People are often unwilling to approach something that they perceive to be contaminated. Perceived contamination is associated with disgust and can be explained using the concept of magical contagion. As disgust is associated with the morality of purity, the role of disgust in the relationship between morality and the perception of contaminated things needs to be scrutinized. This study investigated how people are motivated to avoid something that they perceive to be contaminated with the Moral Foundations Theory as its theoretical framework and prison work products as the study object. In addition to the traditionally used scale to measure one’s concerned moral foundation(s), the moral values regarding purity and religiosity in a specifically Japanese context were measured using the Purity Orientation–Pollution Avoidance Scale, which has four subscales: Mental Purity, Respect for Religion, Bodily Purity, and Pathogen Avoidance. The results reveal that contamination-related disgust mediates the relationships between the Respect for Religion subscale and avoidance toward prison work products, as well as between the Pathogen Avoidance subscale and avoidance toward prison work products. The present study was novel in that it clarifies the relationship involving morality, disgust, and avoidance. The implications of these findings tap into some topics involving cultural differences.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

The Community Safety Map activity is the method by which children develop their own harm prevention skills through experiential learning. This activity shows dangerous or safe places from the perspective of crime prevention through environmental design and broken windows theory. It is found that the community safety mapping activity improved children's crime avoidance ability, communication skills, level of attachment to the local community, and crime prevention ability. However, there are no standard scales for measuring the impact of crime prevention on children. This paper examines the scale for effect of education of crime prevention for children and confirms its validity. First, we made 43 question items. These items were included in the scale. Second, 896 elementary school children were asked to complete a questionnaire. Third, factor analysis was conducted on 43 items. As a result, four factors were found from this analysis: crime-avoidance ability, communication ability, level of attachment to the local community, and ability to prevent delinquency. Judging by the alpha factor, the construct validity of our scale was sufficient. Finally, this questionnaire measuring children's crime-avoidance skills should be administered to children before and after their participation in making community safety maps.

View full abstract

This study examined the relationship between eugenic tendencies and the perception of abortion and prenatal diagnosis. In a web survey using online sampling, the public (n = 207) responded to questions about abortion and prenatal diagnosis and a scale of attitudes toward eugenics. The respondents were asked to rate their awareness and desire for abortion and prenatal diagnosis on a Likert scale and provide an accessible description of their options. The scale of attitudes toward eugenics asked respondents to rate their inclination toward eugenic tendencies on a Likert scale. Regarding abortion and prenatal diagnosis, results showed that more than 70 % of the respondents were aware of abortion, and more than 50 % were aware of prenatal diagnosis. Less than 60 % of the respondents who knew about abortion considered the possibility of having one (n = 149), and over 70 % of them who knew about prenatal diagnosis were willing to undergo the same (n = 106). Nearly 60 % of the participants who had heard of abortion and prenatal diagnosis knew that these were a selection of life (n = 149). Furthermore, regarding the relationship between eugenic tendencies and the perception of abortion (n = 149) and prenatal diagnosis (n = 106), those with solid eugenic tendencies were more likely to consider the possibility of abortion. However, there was no apparent difference for those with weaker eugenic tendencies. In contrast, those with solid and more fragile eugenic tendencies significantly selected the possibility of prenatal diagnosis. The results of the free description statements about abortion and prenatal diagnosis also revealed negative expressions that could be associated with eugenic thoughts, such as “I would feel sorry if a handicapped baby is born” in those with solid eugenic tendencies. Our present results indicate that the possibility of abortion and prenatal diagnosis is higher in people with a higher eugenic tendency.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

The relationship between subjective age, which was asked in the question “How old do you feel, aside from your chronological age?,” and cognitive function (attention and executive function) were investigated. We examined changes in the cognitive function of the same person measured in their 60s after 10 years based on the longitudinal study. Participants were assigned to “Feel younger” group whose subjective age is younger, “Feel older” group judged to be older than chronological age, and intermediate “Moderate” group. Attention function was evaluated by the D-CAT and the executive function was evaluated by the Stroop effect size. As the result, the “Feel younger” group was superior to the “Feel older” and “Moderate” groups in terms of D-CAT performance, and this group showed the same level of performance even after 10 years. There was no significant difference in the Stroop effect size among the three groups. These results suggest the possibility that an awareness of subjectively young in 60s affects the subsequent 10 years after on the attention function.

View full abstract

This article proposes a binary Yes/No decision method to measure Stroop and Reverse-Stroop interferences. In the proposition, participants judge whether one given color name (or one given color patch) is consistent or inconsistent with the color (or the word) of an incongruent color-word combination stimulus for each trial of interference conditions, then the degree of interferences is evaluated by the mean response time in interference conditions relative to that in control conditions. This method minimizes the number of color names or color patches given as participant’s choices relative to the well-known matching methods, where four or five choices are given for each trial. Our validation experiment showed that the response time in the interference conditions was significantly longer than that in the control conditions for both Stroop and Reverse-Stroop tasks. These results validated that the Stroop and Reverse-Stroop interferences were measurable by the proposed binary decision methods. Note that the mean response time for Stroop and Reverse-Stroop tasks was equivalent in the test with binary decision methods (in Experiment 1), but that was longer for Stroop tasks than Reverse-Stroop tasks in the test with matching methods (in Experiment 2). These results suggest that the number and area of given participant’s choices affect the difference in response time between the Stroop and Reverse-Stroop tasks.

View full abstract

Diploma policies stipulate the requirements for each student to successfully gain knowledge and skills through university education. Thus, it is important to visualize learning outcomes to measure students’ abilities. In this study, we examined the annual changes in the level of achievement regarding diploma policy using the PROG test, which can evaluate literacy and competency as generic skills. Components of generic skills in the PROG test were assigned individually to items of diploma policy, and the efficacy of diploma policy was evaluated. The achievement of diploma policy was approximately from 50-70 %. Furthermore, generic skills were able to describe in detail the students’ abilities acquired as learning outcomes. These results suggest that generic skills can be useful assessment indicators for visualizing the achievement of the diploma policy in university education.

View full abstract

We conducted two questionnaire-based studies involving university students to investigate how the principles of distributive justice, equity, need, and equality influence attitudes toward individuals with disabilities. Specifically, we examined how individuals' support for two types of supportive measures for disabled people—preferential treatment measures and equality measures—is influenced by the distributive principles. Overall, the two studies consistently demonstrated that individuals who prioritize the need principle, emphasizing the distribution of benefits based on needs, tend to have more supportive attitudes toward disabled individuals. Notably, contrary to our hypothesis, even individuals who highly endorse the need principle reduced support for preferential treatment when they perceived disabled individuals as less competent, reflecting their perspective that individuals with disabilities should receive support when they are competent rather than incompetent. On the other hand, the equity principles, contrary to the hypothesis, did not affect endorsement of preferential measures; instead, they were associated with increased endorsement of equality measures that benefit all individuals. These findings not only highlighted individuals’ perceptions of injustice in supporting the disabled but also revealed potentially effective strategies for garnering support that is more readily accepted by the general population.

View full abstract

The concept of active procrastination is gaining increasing attention in current research, in contrast to past studies which have generally regarded procrastination as a nonadaptive behaviour. However, little is known about the predictors of active procrastination. This study, which was based on earlier research by Yoshida (2016, 2017), aimed to examine the effects of metacognitive ability and other individual factors on active procrastination. The study involved 202 undergraduate participants in Japan, and the results revealed similar relationships between procrastination and individual factors to those in Yoshida's previous study. The findings showed that metacognitive control, past acceptance of time perspective, optimism tendency, and cognitive deliberativeness all promote active procrastination, while present satisfaction of time perspective and depression/anxiety inhibit it. Depression and anxiety, in particular, were found to promote nonadaptive procrastination while cognitive deliberativeness inhibited it. The study also identified significant interaction effects between metacognition and other individual factors on active procrastination. For example, depression and anxiety suppressed achievement ability and the time perspective of active procrastination more when metacognitive monitoring was high, while self-esteem promoted the time perspective of active procrastination more when metacognitive monitoring was low. The study highlights the importance of incorporating metacognition as determinants of active procrastination and focusing on the subcomponents of metacognition. It also suggests that there is a need for new interventions for procrastination behaviours that focus on individual meta-cognitive aspects, such as coping and cognitive therapy. Overall, this study sheds light on the adaptive nature of procrastination and provides insights into the individual factors that can affect active procrastination.

View full abstract