The present study examined effects of subject person, object person, and their interactions on personality cognition. Seven undergraduates rated both their own personality and that of the other six peers three times, using the Seikenshiki Personality Inventory. A factor analysis of the rating data yielded four personality factors: Extraversion, Egocentrism, Neuroticism, and Endurance. Two-way ANOVAs on factor scores showed that all main effects of object person and subject person as well as all interaction effects were significant. However, the magnitude of these effects varied for each personality factor. Object person showed the largest effect for Extraversion, while subject person showed the largest effect for Egocentrism; for Endurance, both of them showed considerable effects; and the interaction effect was large for Neuroticism. These results suggest that not only object person but both subject person and their interaction affect personality cognition.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of age and career factors on research results among enterprise researchers and engineers. A questionnaire was given to 1067 researchers and engineers in the research and development departments of Japanese pharmaceutical companies. The primary findings obtained were as follows. (1) The research results of enterprise researchers and engineers were devided into the factor regarding quantity of new research (QNR) and the factor regarding quantity of product development (QPD). (2) The QNR increased during period from 20 s to 40 s, and was stable after that. No age differences were found in QPD, however. (3) The QNR was promoted by the possession of a doctorate degree, the number of academic society memberships, the existence of company research reports, studies abroad after employment, relationships with other academic society members, personal contacts unavailable to others, and the number of subordinates. (4) The QPD was promoted by the interaction between people from different industries, the number of subordinates, studies abroad before employment, and changes in one's professional field, while a QPD restictive affect was observed in the number of academic society memberships. (5) Some gender-based differences in the influence of these variables was found, however.

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In May of 1997 an atrocious murder occurred in Kobe's Suma district. The purpose of this study is to analyze the published comments made by experts concerning this murder, and to investigate the role of the experts in news reporting. Experts' comments published before the arrest of the suspected murderer, were taken from four daily newspapers (Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, Kobe), and analyzed by a quantitative method within the Framework of 3 roles- "interpretation of the matter", "reduction of apprehension" and "persuation for self-defense". The analysis revealed that experts were expected principally the first roles in this case.

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University students and parents were asked to estimate the distributions of social opinions about the advantage of young generation and parent generation, separately for youth and parent populations. The respondents were also asked to describe their own opinions on the issue. First, no generation-gap was found in the estimates. The respondents estimated that the parent generation is generally considered more disadvantaged than is the young generation. This tendency was more salient in the students' estimates. Second, there were differences between the students and the parents in their own opinions. The parents rated the two generations as equally advantaged. On the other hand, the larger number of the students considered that the parent generation is more disadvantaged than is their own generation. Finally, the different time perspectives were inferred from the descriptions about the generation advantages given by the students and those by the parents. This seemed related to the generation differences in their own opinions as well as in their estimates of the distributions of social opinions.

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Hoyle, Pinkley, & Insko (1989) found that respondents in the United States perceive interpersonal encounters to be more agreeable and less abrasive than intergroup encounters. The present study was designed to extend this line of research by examining the influence of personal and social identities on perceptions of interpersonal and intergroup encounters in Japan and the United States. The results supported Hoyle et al.'s findings. In addition, respondents in the United States perceived interpersonal and intergroup encounters to be more abrasive than respondents in Japan. Social identity influenced perceptions of the agreeableness and abrasiveness of interpersonal and intergroup encounters, but personal identity did not.

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