The present study focuses on mother-daughter relationships, and the effects of daughters’ intimacy with their mothers on daughters’ psychological independence were elucidated. Female university students (n＝509) completed a questionnaire. In Study 1, the results were used to develop a mother-daughter intimacy scale; the reliability and validity of this scale were verified. The scale has three subscales: “solicitude for one’s mother, ” which referred to the care daughters feel for their mothers; “an absolute sense of security from one’s mother, ” a form of dependent intimacy that referred to the belief among daughters that their mothers accept their affective needs unconditionally; and “being tied to one’s mother’s values, ” a form of dependent intimacy that referred to the extent to which daughters are tied to the values of their mothers. Study 2 examined the effects of these three types of intimacy on daughters’ psychological independence, which referred to the reliability of daughters’ relationships with their mothers, and psychological individuation from one’s mother. Among daughters, these three types of intimacy exerted different effects on psychological independence; an intimacy-independence model for mother-daughter relationships was proposed.

This study investigated the relationship between self-concept variability and psychological well-being. The results show that self-concept variability positively relates to a sense of having a “purpose in life” and “personality growth.” By dividing the self-concept variability into positive and negative aspects, positive self-concept variability relates positively and negative self-concept variability relates negatively to psychological well-being. In addition, the size and balance of the effect that the positive and negative self-concept variability caused was different depending on the type of psychological function. In particular, positive self-concept variability strongly influenced the way a person perceives the future, such as concepts of “personal growth” or “purpose in life.” On the other hand, negative self-concept variability influenced the perceived current state of existence of the self, such as “self-acceptance.”

Three educational stages were compared in order to clarify the development of self-change intentions during adolescence. Aspects of self-change intention are hypothesized, on the basis on previous studies, to develop in 3 possible ways: 1) from present-focused to past-focused and future-focused, 2) from fantastic to realistic, or 3) from dependent to independent. In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted with adolescents in junior high school (n＝353), high school (n＝375), and college (n＝400). They responded to items of intention for self-change. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that factor structure of self-change intention was consistent among three educational stages. An ANOVA showed the mean levels of some aspects were different from educational stages. Moreover, those aspects could be interpreted along 2 axes: 1) future-focused-past-focused and 2) fantastic-realistic. Results showed both future-focused and realistic aspects increase with educational stages. These findings support first 2 hypotheses mostly and suggest that the development of self-change intentions occurs with the expansion and differentiation of time perspective.