This research explored whether self-compassion buffers people against perceived threat in the face of job rejection and enables them to invest their internal resources in job hunting again. It also examined whether intrinsic-improvement orientation toward job hunting moderates the relation of self-compassion to the reinvestment of resources. In Study 1, a total of 153 Japanese undergraduates responded to a hypothetical scene about being rejected at a job interview for a sought-after company. Results indicated that self-compassion was negatively related to perceived threat and that the positive relation of self-compassion to resource reinvestment in job hunting was significant only among those high in intrinsic-improvement orientation toward job hunting. In Study 2, a total of 50 job-hunting students recalled their own job rejections and reported on how they had coped with them. Results replicated the main findings of Study 1, indicating that self-compassionate people are less likely to overestimate threat from their rejection and that they are more likely to reinvest their internal resources in job hunting when they are high in intrinsic-improvement orientation toward it.

The present study examined how leaders’ evaluation and judgment of members are influenced by their “implicit theories” (e.g., Dweck, 1999). Participants were asked to play the role of team leader and then observed a team member performing poorly. They were asked to decide how much reward they should distribute to the failed member and to allocate the remaining time between him/her and a new member who had not yet worked on the task. As a result, participants who believe in malleable abilities (incremental theorists) increased the evaluation of the failed member when that member claimed that he/she made an effort, whereas participants who believe in fixed abilities (entity theorists) evaluated that member based only on outcome. Furthermore, entity theorists expected a new member to achieve an average level of performance and allotted more time to him/her, whereas incremental theorists expected a new member’s performance to be below average. There was no difference between their expectations of the failed member’s next performance. Results suggest that entity theorists may be better than incremental theorists at placing the right people in the right place.

This study distinguished between subjective and objective knowledge of scientific technology whose influence on health is yet to be defined, and explored the effect of each type of knowledge on risk perception. A web-based survey among the Japanese population (N＝1,110) was conducted. It assessed the subjective and objective knowledge of electromagnetic field (EMF), interest in EMF, risk perception, and trust on the related organizations. The results indicated that respondents’ objective knowledge about EMF was generally poor. Their subjective knowledge and objective knowledge were significantly correlated, but the strength of correlation was moderate. Multiple regression analysis yielded significant subjective×objective knowledge interaction on risk perception. While objective knowledge consistently attenuated risk perception, subjective knowledge boosted risk perception only when respondents’ objective knowledge level was low. The possibility of the potential influence of reputation of EMF on the boosted subjective knowledge about EMF was discussed.

In modern society, the filtering of illegal or harmful content on the Internet is necessary for the healthy development of young people. However, the mental damage that Internet filtering workers may suffer has been overlooked. We examined occupational stress and related factors among Internet filtering workers in Japan. Workers (N＝160) in a company providing a web-content filtering service completed a questionnaire. The percentage of all respondents with high-risk Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) scores was 10.4％ and with high-risk General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) scores was 47.0％. These results indicated that rates of mental damage among Internet filtering workers were as high as those of firefighters and journalists. IES-R and GHQ-12 scores were used as the dependent variables in the quantification method (Type 1). The results showed that these scores related to stress responses in the aftermath of witnessing traumatic illegal or harmful content, emotional empathy, and so on.

This study attempted to replicate Kamise, Hori, and Okamoto’s (2010) survey on perceived occupational stigma among Japanese workers by conducting a survey with employees in a host club—a male cabaret club—in the Kansai region, Japan, to investigate their perceived occupational stigma, coping strategies, occupational self-esteem, and egalitarian sex-role attitudes. The results showed that host-club employees perceived extreme occupational stigma, where novices, part-time workers, and those with fewer work assignments showed higher levels of perceived stigma. Regarding coping strategies, attribution of discrimination and disengagement were used frequently, while valuing and group identification were used only rarely. Structural equation modeling showed that group identification positively enhanced occupational self-esteem. However, contrary to previous research, individuals who perceived more stereotyping rarely used group identification. Stigma awareness facilitated attribution of discrimination, resulting in lowered occupational self-esteem, and egalitarian sex-role attitude significantly influenced valuing and attribution of discrimination.

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumer attitudes towards shopping in Japan. Factor analyses of data by 1,286 nonprobability online panels in a Web survey (in 2014) confirmed a hypothesized two-factor structure (the hedonic and utilitarian), but although the hedonic subscale had enough internal consistency, the utilitarian subscale had relatively low internal consistency. The correlations of the scores on consumer attitudes towards shopping with other measures, such as bargain orientation, impulsive buying tendency, and frugality, provided support for the criterion validity of each subscale. In many cases, these relationships were not affected by variables such as gender, life stage, and household income. Implications for the two-dimensional model of Japanese consumer attitudes towards shopping are discussed.