Vol.6,No.1 November,1990　

Title

Some problems with a social survey on the mental health of the aged, with special emphasis on senile dementia(<Special issues>Social psychology of health (II))

Author

Chikio HAYASHI (The University of the Air)
Fumi HAYASHI (Toyo Eiwa Women's University)

Summary

There are many problems to be solved in social surveys, which aim to reveal information about social climates, family relations, life styles and individual social attitudes. The present study endeavors to assess these data vis-a-vis the prevention of senile dementia. While the prospective follow-up study would be best, it is not practical approach in this instance. In the present study, we planned the social survey specifically for the aged, a situation which brought up numerous problems in design and data collection. In this paper, those problems are described, along with some comments regarding improvements for such a survey. Finally, a data-analytic model, designed to elicit useful information from incomplete data, is presented.

Key words

health survey, social survey, senile dementia, aged people, mental health

Title

Relations between self-consciousness and the information processes to be activated

Author

Eriko KUDO (University of Tokyo)

Summary

According to the self-regulation model proposed by Carver & Scheier (1981, 1985), self is supposed to be divided into public-self and private-self and if a person focuses attention on either aspect of self, then the information process related to that aspect will be activated. The purpose of the present study was to show it by steps; seeking information, accepting information, comparing with standards, and reducing discrepancy. In the experiment subjects were given feedback opposed to their self-images and given a chance to compensate for it. In congruent condition, public self-conscious subjects received public-self related feedback and private self-conscious subjects received private-self related feedback. In incongruent condition, public self-conscious subjects received private-self related feedback and private self-conscious subjects received public-self related feedback. Results showed that participants sought information concerning the aspect of the self on which they focused attention and congruent group tried to reduce discrepancies more than incongruent group. Implications for the future research on self-regulation were also discussed.

Key words

self-regulation, public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness

Title

Sex differences in sex-role orientation of undergraduate students

Author

Kiyokazu AZUMA (Waseda University)

Summary

The purpose of this paper is to analyze sex differences of sex-role orientation in college students. A Japanese version of Dreyer et al's ISRO was made up, and a preliminary investigation was conducted with this version, and its reliability and validity were verified. Subsequently, the main investigation was conducted with college students in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai area. Sex differences in the ISRO total score were found. Looking at individual items, sample differences were apparent in 10 out of 16 items and sex differences in all 16. It was found that, compared to male students, female students had a strong tenedency to deny traditional sex roles. Male students, on the other hand, tended to be conservative, but there were large individual differences.

Key words

feminism scale, sex role, sex-role orientation, ISRO, sex difference

Title

The impacts of situational, sex, and cultural factors on allocational behavior and interpersonal attraction

Author

Hidetaka OKUDA (Chukyo University)
She Lien XIAN (People's University of China)

Summary

The present study explored the effects of cooperative or competitive situations, sex differences, and the cultural differences between Japan and China on the allocation choices of a reward, and the effects of these variables on interpersonal attraction for allocators. Eighty male and fourty female undergraduate students in both countries answered the question which asked the subjects' own allocation choices and the liking for allocators, after they read the description of a game situation. The game was either group or individual task, and the allocators chose either equal or equitable allocation. The results suggested that there were differences between both countries in the subjects' own allocation choices, while there were similar tendencies between them in the liking for allocators. In both, interpersonal attraction is affected by both altruism and fairness of the allocators, and fairness judgment is affected mainly by allocation similarity.

Key words

competition, cooperation, equality, equity, interpersonal attraction, justice, similarity

Title

Childcare Stress and Postpartum Depression : An Examination of the Stress-buffering Effect of Marital Intimacy as Social Support

Author

Mitsuru HISATA (The University of Tokyo)
Masahiro MIGUCHI (Psychiatric Research Institute of Tokyo)
Sigehiro SENDA (Musashi Institute of Technology)
Ikuo NIWA (Keio University)

Summary

This study was designed to investigate the nature of relationships between childcare stress, marital intimacy as a social support indicator, and postpartum depression among 186 Japanese women, focusing on an examination of the stress-buffering effect of marital intimacy. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that childcare stress contributed significantly to the prediction of postpartum depression, accounting for roughly 30% of the total variance, whereas marital intimacy did not show any significant direct effect on depression. The stress-buffering effect was found among the primiparous women although the form of the interaction was different from what was expected from the literature. Marital intimacy protected the women from increased depression only at the lower level of childcare stress. Possible explanations for this finding and directions for future research were discussed.

Key words

childcare stress, marital intimacy, social support, postpartum depression, stress-buffering effect

Title

Classifying the coping strategies with social feedback and examining the effect of receiver's feeling on choice of the coping strategies

Author

Atsushi SHIMOTOMAI (Gakushuin University)

Summary

The present study aimed at specifying the coping strategies with an inconsistent feedback with one's self-concept from other, and secondly examining the effect of feedback receiver's feeling on choice process of the coping strategies. The respondents were 288 male and female university students who had called to mind an inconsistent feedback situation. They were asked to evaluate several traits of one's self-concept in question, the feedback information, and the sender. Subsequently, they rated one's feeling (pleasant-unpleasant) and the degree of using the coping strategies in time of that situation. The main findings were as follow. ; (1) the coping strategies were classified into nine type.; (2) the receiver's feeling was generally an intermediate variable between the traits of that situation and use of the coping strategies.; (3) when the receiver perceived that situation an unpleasant scene, his choice process was influenced by each trait of that situation. But in a pleasant receiver, it was under the Influence of the feedback information only.

Key words

social feedback, self-concept change, cognitive consistency, the coping strategies, feeling

Title

Effects of salience on information processing of persons

Author

Hideya KITAMURA (University of Tokyo)

Summary

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of salience on information processing of persons. In this study, three types of salience were utilized: interpersonal salience, intrapersonal salience, and information selective salience. Forty-eight subjects were presented with descriptions of stimulus persons through CRT display. A part of the descriptions was relevant to intelligence and the other was relevant to friendliness. The subjects who did not belong to the control group made judgments either on the intelligence dimension or on the friendliness dimension. After subjects were asked to recall the descriptions, they were presented with the descriptions again. Response latency to identify which stimulus person had the descriptions was measured. Analyses of variance were conducted and the results indicated that information selective salience facilitated the recall performance. It was also found that intrapersonal salience had an effect to make the response latency shorter and interpersonal salience had both effects. Intrapersonal and interpersonal saliences might have made the information more accessible. Based on the results, mechanisms of information processing of persons are discussed.

Key words

social perception, impression formation, person memory, cognitive processes, salience