Viewing one’s political attitudes as moral imperatives is a significant risk factor for affective polarization. However, the psychological underpinnings of affective polarization are still unclear in multi-party societies, particularly in Asia. Through a survey, we revealed that participants regarded the eight major parties as either conservative- or liberal-oriented. We found a clear tendency of affective polarization regarding emotions toward those groups. Prominently, moral conviction exacerbated this tendency. We further investigated affective polarization in terms of explicit attitudes toward opposing party voters using social distancing, helping, and harming intention measures. Although we found no effects of moral conviction on helping and harming intentions, participants preferred somewhat greater social distance from the voters of their opposing parties. An exploratory analysis showed that affective polarization at the party level predicted those three behavioral intentions. The lack of generalized shared reality partially or fully mediated those relationships. Implications for affective polarization in Japan are discussed.

In qualitative data analysis, comprehensive knowledge collection is considered important, and the degree of saturation serves as one of the indicators. The Zipf distribution method can be used for the quantitative estimation of the degree of saturation in question-and-answer format qualitative data. However, this method may overestimate the degree of saturation. To address this issue, this paper proposes a new approach using the approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) method, which reduces the bias in saturation estimation. Furthermore, through simulations, we compared the bias between this new estimation method and the existing one, demonstrating that the estimation using the ABC method has a higher accuracy. Moreover, we compared the differences and similarities between the two methods through case studies in practical operational settings.

In recent years, the role of parents and guardians in managing bullying among children has been attracting attention. The purpose of this study was to develop a bullying prevention program for parents and to examine if the program would change parental self-efficacy for managing bullying among children. In Study 1, a questionnaire was administered to 724 parents with elementary and junior high school students, and a “Parent’s Knowledge of Bullying scale” and a “Parent Bullying Self-Efficacy scale” were developed. The reliability and validity of the two scales were confirmed in Study 1. Based on the results of Study 1, in Study 2, a bullying prevention program for parents was developed, and the effectiveness was examined with 47 parents with elementary school-aged children. The results of Study 2 showed that the program had an effect on increasing parental self-efficacy to manage bullying. These results discuss the importance of a parent bullying prevention program.

The present study aimed to develop a Japanese version of Bandura’s Moral Disengagement Scale for junior high and high school students and to examine its reliability and validity. A total of 1,262 junior high and high school students participated in a questionnaire survey; among them, 1,081 participants were included in the analysis. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the participants, and the results showed that in a similar fashion to the original version, the Japanese version of the Moral Disengagement Scale had a one-factor structure and weak measurement invariance across gender. The scale demonstrated reliability and validity. These results suggest that the Japanese version of the Moral Disengagement Scale can be applied to Japanese junior high and high school students of both genders.

This study developed a Japanese version of the Expectancy–Value–Cost Scale, which measures expectancy, value, and cost (EVC) in a brief format, and tested its validity. It administered a web-based survey to 789 elementary and junior high school students focusing on two subjects, namely, mathematics and English. The confirmatory factor analysis exhibited a good model fit in which EVC are distinct latent factors, replicating the results of previous studies. Likewise, the study obtained correlations with other variables as expected, confirming the validity of the scale. In addition, while the relationship between EVC for mathematics and learning intention in mathematics was strong, that between EVC for mathematics and learning intention in English tended to be weak, suggesting that EVC can differ according to subject and be applied to various subjects.

Recent research has highlighted opposing congruency effects of eye gaze and arrows in spatial Stroop tasks. Specifically, when participants are prompted to determine the direction of laterally presented arrows or gaze cues, arrows elicit a standard spatial congruency effect, whereas gaze results in a reversed spatial congruency effect. This study investigated whether task demands modulate these differential spatial congruency effects. Participants (N = 44) engaged in position and direction identification tasks. The results indicate that opposing spatial congruency effects persisted in the direction identification task. However, regular spatial congruency effects were observed in the position identification task, regardless of the stimulus type. These results suggest that the unique nature of the social cue (gaze), as opposed to the nonsocial cue (arrow), is prominent when determining a target’s direction.

Research has consistently demonstrated that failing to attain a sub-goal linked to a higher-level goal can undermine the pursuit of alternative sub-goals. In response to this phenomenon, this study tested the hypothesis that increasing awareness of the relationship between superordinate and sub-goals, or the goal hierarchy, enhances the determination to pursue alternative sub-goals when a particular sub-goal remains unachieved. In Study 1, “maintaining health” was the superordinate goal for an adult sample (n = 421). In Study 2, “enhancing creativity” was the superordinate goal for another adult sample (n = 361). The findings provided robust support for the hypothesis. Consequently, this research established that encountering setbacks in achieving one sub-goal may compromise the pursuit of related sub-goals. However, introducing a hierarchy of goals can invigorate the pursuit of alternative sub-goals, facilitating progress towards the overarching goal. These findings underscore the significance of occasionally shifting strategies to optimize goal achievement and attain a goal rather than persisting with the same means (sub-goals). This study suggests that introducing a hierarchy of goals may promote abandoning difficult-to-achieve goals.