The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological background factors discriminating participants from nonparticipants to volunteer activities, and participation-motive factors of non-participants as the subject with female students.

Nine subscales of attitude toward volunteer activities, 2 subscales of identity, and 7 subscales of everyday life satisfaction are scale-constructed as the explanatory variables of criterion variable.

As the results of three types of analysis(multiple regression, logistic regression, and discriminant) using as the criterion variable of two groups, that is participant-group(+, n=85) and nonparticipant-group(-, n=117), there had been extracted commonly for these analyses the 6 variables of affiriation orientation(+), egoism(-), admirative appraisal(-), perception of distress(-), basic identity(-), and community-life satisfaction(+) influencing criterion variable.

Next, multiple regression analysis using as criterion variable of activity-motives of nonparticipants sugessted that egoism were very much concerned in the negative attitudes for activity, and multiple co-rrelation coefficient were .738(R²=.545) using all 21 explanatory variables.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what counseling services at the women’s center actually do. Many women’s centers were built by local governments to promote women’s issues, and to provide counseling and library services, classes and research activities focused on women’s issues. There are few studies on women’s centers. 100 new clients at N women’s center were questioned about their needs and expectations from counseling. The counselors were asked about their services and how they thought these services could benefit their clients. Answers from both counselors and their clients were assessed and compared. Although counselors were there to counsel, 47 clients demanded consultations with female lawyers at the women’s center. Fourteen requested counseling though the counselors thought that 29 of their clients would benefit from it. However, only 16 clients actually received counseling. Most clients did not know what counseling could provide and what counseling was. This was a first time experience for 52 clients who came for counseling. The counselors realized that their clients would be unable to resolve their problems if they only met with them less than two sessions on the average. Lack of information about counseling is the problem that needs to be addressed by the women’s center. The counseling office at N women’s center should let women understand what services it can provide, what counseling is and what kind of women’s issues the office could help to resolve. The women’s center should adopt a community psychological approach in addition to a feminist therapeutic approach to empower women.

Although increasing attention has been paid to psychosocial intervention for cancer patients since psychooncology was introduced in the mid-80s, few studies of its effects on the quality of life of these patients have been conducted so far in Japan. The purpose of this study is to evaluate both quantitatively and qualitatively the effects of support group intervention designed for breast cancer patients. Six outpatients participated in a total of 8 weekly sessions, which consisted of Relaxation, Focusing, and Group Discussion, and 3 monthly follow-ups. Comparison of the Profile of Mood States scores including the Total Mood Disturbance score between pre- and post-intervention indicated that negative mood states were improved in 4 out of 6 participants. Quantitative analysis using brainstorming and the KJ method revealed that this type of support group could reduce not only physical and emotional distress but also social and existential distress. Contrary to our expectation, however, patients’ support networks, especially the friend network, were diminished significantly after the intervention. The reason for this and the future direction of this kind of intervention are mode a discussion.

Self-Help groups are organized voluntarily and intentionally by people who suffer common problems, to solve these problems, to solve these problems or acquire power to live with these problems. These groups are independent from professionals and managed independently. And they develop regular and lasting activity.

Self-Help Groups are system which have functions of lasting community. People who participate in the system change their own system.

Self-Help groups are open system. And through their activities, naturally relationships between self-help groups and outside systems emerge. Furthermore, mutual aid between self-help groups and outside systems develop.

In these relationships, the merits and demerits of both sides are involved.

This paper describes the merits and demerits divided into several relationships about Self-Help Groups and professionals.

The aim of this paper was to discuss effective approaches to patients with borderline personality disorders(BPD) in a day care.A review of the literature on day care activities for patients with BPD indicated that a day care is an useful therapeutic setting for patients with BPD without causing the ego regression. Furthermore, it suggested that a day care for patients with BPD should hold and contain their regression while limiting their regressive potential by limit setting and structuring the day program. A review of empirical reports on effect of day care for patients with BPD showed that a day care could facilitate BPD’ psychological adaptation, not social adaptation. Based on former studies, the ways of dealing with their self-destructive behavior and splits among stuff members in the treatment of patients with BPD were introduced. Finally, this paper proposed further problems to be considered on the day care for patients with BPD.

This paper reviews the advances and issues in classroom climate research from the point of climate definitions, research methods and school mental health. Because of the concept’s ambiguity and broadness, classroom climate research has not been discussed much in Japan. But because of increasing problems such as bullying and non-attendance at schools, the classroom environmental effects on student’s mental health and school adjustment need to be examined. First, we examine the definitions of climate and describe climate as a general concept which presents a group personality. Second, we overview the development of climate research from the social psychological one which is mainly based on teacher behavior observations, to the 1980’s one which uses questionnaires to obtain student’s climate perceptions. Then, the two main questionnaires “Classroom Environment Scale” and “Learning Environment Inventory”, including their theoretical background, are described. Third, we focus on recent research development and research outcomes related to school mental health to describe the importance of classroom climate research in school mental health.