Vol.4,No.2 March,1989　

Title

Community and Psychological Stress(<Special issues>Social psychology of stress)

Author

Kazuo YAMAMOTO (Keio University)

Summary

The purpose of this paper reviewed the studies concerning community stress in the research field of social psychology, sociology, environmental-architectuatal psychology, community psychology and psycho-somatic medicine. First, the useful definition of community for studying on the stress of community is examined. Second, the evaluation studies on the aspects of community in terms of community satisfaction are main approach particulary in social psychology. This approach is able to grasp on which aspects of community the inhabitants are dissatisfied, however the paper insisted that it is needed which aspects of community the inhabitants want to improve toward the government of their community. The QOL contribution model (Murrell & Noris 1988) is introduced from the research field of community psychology for this purpose. Third, the studies concerning the effect of community on psycho-somatic health are examined. We should progress on more detail research including the elements of social support and coping resources interacting stress aspects.

Key words

community, psychological stress, quality of life (QOL)

Title

Social support research : New trends of the research and its future directions(<Special issues>Social psychology of stress)

Author

Mitsuhiro URA (Kansai University)
Takao MINAMI (Keio University)
Akihide INABA (Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Summary

This article contains two parts. In the first part, we review recent studies on social support and define three new trends in the area of social support research. The first trend is recent increment of studies examining the relationship between social support concepts and some other concepts in social psychology. The second trend is a series of studies re-examining social support process from the viewpoint of more general features of social interaction process. The third trend is the emphasis of roles of various ecological factors in social support processes. All of these three trends are considered to have impacts on future directions of this area of research. In the second part, we report results of the studies in which we examined the relationship between social support and family stress and individual stress in a situation of job-induced separation. This examination is considered to be related with the third trend reported in the first part. The results revealed that the social support, on the one hand, buffer negative effects of stressful life events on family and individual adaptation, but on the other hand, the buffering effects may have a limitation.

Key words

social support, social psychdogy, social interaction, ecological factors, job-induced separation, family stress, individual stress

Title

Burnout : A study of organizational stress among human service employees(<Special issues>Social psychology of stress)

Author

Masao TAO (Kyoto Prefectural University)

Summary

Burnout among human service workers appears to be a serious problem affecting the delivery of care. Findings from previous empirical researches indicate that burnout results from reactions to the inconvenience inherent in the work environment, and that burnout may cause the workers to change their attitudes and behaviors. This paper presents and discusses research findings about the effects on burnout of various aspects of the work environment. The data were collected from nurses (n=163), physical therapeutists (n=60), operational therapeutists (n=38), homehelpers (n=78) employed at hospitals, welfare agencies, and so on. The major determinants of emotional exhaution were found to be the experience of trouble with others including their colleagues; role ambiguity; and the lack of discretion to clients.

Key words

burnout, human service, emotional exhaution

Title

Family and psychosocial stress : Authors' research trends and problems(<Special issues>Social psychology of stress)

Author

Katsuhiko UEMURA (Aichi Shukutoku Junior College)

Summary

In this report the author discussed researches of him and his co-workers on the family psychosocial stress from the following three viewpoints. 1. In case of development of the scale for measuring stresses, we should be prepare previously a theoretical framework in order to collect items of subscales in advance. Especially, the life structure theory and the family life-cycle theory are important. 2. It must be much accounted of the method and methodology how to grasp a whole of stress structure of individuals. Understanding the stress conditions of them dynamically and systematically, we tried to classify their stresses in everyday life as a stress pattern of each individual by Q-mode cluster analysis. 3. In order to find the clue for stress reduction, we interviewed representative cases who manifested a typical stress pattern, and attempted to describe actual stress conditions, coping behavior and social resources for coping of each type. These approaches from both quantitative and qualitative data were available.

Key words

psychosocial stress, family stress, stress measurement, stress pattern, quantitative and qualitative data

Title

A study of the resolution process in interpersonal conflicts experienced as stress in everyday life(<Special issues>Social psychology of stress)

Author

Tatsuo FUJIMORI (Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Japanese Junior Scientists)

Summary

The present study aimed at: (1) clarifying the structure of conflict resolution strategies used in interpersonal conflict situations; (2) examining the relationship between the attribution and meta-attribution for conflict and the types of conflict resolution strategies; (3) investigating the relationship between the types of conflict resolution strategies and the outcomes of the conflict. Eighty-two male students living in university dormitories were asked to answer about conflicts they had experienced with other dormitory residents. The survey comprised three parts: a checklist of interpersonal conflicts, an interview on the subject's strategy to solve the conflict, a questionnair pertaining to the subject's cognition of the conflict and conflict outcome. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) Conflict resolution strategies could be rated along two dimensions as restrained-unyielding, restrained-reconciliatory, promotive-unyielding and promotive-reconciliatory according to the subject's attribution and meta-attribution for conflict and their respective power. (2) The Conflict outcomes (resolution of the conflict, duration of the conflict, satisfaction with the outcome, attraction for the partner after the conflict) were determined by the types of conflict resolution strategies. The restrained-unyielding type and the restrained-reconciliatory type were less effective than the other two types, in that the subjects were likely to be dissatisfied with the conflict outcome. Moreover, the restrained-unyielding type was less likely to provide with a resolution to the conflict.

Key words

interpersonal conflict, conflict resolution strategies, attribution, meta-attribution, multidimensional scaling

Title

Sex preference for children among couples in Japan : Relationship between sex sequence of parity two and third birth

Author

Hiromichi SAKAI (Institute of Population Problems)

Summary

This paper, based on 1985 Demographic Survey on Changes in the Family Life Course and Household Structure, examines the sex preference for children among couples in Japan. We analyze behavioral data of birth histories of couples, by investigating sex ratio of last child, sex sequence of children, parity progression ratio by sex sequence at parity two, and applying logit model. The results are as follows : (1) balance sex preference is clear even among couples whose wife is at the age 30-39. (2) balance sex preference is still shown after controlling socio-economic variables (education, occupation of the head of a household, and size of city) (3) balance sex preference is apparent among such categories as `higher education', `white color', `big-city dwellers' (4) sex sequence of two children has a moderate, but coherent effect on parity three.

Key words

balance sex preference, logit model, parity progression ratio, sex preference, sex sequence of children

Title

A 4-year follow-up study on career orientation among freshmen enrolled in faculty of education (II) : differences between those who have consistent occupational choice and those who inconsistent occupational choice

Author

Minoru WADA (Nagoya University)
Mitsuru WAKABAYASHI (Nagoya University)
Kazushi SAITO (Nagoya University)

Summary

The present study was designed to monitor complex relationships between external determinants (personal background) and internal factors (self-concept, occupational attitudes, etc.) upon occupational choice processes of education students over 4 years. Subjects were consisted of 44 undergraduate education students (18 males and 26 females) enrolled in 1983. Data were collected at four different points: April, 1983 (immediately after enrollment), December, 1983, September, 1985, March, 1987 (just before graduation). Three occupational groups were identified: those with consistent occupational choice (Perfectly Consistent Choice: PCC), those who have consistent occupational goals but can not chose desired jobs (Quasi-Consistent Choice: QCC) and those with inconsistent occupational choice (Inconsistent Choice: IC). Major findings are summarized as follows. First, the ratio of male in QCC is higher than that in PCC and IC. QCC's fathers show higher educational background. Second, PCC's interest in educational occupations is higher than QCC' and IC's. PCC attach more importance to human relations in job orientation than QCC and IC do. PCC want more job challenge than IC and QCC. Above results indicate that PCC students formulated also highly consistent occupational orientation during their 4-year socialization period.

Key words

occupational choice, job orientation, occupational interest, career consistency, personal background