), a Japanese translation was developed based on the English version of this scale. In Study 1, the resulting Japanese version was verified in terms of validity and reliability with high school and college students (N = 275). Results from Study 1 showed that self-efficacy for statistical literacy is positively correlated with subjective numeracy and critical thinking disposition. The mathematical score positively predicted self-efficacy for statistical literacy. In Study 2, we considered the extent to which self-efficacy for statistical literacy would change between before and after statistics education among high school students (N = 167). Results from Study 2 suggested that self-efficacy for statistical literacy is enhanced by statistics education. Free-text descriptions provided by the participants revealed that they could accurately interpret numerical values and had higher interest in the study of psychology and their future career options. Potential contributions to education and study limitations are discussed.

This research study investigated the similarities and differences in help-seeking intentions for depression and recognition of the effectiveness of help-seeking among Japanese university students and Chinese international students. Data were collected from 389 Japanese students and 284 Chinese international students. Based on a scenario on depression that was provided, each student was asked about their help-seeking intentions and their recognition of the effectiveness of several help-seeking resources. In descending order, both groups valued the effectiveness of a friend, counselor and family member more than other options. Both groups were more likely to choose friend, family member or handling matters themselves over seeking help from mental health professions. Japanese students had higher valuation of help-seeking resources when “handle matters themselves” was not included as an option than Chinese international students. However, Japanese students showed higher intention of handling matter themselves. This result implies that Chinese international students are more likely to seek help if services are provided for them even though they do not value the effectiveness of help-seeking resources as much as Japanese students.