The present study examined the effects of the experiences of living in residential care facilities and adverse childhood experiences on depressive symptoms. People with and without the experience of living in residential care facilities were sampled on the Web. We analyzed the data of 75 people with the experience of living in residential care facilities and 96 people without the experience. Results showed that people with the experience of living in residential care facilities were more likely to have severe psychological distress than people without the experience. On the other hand, the effect of the experience of living in residential care facilities on the severity of psychological distress disappeared when adverse childhood experiences were taken into account in the analysis. In addition, adverse childhood experiences exacerbated psychological distress in both those who had and had not lived in residential care facilities in the same way. The results of this study suggest that the severity of psychological distress among those who experience living in residential care facilities may be strongly influenced by adverse childhood experiences.

We recorded event-related potentials (ERP) while participants performed a Go/No-go flanker task and investigated the relationship between the activation of other-task representations and the priority of processing self-stimuli. The participants in Experiment 1 (Joint condition) sat in pairs facing a computer monitor. In contrast, the participants in Experiment 2 (Individual condition) sat alone. In both experiments, they responded to target stimuli in the central letter of a flanker array. Results of the Joint condition indicated a prolonged latency and an increased P3b amplitude in No-go trials in which the flanker was a self-target, suggesting the progress of stimulus evaluation. In addition, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) in No-go trials showed motor response preparation for the self-target flanker. In contrast, the No-go trials in the Individual condition showed neither an increased P3b amplitude nor LRP. These results suggest that acting with others may be a factor that leads to self-priority.

The Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS) measures disgust sensitivity in three areas—pathogens, sexuality, and morality — postulated from an evolutionary-adaptive perspective. Although the scale has been translated into Japanese, its validity and reliability have not been verified in Japan. This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the TDDS. In Study 1, we conducted a web-based survey of 1,030 participants (515 males, 515 females) to confirm the scale’s factor structure and to examine its concurrent validity and internal consistency. The results indicated that the sexual and moral disgust subscales were valid and reliable; however, some problems were found with pathogen disgust. In Study 2, 108 undergraduates (22 males, 86 females) were surveyed twice at 2-week intervals to examine the scale’s test–retest reliability. The results showed that the measures had high test–retest reliability. The validity and reliability of the scale are discussed on the basis of these measures.

This study developed the “Beliefs about Difficult Experiences Scale” consisting of two subscales: “beneficial beliefs” that difficult experiences have beneficial consequences and “harmful beliefs” that difficult experiences have harmful consequences. The participants were university students and working adults. They responded to three surveys. We selected items for developing the scale after ensuring their content validity. The study’s results demonstrated the scale’s generalizability (internal consistency and temporal stability). Also, the goodness of fit of the scale’s two-factor model was adequate, confirming the structural validity of the scale. In addition, we examined the associations between this scale and (a) theoretically related external variables, (b) goal pursuit behavior when goal attainment is difficult, and (c) time spent working on difficult tasks. The results showed the expected associations, confirming the scale’s external validity. Finally, we have discussed prospects for future research using this scale.

We examined whether playing an investment game (Suzuki, 2018) while chatting with younger adults corrected older adults’ bias in guesses about trustworthiness of others based on their facial appearance. Older adults (N = 48) participated in the study. The participants played an investment game under three conditions: alone, with older adults they had met for the first time, or with younger adults they had met for the first time. After playing the game, the participants responded to a trustworthiness memory test. Multinomial processing tree model analysis of the recognition data indicated that only the older adults who played the investment game with younger adults did not rely on facial appearance when guessing the trustworthiness of others. The results and the discussion of this study suggest useful measures for preventing older adults’ fraud victimization.

Bowing is a common practice in Japan, believed to greatly affect first impressions. As such, it is emphasized upon in school instruction and post-employment training seminars for new employees. Recently, the influence of bowing on attractiveness was investigated, and it was reported that a bowing motion enhances perceptions of attractiveness. However, previous studies primarily examined this effect via laboratory-based experiments for Japanese university students, which limits the generalizability and reproducibility of the results. Therefore, the present study examined whether this effect can be observed in a web-based experiment and for crowdsourcing service workers. The results showed that bowing increases the facial attractiveness of the 3D computer graphics human models compared to the models standing still (control condition). Further, it was established that prolonged exposure to the bent posture produced a significant bowing effect. These results were extended to the workers, suggesting that the bowing effect can be replicated in web-based experiments for Japanese participants with a broader range of demographics (age and gender, and the view of self).

Property crime is one of the major types of crime in Japan. To prevent recidivism, motivating offenders to change themselves toward rehabilitation is necessary. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the characteristics and influencing factors of property crime offenders’ motivation for rehabilitation using the Motivation for Rehabilitation Scale. The survey participants included male inmates newly admitted to prison for theft or fraud, and 418 prisoners responded to the survey. Factor analysis revealed that, among property crime offenders, the Motivation for Rehabilitation Scale consisted of four factors: the pre-contemplation stage, the contemplation stage, the action stage, and the maintenance stage. The results of multiple regression analysis using the scores of each factor of motivation for rehabilitation as the objective variables indicated that significant explanatory variables differed between theft and fraud offenders. Admission or denial of the crime influences the theft offenders’ motivation for rehabilitation, whereas conscientious personality traits are related to the fraud offenders’ motivation for rehabilitation.