Vol.1,No.2 March,1986　

Title
The editor's preface : Toward the systematization of "Extremity Psychology"(<Special issue>Human behavior in extreme situation)
Author
Kensuku MURAI (Nihon University)
Summary
In psychology it is common to use the term "crisis" when describing human behavior in any extreme situation. The term "crisis", however, is not infrequently used in such a way as "identity crisis" or "growth crisis". It is noted from this that the conception of "crisis" does not always apply to sudden critical situations in which body and mind suffer acute danger or suspense. It is, therefore, advisable to avoid the confusion of the concept by using the phrase "extreme situation" as distinguished from "crisis" in the studies of these fields. Various studies have been made so far about extreme situations studies on disaster psychology, prisoners' psychology and other special studies as well as experimental basic studies. All these studies aim at understanding human behavior in extreme situations, but they are not yet fully interrelated to one another. We would like to propose that, in future, we should make efforts toward systematizing all these studies into one synthesis under the denotation of "Extremity Psychology".
Key words
extreme situation, sensory deprivation, extremity psychology, crisis, cannibalism
Title
Mental and behavioral reactions under emergency situation during flight(<Special issue>Human behavior in extreme situation)
Author
Isao KURODA (Japan Air Line Co.)
Summary
The emergency situation during flight causes the typical stress reactions for flight crew and passengers due to its sudden onset, urgent risk for life, long duration, sophisticated counteract and abrupt workload increase. However, the probabilistic risk is theoretically assessed on its designing stage. The detereoration of mental and behavioral pattern under emergency is categorized as the results of investigations of bailed-out accidents of fighter aircraft. Also, the reliability of behavior in critical situation is discussed in comparison with data obtained from nuclear plant operators. Voice analysis of communication and heart rate variability are the useful indicators to estimate the grades of stress reaction during flight. Tree different levels of human information processing should be considered in the emergency training for flight crew. Crew coordination is also the essential factor in emergency situation.
Key words
stress reaction, human reliability, voice analysis, heart rate variability, emergency training
Title
Confinement and reaction(<Special issue>Human behavior in extreme situation)
Author
Tatsuo ENDO (Kagoshima Women's College)
Summary
We describe the fundamental general features of the milieu of correctional institutions, the first reactions of criminals and delinquents in confinement situations, and their later adjustment to those situations. The first reactions include: relief that the trial is over, hurt and sorrow, wonderment about his or her own sanity, self-pity, anger or resentment toward individuals and society in general, determination to be revenged; despair, defeat; helplessness, suicidal thought, and determination to reform. The later adjustment includes the following types: (1) wholesome; (2) pseudowholesome, (3) maladjusted (including following subtypes-aggressive hostility, compensation, projectin, psychological escape, and actual physical escape), and (4) abnormal reaction (the so-called prison psychosis or prison reaction). But this first reaction and the later adjustment types may be very different in concentration camps or locked mental hospitals.
Key words
correctional institution, confinement, prison psychosis, prison reaction, maladjustment
Title
Psychological problems in the hospice care(<Special issue>Human behavior in extreme situation)
Author
Kazuo ABE (Hokkaido Prefectural Day Care Center Nurses Training Institute)
Summary
The hospice care relates to "receptive promotion to the death " for dying people and their families. This means that it has come up to the ultimate condition for the care giving parts and receiving parts in which persons on the utmost limits should square off against such a severe situation. We have made attempts to offer our hospice care to the patients suffering from progressive muscular dystrophy on the verge of the verge of death in their adolescence (at the age of 24 or 25) since July, 1978. What has been clarified there, however, is that the mortal phase could be contemplated as ways of life left for the dying people and as living demeanor of the persons related to them, and better departure to another world would be achieved by casual routine good ways of life and determined by good encounters. It would be brought by variation of the existence pattern, which could have indicated to make it possible through psychotherapeutical approaches.
Key words
hospice care, limit-situation, Progressive Muscular Dystrophy, existence pattern, psychotherapy
Title
Human mental processes under sensory restriction environment(<Special issue>Human behavior in extreme situation)
Author
Sukeo SUGIMOTO (Hiroshima University)
Summary
Mental processes of twelve subjects who underwent thee days of sensory restriction were analyzed upon their self-reports and behaviors emitted during the experiment. Five categories of subject's reaction to the environment of sensory restriction, thinking and fantasy, perceptual experience, emotional state, emitted behavior and posture, and alpha frequencies of EEG, could be better information to estimate the degree of subject's mental deterioration. In order to search the critical point of tolerance for sensory restriction, three types of reaction style, emotion expression, regression-stability and reality coping, were classified. It was suggested that occurrence of impulsive emotion for emotion expression style, recollection of child days in a half-day long for regression-stability style and strong expression of unplesant emotion for reality coping style might be critical for sensory restriction.
Key words
sensory restriction, individual differences of tolerance, hallucination, regression, alpha frequencies
Title
The bases of social power in the parent-adolescent relationship
Author
Yoshiaki IMAI (University of Tokyo)
Summary
The purpose of the present study was to find out the bases of social power in the parent-adolescent relationship. The subjects were three hundred and seven male and female students in two private universities. They evaluated how strongly they thought that their parents had each of six bases of social power (referent, expert, legitimate, reward, coercive, and attraction power), and how strongly they would obey their parents' influences in relation to the personal, familial, and social matters. The main findings were as follows: 1) The factor analysis based on the bases of social power revealed the following. They were termed "referent-expert power", "reward-coercive power", and "attraction power". 2) According to the path analysis, the paths which ran from "referent expert power" and "attraction power" to "the obedience to the parents' influences" had significant path coefficients. This result means that an adolescent tends to obey his parents when he identifies with them, perceives their expertness, and likes them.
Key words
bases of social power, referent-expert power, reward-coercive power, attraction power, parent-adolescent relationship
Title
Action research of problem-solving groups : Effect of intrinsic motivation on creative attitudes
Author
Masahiro OKU (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Summary
The present study was part of a research aimed at the development of a method to be applied in the improvement of heuristic problem-solving groups. The purposes of the present study can be resumed in the following three points centered around the problem-solving groups: 1. to develop a method to multidimensionally measure attitude change and `climate cognition' in the problem-solving process. 2. to analyze the conditions in which the problem-solving groups form creative attitudes. 3. to analyze the roles of playing-managers in the problem-solving groups. These three points were discussed with the data of a longitudinal experimental study of heuristic problem-solving groups as a base, and it was proved that intrinsic motivation is an important factor in facilitating the formation of creative attitudes.
Key words
attitude change, creativity, MDS, problem-solving groups, playing-manager
Title
Aptitude of professionals engaged in intercultural communication occupations : Translators and interpreters
Author
Atsuko SUZUKI (Keio Gijuku University)
Summary
This paper describes the vocational aptitude of translators and interpreters who play an important role in international communication. The study focuses on some differences between translators and interpreters in their personalities, interests and achievement motives. Of the 93 subjects, those who were well-adapted to their own jobs were selected (1) by the judgment of their employers and (2) on an objective basis. A discriminant analysis is used to show that there are some quantitative differences in the vocational aptitude of the two groups. The main findings are as follows: Translators (1) have interest in creative writing as well as intercultural communication and (2) are patient. Interpreters (1) have interest in people, verbal communication, mass communication, and journalism, (2) tend to empathize strongly with others, (3) are extroverts and (4) are highly motivated.
Key words
vocational aptitude of professionals, intercultural communication, translators and interpreters, discriminant analysis