Vol.6,No.3 March,1991　

Title

Approaches to Group Processes and Cultural Differences from the Perspective of the Self(<Special issues>Self in social influence processes)

Author

Susumu YAMAGUCHI (the University of Tokyo)

Summary

This paper reviews theoretical and empirical work on the self. An emphasis is put on the role of self theories in understanding group processes and cultural differences in social cognition and behavior. It is argued that recent attempts by social psychologists to examine the role of the self in social contexts are promising, though more work should be done to corroborate each researcher's propositions. It is also suggested that more cross-cultural work is needed to understand the universality and differences of the self-system in the Eastern and Western cultures. The self concept may play a key role when we probe cultural differences.

Key words

self, group processes, cultural differences

Title

The choice of comparison in success-failure situations : social comparison or temporal comparison ?(<Special issues>Self in social influence processes)

Author

Toshiko KIKKAWA (Kyoto Gakuen University)
Makoto KUBO (Osaka University of Education)

Summary

There assumed to be two types of comparisons: social comparison (Festinger, 1954) and temporal comparison (Albert, 1977). The purpose of the present study was to examine which of these comparisons would occur when people experience either success or failure. Two hundred and twelve undergraduate students were given 14 short senarios which described fictious situations containing either success or failure. They were told to assume these situations happened to them and asked to choose one of five alternatives of comparison. The alternatives were: past self when succeeded; past self when failed; similar other; superior other; other answers (Subjects were asked to describe). The first two alternatives represented temporal comparison and the third and fourth alternatives represented social comparison. The last alternative was added to examine other possibilities of comparison, if any. The data indicated that subjects preferred temporal comparison when succeeded. On the other hand, social comparison was preferred when failed. Furthermore, multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis revealed the latent structure of given situations. Three dimensions were extracted: success-failure; causal attribution; importance.

Key words

social comparison, temporal comparison, MDS, success, failure

Title

The developmental change of self image : An analysis of response patterns to the WAI technique(<Special issues>Self in social influence processes)

Author

Shiro IWAKUMA (Keio University)
Hitoshi MAKITA (Keio University)

Summary

The developmental change of self-image was analyzed by using the WAI technique, in which each subject wrote 20 statements answering a question "Who am I ?" Subjects were primary, secondary and high school students, and total number of subjects was 4,948. Each response was coded by using a 303-category system, which was inductively constructed through content analysis of WAI responses. As the result of analyzing response patterns of 172 categories of the category system, 3 dimensions explaining individual differences, i.e., dimensions of 1) characters vs. demographic attributes, 2) self-consciousness, and 3) needs, hopes or desires, were found. Three clusters were resulted from a non-hierarchical cluster analysis of 172 categories. These clusters were A) social-biological basis, B) characters, and C) desire and self-evaluation. With increasing age, the propotion of subjects who responded only Cluster A decreased, and the propotion of subjects responded all of 3 clusters increased. These results suggested that in early stages of development, the self-image reflected social and biological basis of personality and that in the process of development, self-image reflected more aspects of personality.

Key words

"Who am I ?" technique (Twenty Statements Test), self-image, self-concept, individual differences, development

Title

Effects of individual traits on lying behaviors(<Special issues>Self in social influence processes)

Author

Takeshi FURUYA (Waseda University)

Summary

Lies are considered one of the most important impression management strategies. This study tested the hypothesis that the greater one's skills in, and concern for, impression manegement are, the more likely one is to lie. Ninety-six university students were asked to rate their willingness to lie in 20 lying episodes in which each depicted a person lying in a specific situation. Skills in and concern for impression management were measured by the Machiavellianism scale, self-monitoring scale, revised self-monitoring scale, concerns for appropriateness scale, and social skills scale. The lying episodes were divided into 6 clusters by a oblique component cluster analysis. The relations between the 6 cluster scores and the scale scores were examined by multiple regression analyses. Results showed that cluster scores had significant correlations with one or some of scale scores in 4 clusters. For instance, Machiavellianism scale scores were positively related to the clusters scores in 2 clusters that comprised situations where lying led to personal benefits.

Key words

impression management, deceptive communication, lie, Machiavellianism, self-monitoring

Title

Effects of mother's self-disclosure and child-rearing attitudes on child's self-disclosure and adjustment to a class group(<Special issues>Self in social influence processes)

Author

Takashi OGUCHI (The University of Tokyo)

Summary

The present study examined relationships between self-disclosure, negative child-rearing attitudes of mothers and self-disclosure of children, and between self-disclosure of children and their adjustment to their classes. A causality (self-disclosure of mother would facilitate self-disclosure of children, negative child-rearing attitudes of mothers would inhibit self-disclosure of children, and self-disclosure of children would facilitate their adjustments to their classes) was also investigated. Subjects were 135 primary school and junior high school students. They filled out self-disclosure questionnaires for children, self-disclosure questionnaires for their mothers, and mother child-rearing attitudes scales. Their teachers checked their adjustment to their classes. The relationships and the causality were confirmed, except between negative child-rearing attitudes of mothers and self-disclosure of children. These were caused by the fact that child-rearing attitudes consisted of two factors. One factor facilitated self-disclosure of children and the other inhibited it.

Key words

self-disclosure, child-rearing attitudes, adjustment, mother, child

Title

A basic study of the Need for Cognition Scale

Author

Takaya KOUYAMA (Hiroshima University)
Takehiro FUJIHARA (Hiroshima University)

Summary

The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS). Forty-five items, which had been used in the United States to measure NCS, were administered to three groups. Subjects in the first and second groups consisted of university students, and these groups were surveyed in succession with an interval of one year. Further, subjects in the second group answered the items twice with one month between administrations. Subjects in the third group were not university students. Each set of data obtained from the three groups was factor analyzed and one major factor was extracted. The fifteen items, which gave high loadings on the first factor and had no sex difference on scores, were selected as the Japanese version of NCS. The reliability of NCS was confirmed by the test-retest method, the split-half method, and the internal consistency method. Construct validity was also examined.

Key words

Need for Cognition, Elaboration Likelihood Model, reliability, validity