“Emptiness” (Munashisa in Japanese) is a common feeling, yet there are a few studies of the feeling in our country. They suggest that emptiness is related to identity reconstruction, but researches that shows the process of emptiness doesn't exist and that of old stage doesn't, either. The purpose of this study is to clarify the process of arousal and continuance of emptiness during the young-old stage. The data of 14 people (7 men, 7 women; age of 62–78) from semi-structured interviews were analyzed with Grounded Theory Approach. Young-olds' emptiness was experienced in 3 circumstances: Searching hobbies, changes of parent-child relationship, conducting themselves in the business community. In every situation, they recognize various types of aging or life events in the developmental state at first. Then the loss of control realized. And they couldn't take the initiative, feel emptiness. The results also suggest that though young-olds are struggling to get out of the process of emptiness, but often fail and feel it again.

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The relation between cognitive emotion regulation and intention to leave in the context of nurse-patient interaction was examined. Emotional exhaustion, which is known as the critical component of burnout, was included as a mediator. Questionnaires were assessed among 268 nurses. First, factors of cognitive emotion regulation was extracted; “attribution to doctor and hospital,” ”active cause investigation,” “distancing,” “meaning making,” “positive reappraisal” and “attribution to patient.” Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to examine which of these factors predict “the intention to leave” and “emotional exhaustion.” Results showed that “positive reappraisal” predicted lower emotional exhaustion, whereas “attribution to doctor and hospital” predicted higher emotional exhaustion. Also, “attribution to patient” predicted higher intention to leave. Next, the effects of each emotion regulation strategies on intention to leave were analyzed by including emotional exhaustion as a mediator. The results showed that “attribution to doctor and hospital” increases intention to leave by mediating emotional exhaustion, whereas “positive reappraisal” decreases intention to leave by mediating emotional exhaustion. Finally, the significance of these findings and the limits of this study were discussed.

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Focusing on the argument of which assumed competence was derived from the motivation of self-enhancement for the ego-threatened person, the present study elucidated its relationship to anxiety, defense mechanism, subjective well-being, and hopelessness. In the first study, 354 undergraduates were classified into 4 competence types based on crossing scores of the Assumed Competence and Self-Esteem scales: atrophic, self-esteemed, omnipotent, and assumed. Those who were categorized in assumed competence type rated the highest on anxiety and coped with their ego-threat on immature defense level. In the second study, a self-report questionnaire was administered to 300 undergraduates to examine the relationships among assumed competence, self-esteem, subjective well-being, and hopelessness. The results clarified that their mental health varied not solely with a tendency of undervaluing others but with self-esteem. Discussed were some issues for future research in terms of training programs exerted to cope with ego-threats on mature defense level, to protect self-esteem, and then to improve well-being for adolescents.

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The present study examines whether the Name Letter Effect(NLE), one's preference for his/her initials, is observed in Korean people. One hundred and eighty-eight female university students in Korea participated in this study. Using the Name Letter Task (NLT), the NLE was observed in the Korean sample. It suggests that NLT is available in Korea to measure implicit self-esteem. For future directions, the possibility of intervention to improve implicit self-esteem was discussed.

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“Emotions” are a psychological category that was first expounded in the eighteenth century, whereas earlier classical literature, since the time of ancient Greece, had used the term “passion.” Descartes elucidated that thoughts are the essence of the “ego.” According to Descartes, thoughts proceed from the soul, and actions of the soul are our will. On the contrary, passions are our perceptions that include emotions in a wider sense. “Passion” is an important word in both philosophy and linguistics. The fact that a great majority of adjectives designating emotions in English are derived from participles, is suggestive of the passivity of emotions. For Descartes, emotions are the negation of thoughts as action, whereas emotions play a central role in Japanese culture. In the Japanese language, emotions are verbally expressed in spontaneous and non-volitional form. Therefore, it is suggested that research on the characteristics of emotional expressions in the Japanese language could result in a new formulation of the concept of emotions.

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Emotion regulation is necessary for psychological health. In recent years, especially, cognitive emotion regulation has attracted considerable attentions. The purpose of the present study was to develop a Japanese version of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and to investigate whether the usage tendency of and the relation with psychological health of cognitive emotion regulation is determined by the intensity of negative emotion. In Study 1, Japanese-version CERQ was developed and examined its reliability and validity. In Study 2, first, it was revealed that all strategies except positive refocusing were significantly different in the use tendency. Under the low negative emotion condition, positive reappraisal, put into perspective, self-blame, and refocus on planning were frequently used. And then, multiple regression analysis showed that under the low negative emotion condition, positive reappraisal predicted lower anxiety and depression, but catastrophizing predicted higher anxiety and depression. In contrast, under the high negative emotion condition, rumination and catastrophizing predicted higher anxiety, and self-blame predicted higher depression. These indicated that the usage tendency of and the relation with psychological health of cognitive emotion regulation is determined by the intensity of negative emotion.

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