Ageism, negative attitudes toward elderly individuals, is the third great “ism” in society. Compared to other prejudices, it is unique because most individuals will become elderly adults through aging. Therefore, the phenomenon of ageism is inherently linked to aging. However, ageism and aging studies have previously been conducted in different contexts—the former primarily in psychology and the latter in gerontology. In this paper, we classify and organize ageism research from the perspective of aging. First, we show how ageism appears in workplace, medical, and nursing care situations and in psychological research settings. Second, we present several theories explaining the occurrence of ageism, including those focusing on aging, highlighting the physical characteristics of elderly individuals, and explaining prejudice in general. Third, we present from a gerontological perspective the problem of elderly people’s adaptation to old age: we argue how ageism hinders the acceptance of old age and successful aging. Finally, we describe ageism from an aging perspective by discussing the possibility of eradicating ageism and show how ageism and aging affect each other.

Recent research has indicated that the discreteness of emotions may be supported by language. However, how emotions become discretize as language is acquired has not been explored. In this paper, two categories of facial expression and emotion were assumed to support the discreteness of emotions, and the mechanism of their discretization through language development was discussed. Facial expression categories are likely to be modified by affective word labels after they are formed nonverbally. Affective categories are likely to be formed in childhood through the acquisition of affective words. Furthermore, a process may exist from infancy to childhood in which facial expression categories are linked to emotion categories, and facial expression categories are adjusted to correspond to affective words. In the process of the development of emotional discreteness, the categories of facial expressions and emotions are formed by language development. They are further linked by the development of automatic verbalization of what is seen and the development of processing that categorizes the facial expressions of others, based on the conceptualized emotions of the self.

Tackling loneliness is a challenging task in modern society. Recent research has focused primarily on the physiological nature of loneliness. However, the multifaceted psychological construct is clearly more than just a negative emotion. The virtue of helping each other can be undermined by the process in which loneliness breeds maladaptive social perception and behavior that also facilitate the avoidance of lonely individuals. To cut off the vicious cycle of loneliness, comprehending the dynamic nature of loneliness and social networks through the lens of social information processing is important. After introducing the conceptualization of loneliness, this paper discusses the process by which individuals feel isolated in dyadic/networked social connections, the social selection and influence mechanisms of loneliness, the distinction between loneliness and solitude, the current advances and limitation of loneliness interventions, and the importance of providing opportunities for social interactions for the lonely to deal with this modern disease.

Prosocial behaviors are based on egoistic and altruistic motives. Focusing on agreeable and egoistic personality traits is necessary to promote and maintain prosocial behaviors in a society. Researchers have focused on the dark triad, which consists of three socially aversive personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), to explore the characteristics of the egoistic personality. The three personality traits of the dark triad are characterized by self-interest and egoism; however, previous studies have shown that high dark triad individuals become prosocial when they feel that it is beneficial. The findings of previous studies suggest that creating systems to evoke incentives is necessary for prosocial behaviors to make our society more prosocial. The details of the incentives related to the dark triad personality traits are discussed.

In this study, I attempted to examine the functions of mutual helping in a team activity that take place on the members’ individual growth and team transformation as a whole in terms of merits and demerits. With regard to the benefits of mutual helping, as a driving force in promoting the development of teamwork, I argued the benefits of expanding the members’ horizons, sharing goals, and smooth communication coming into play. In addition, I shed light on the problems of team errors, pluralistic ignorance, and groupthink as adverse effects to be aware of. From the perspective of the theory of learning organization, I discuss possible effective strategies to overcome the pitfalls posed by these adverse effects such as promoting team learning, building psychological safety, and making a team function as a secure base.

Academic help-seeking is a unique social and learning strategy for self-regulated learning. In this article, we focus on how students’ academic and social goals affect academic help-seeking in classrooms. A meta-analysis of academic achievement goals found that students’ academic mastery goal and classroom mastery goal structure have a positive effect on adaptive help-seeking, and a negative effect on the avoidance of help-seeking. In addition, a narrative review of research on social domain goals found that students’ social developmental goals have a positive effect on their adaptive help-seeking. However, social presentation goals affected students’ dependent help-seeking. The importance of mastery goals in the academic and social domains is discussed with respect to enhancing students’ adaptive help-seeking, which promotes academic success.

This article reviewed three help-seeking issues in counseling and in clinical psychology research: (1) help-seeking processes, (2) facilitation of help-seeking, and (3) help-seeking and adjustment. Based on a review of previous literature about help-seeking processes and the facilitation of help-seeking, the importance of integrating perspectives that combine theoretical models of help-seeking, factors influencing help-seeking, programs facilitating help-seeking, and clinical practice was indicated. With regard to help-seeking and adjustment, help-seeking may not always serve an adaptive function and practices that aim to facilitate help-seeking have several considerations. Finally, the conclusion of this article is that future studies should consider the impact of sociocultural factors on help-seeking.