This study analyzed contact avoidance for romantic interests compared to friends. Undergraduates (N=334; 208 females) participated in a questionnaire survey. They were asked to recall a romantic interest, a same sex friend, and an opposite sex friend and rate the extent to which they did not wish to have contact with each individual in eight situations. Both men and women reported lower levels of contact avoidance for romantic interests than for opposite sex friends, but this tendency was more significant in women. Women showed considerably higher avoidance of opposite sex friends, and less avoidance of romantic interests. However, the levels of women's avoidance of romantic interests were not lower than that for same sex friends. In contrast, men showed a lower level of contact avoidance for romantic interests than for both same sex and opposite sex friends. The results were discussed mainly with reference to the function of contact avoidance as a sexual defense.

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The present study investigated the relationships among depressive tendencies, social support, and ikigai (the Japanese word for one's sense of purpose in life) in college students. Participants were 259 college students (142 males and 117 females; mean age: 20.1±1.0 years). The Japanese versions of the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Social Support Scale, and Part-A of the Purpose in Life test (PIL) were administered. Path analysis showed that the scores for social support from friends were negatively related to the SDS scores and positively related to the PIL scores. Additionally, the scores for social support from friends were negatively related to the SDS scores via the PIL scores. These findings suggest that enhanced social support from friends reduces depressive tendencies and increases ikigai. Furthermore, this increased ikigai also reduces depressive tendencies among college students.

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This study investigated the relation between three types of self-esteem and subjective well-being (SWB). The three types of self-esteem are sense of superiority, others' approval, and uniqueness. Self-acceptance and praise seeking were examined as parameters. A questionnaire measuring the three types of self-esteem, SWB, self-acceptance and praise seeking was completed by 254 university students. The results showed the following. Sense of superiority and others' approval have direct positive effects on SWB, but sense of uniqueness did not. Sense of superiority had an indirect negative effect on SWB through praise seeking. This study suggests that the relation between self-esteem and SWB varies with the domains of contingencies of self-worth, and the parameters are likely to intensify or weaken the effects of self-esteem on SWB.

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This study developed the Basic Psychological Needs Scale for School Life (BPNS-SL), which consists of three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) based on self-determination theory. We also examined the relationship between the satisfaction of the three needs and school morale to reveal which activities in school are important for each basic psychological need. Study 1 developed the BPNS-SL and confirmed its validity and reliability. Study 2 conducted a multiple regression analysis using data from junior high school students. The data showed that autonomy and relatedness have a stronger positive relationship with friendship than other activities. It also showed that competence has a stronger positive relationship with academic activities than other activities. These results indicate specific strong connections between each basic psychological need and school activities.

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This study investigated the psychological characteristics of people who repeatedly viewed Twitter tweets each day. A questionnaire survey was administered to undergraduate students on two occasions (n=240 and n=167). The results suggested that people who repeatedly viewed tweets daily reported the following psychological characteristics more strongly compared to those who did not access Twitter: “public self-consciousness”, “conformity orientation”, “self-recognition need”, and “escape from negative information need”. In addition, high frequency viewers were attracted to certain types of tweets, such as monologues from their close friends. However, no clear differences in psychological characteristics were observed between high frequency viewers and medium or low frequency viewers. Other factors leading to high frequency viewing remain to be determined.

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This study developed a Vitality Scale (VS), and examined its reliability and validity with 518 participants including undergraduates and adults. Factor analysis revealed that the VS consisted of six factors: vigor, flexibility, social withdrawal (reversed scoring), activeness, mental toughness, and positiveness. Six subscales were developed according the factor analytic results, which had sufficient internal consistency (α=.74–.82). Correlational validity was demonstrated in terms of the relationships of the VS with sleep and eating. These results indicate that each subscale was useful to measure an individual's vitality. Males obtained higher mean scores than females did on flexibility, social withdrawal (reversed) and activeness. The mean of adults' scores was higher than undergraduates' scores on the most of vitality subscales.

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This study investigated the dual processing model of psychological resilience among university athletes. Participants were 162 university athletes (male=55, female=107, mean age=19.7, SD=1.2), who were asked to complete a questionnaire containing questions on psychological resilience, self-esteem, burnout, self-evaluation of competitive performance, and athletic growth. Results of structure equation modeling indicated that psychological resilience was negatively associated with burnout via self-esteem and positively associated with athletic growth through self-evaluation of competitive performance. The findings of this study support our hypothesis that university athletes' psychological resilience promotes growth and reduces burnout.

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This study investigated the relationship between behavioral coping and depression mediated by cognitive control. We conceptualized two types of behavioral coping, namely “direct solution behavior” and “solution behavior by consultation”. The former involves coping with the problem actively and directly, and the latter involves accepting others' ideas by asking someone for advice and information. We selected items regarding behavioral coping from previous research, and prepared a self-report questionnaire regarding a stressful interpersonal situation, which 239 university students completed. The results of a path analysis suggested that each type of behavioral coping was positively associated with logical analysis, and that logical analysis was positively associated with reframing catastrophic thinking. Moreover, reframing catastrophic thinking was negatively associated with depression.

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This study examined the relationship between the number of past experiences participants recalled and the sense of ego identity in older adolescents. Participants were 370 undergraduate and graduate students, who described as many as possible past experiences, and completed items about feelings of success in the experiences, the duration of the experiences, and the Multidimensional Ego Identity Scale. Multiple regression analysis showed an association between the number of past experiences the participants recalled and Psychosocial Identity. There was an association between the ratings of feelings of success and Self Identity, Interpersonal Identity, and Psychosocial Identity, and also between the duration of the experiences and Self Identity.

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The Gitaigo Personality Scale (GPS; Komatsu et al., 2012) consists of 60 mimetic words comprising six subscales, and is used for measuring self and others' personality. In this study we developed a short form of the GPS, the GPSsf which consists of 30 words, by selecting the five words that exhibited the highest loadings for each of the GPS six factors. A factor analysis showed that the GPSsf consisted of six factors consistent with the six subscales of the GPS. The GPSsf had relatively high test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and sufficient validity. Because of the reduced number of items, the GPSsf is now more accessible for use in assessment situations.

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Grit is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. In Western studies, grit was shown to be a character trait which contributes to future attainments and success. A Japanese translation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S: Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) was administered to 1,043 university students. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated sufficient fitness and a two-factor structure which was basically the same as the original Grit-S. The two factors were named Perseverance and Consistency. Each sub-scale had sufficient internal consistency. Correlations with the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and measures of self-control and the Big Five personality factors attested to the basic validity of the Japanese Grit-S.

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The present study developed a Japanese version of the Strength Knowledge Scale (SKS: Govindji & Linley, 2007), and investigated its reliability and validity. The participants were Japanese university students. An exploratory factor analysis showed a one-factor structure. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability were sufficient. The SKS was associated with subjective well-being, self-esteem, characteristic self-efficacy, character strength, and identity. The findings showed that the Japanese version of the SKS had substantial reliability and validity. Furthermore, in this study the SKS was related to holding strengths and identity.

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Correlations between the scores on subscales of the Scale of Interest in Infants and preferences for pictures of infants were investigated. University students (N=27) completed the Scale of Interest in Infants. Then they were shown arrays of three pictures of an infant, an adult, and an object and required to choose the picture that interested them the most. The results indicated that pictures of infants were chosen more often than pictures of adults. Positive correlations were found between scores on the subscales for “affectionate attention” or “curiosity” and preference for pictures of infants. “Sympathy” and “tolerance” were not significantly correlated with preference for pictures of infants.

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