With several returness, who had been deeply involved with the American cultural meaning system while growing up in the United States, the psychological reorganization processes of their semantic space since their return to Japan were studied. A focus was on their management of perceived differences between the meaning systems of Japanese society and those of American society, particularly in the manner of presentation of self and relationships with groups of which they were a member. Three patterns were discerned: in some cases, conflicts between two cultural systems resulted in psychological strain, which forced returnees to reorganize their semantic space; in others, skillful manipulation of American symbols enhanced self-esteem, depending upon the context of a particular situation; and in still others, no normative pressure from Japanese system were reported. Possible factors differentiating these patterns were considered to be the relative dominance of the American meaning system vis-a-vis the Japanese one before return, returnees' personality, their age of return, and the degree of ready acceptance of differences by people in their immediate environment.

View full abstract

Children and adolescents who have returned from overseas have been increasing in numbers. Their adjustment and education has become an important social concern. However, psychological research investigating their adjustment process is very limited. This study reviewed Japanese research findings and suggested methodological problems from the view point of cross-cultural psychology. Adjustment model for cross-cultural migration was criticized, for its ethocentric and pseudo-medical bias. Instead, an approach from the social skill model was suggested to be effective in developing multi-cultural competence.

View full abstract

More than 10,000 Japanese children return to Japan every year after long sojourns abroad. While these children have the advantage of cross-cultural experiences and increased intercultural communication skills, they tend to be handicapped in competing for places in high schools and colleges due to differences of educational experience and lack of preparation for entrance exams. In order to compensate returnees for these handicaps and to help their smooth re-adjustment, various attempts at organizational reforms on behalf of returnees have been made. These attempts, in turn, have affected the existing system of education by altering admission policies and school programs, which otherwise might not have been carried out. However, many returning children still find difficulties in being fully accepted by their classmates, especially when conformism predominates in the environment. This is basically due to the very monolithic concept of "what is Japanese." In Japanese society variant behavior is discouraged and variant types of Japanese persons having different cultural backgrounds offen suffer as a result. Under such circumstances the returnee often chooses, as a survival strategy, to behave as if he/she is a well adjusted "normal Japanese, " while struggling with the internal "true self." This suggests that we need to make a conceptual distinction between "external (or superficial) adjustment" and "internal (or true) adjustment" in the psychological study of returning children. Also, we need to expand our ideal images of Japanese so as to accommodate acculturated Japanese, which may be a prerequisite for participating in the modern international world.

View full abstract

Japanese children who lived overseas and then returned to Japan, often have caused a problem of readjustment to Japanese school life after their return. The issues of returning are especially acute for children who face difficulties of re-integrating into both their peer group and the Japanese educational system because of that native children and teachers hardly share the experience of sojourning abroad and value systems attained by those returnees who are so different from the native Japanese. In some cases the returnees are victims of bulling or IJIME by their peer group and cannot help moving to another school or even to overseas again but the majority of returned children overcome difficulties and successfully reassimilated Japanese life. Moreover they becomes to display a potential source of new aspect within the Japanese system because of their foreign language proficiency, wide view of international affairs, active participation to school events and so on, which have been tained with foreign culture. It is noteworthy that those returnees can find suitable jobs after graduation and may perform well in the Japanese society as productive power for future of Japan.

View full abstract

The present study examined how subjects' evaluations differ according to the viewpoint they have when they evaluate given allocation behavior. In this study, the subjects were 64.minudergraduates, who were divided into eight conditions, i.e., degrees of contribution (high or low) × opinions of allocation (equity or equality) × viewpoints ("participant" or "bystander"). In the participant condition, subjects were asked to take the vipoiwpoint of a participant in the situation. In the bystander condition, subjects were asked to keep their distance from the participant viewpoint. The results showed that the evaluation for the opinion of equity allocation in the participant condition differed from that in the bystander condition. In the participant condition, subjects preferred equity allocation if it benefited the receiver, but did not prefer it if it did not benefit him. This tendency was also found in the bystander condition, but to a much lesser degree.

View full abstract

Two processes intermediating conversation in social interaction of dyadic relationship were examined. In the first process, some antecedent factors such as task situation, interpersonal relationship and personal difference influence on conversation process. In the second process, the conversation influence on some interaction of the dyadic relationship. In our experiment, we set a topic of conversation into a decision making in problem-solving conversation as the task situation. And a degree of intimacy (high or low) as interpersonal factor and combinations of self-monitoring tendency (high-high high-low low-low) as personal factor were manipulated. 112 undergraduates were administrated self-monitoring scale. And 61 dyads were made of them and were measured their degrees of intimacy. After that, they are engaged in conversation about a given topic that is asked to make a decision. And then, they were asked to answer a questionnaire that survey social interaction. The results were as follows; (1) The total numbers of protocols in the conversation were influenced by intimacy. (2) The numbers of protocols which represent the qualitative differences of the conversation were influenced by intimacy and by combinations of self-monitoring tendency. (3) The qualitative differences of the conversation influenced on the cognitions and the evaluations to the conversation process and the partner.

View full abstract

The present study is intended to achieve a better understanding into the nature of gender difference in need for uniqueness observed among Japanese university students. Study I, through re-analysis of the data for a former study, ascertained men's higher scores on various sub-scales of need for uniqueness as well as in uniqueness-seeking in response to Rorschach noncolor plates. Study II gave support to the prediction that the total score and negatively to the feminity score measured by Bem's Sex Role Inventory. Study III replicated the main findings of Study I with a larger sample of 1,624 university students.

View full abstract