Vol.9,No.2 March,1994　

Title

An exploratory study on the cognition of social phenomena

Author

Makoto MATSUO (Tokyu Research Institute)

Summary

Past research on social cognition have not paid much attention to the cognition of social phenomena. The general goal of the research project of which this paper represents an initial phase is to learn how ordinary people explain social phenomena. The purpose of this study is to investigate under what conditions people apply the same explanation to social phenomena as that applied to individual's behavior. For this purpose, social phenomena were defined as an aggregate of individuals' behavior. It was hypothesized that the following three dimensions of the behavior (and the social phenomenon as an aggregate of the individual behavior) would affect the degree to which the same causal explanation is used to explain individuals' behavior and social phenomena: (1) whether the behavior can be defined in itself (absolute behavior) or only in comparison to others' behavior (relative behavior), (2) the temporal stability of the behavior, and (3) the relevancy of social desirability to the behavior. Interestingly, these factors affected only the explanations of social phenomena; the explanations of individuals' behavior were not affected by these factors. The degree to which internal dispositions were used less in the explanation of social phenomena than in the explanation of individuals' behavior was greater when the behavior (and the social phenomenon) was relative, unstable, and relevant to social desirability. Another interesting finding is that the relevance of social desirability of social phenomena had a negative effect on the likelihood that external attributions were made, in sharp contrast to the fundamental attribution error which occurs in the explanation of individual's behavior. These findings were interpreted in terms of how easily the "fundamental causal schema" (Murata, 1982) is used.

Key words

social phenomenon, social cognition, causal explanation, fundamental causal schema, social desirability

Title

Gender differences in work values among Japanese college students

Author

Yasuko MORINAGA (Yasuda Women's Junior College)

Summary

Gender differences in work values were examined among Japanese college students. Factor analyses indicated that work values formed slightly different factors between genders, suggesting that men and women perceived work values differently. In comparison to men, women attached greater importance to various aspects of work values (i.e., intellectual stimulation, family, social contribution, and comfortable work environment). Men placed higher values on achievement than women did. The relationships between attitudes toward women's roles and work values were also investigated. Gender role attitudes did not strongly relate to women's values on achievement. Intellectual stimulation was valued higher by women of liberal attitudes than those of traditional attitudes. Men showed significant relationships between gender role attitudes and some aspects of work values. Men of traditional attitudes attached higher importance to achievement and comfortable work environment, and lower importance to family, than those of liberal attitudes. These results were discussed in relation to career aspirations and vocational behavior.

Key words

work values, vocational behavior, gender differences, gender role attitudes, career aspirations

Title

The dimensions of social support for Chinese students in Japan: The relationships among needs for support, perceived support, and received support

Author

Yuh Huey JOU (Hiroshima University)

Summary

The purpose of the present study was to measure the 3 dimensions of social support (SS) consisting of needs for support, perceived support, received support, and to investigate the relationship and difference among them. Ninety-two Chinese students in Japan responded to questionnaires which partly included the Social Support Scale for Chinese students in Japan developed by Jou (1993a), which measure SS under the different conditions composed by area and type of support. The correlation between perceived support and received support was extremely high in all conditions, implying that these 2 dimensions of support were quite similar. However, the correlation between needs for support and perceived/received support was both weaker, although significant correlations were observed in 14 conditions with perceived support and 6 conditions with received support. The scores of needs were higher than those of perceived and received support in 10 and 11 conditions respectively, but the difference in scores between perceived support and received support was not found. In short, with reference to Chinese students in Japan, it was found that they neither perceived nor received enough support as they needed in most conditions of support. It was suggested that the relationship between dimensions of SS or gaps in dimensions of SS and adjustment should be examined.

Key words

dimensions of social support, needs for support, perceived support, received support, Chinese students in Japan

Title

A comparative research of risk perception on US-Japan college students

Author

Hirotada HIROSE (Tokyo Woman 's Christian University)
Paul SLOVIC (Decision Science Research Institute, Inc.)
Tomoichi ISHIZUKA (The National Center for University Entrance Examination)

Summary

A Cross-cultural questionnaire survey on the perception of sixteen risks was carried out in Tokyo, Japan and Eugene, Oregon, USA in 1991. The sixteen risk items consisted of environmental risks, technological risks, epidemics, natural disasters, societal risks and political-economic risks. Samples were collected from male and female college students in both cities. Although both Japanese and American samples judged war and nuclear power plant accidents among the risks for which it was most urgent to avoid harm, other perceptions differed considerably between the two samples. The Japanese were most concerned with the global environmental risks such as global warming, destruction of forests and acid rain. The Americans rated risks such as AIDS and illegal drugs as the most serious risks in their country. The former risk orientation was global and the latter one was somewhat more localized. Females tended to have more confidence than did males in the effectiveness of efforts put forth to reduce these risk.

Key words

risk perception, US-Japan comparison, environmental risk, technological risk, AIDS

Title

Palliative medicine and clinical-social psychology

Author

Kumiko MARUYAMA (Seigakuin University)

Summary

Remarkable technological developments in modern medicine have led to widespread consideration of many aspects of Bioethics such as euthanasia, abortion, genetic engineering, artificial Insemination, and organ transplantation. There have been interdisciplinary studies of Thanatology, the study of dying and death, bringing together psychology, psychiatry, religion, sociology and the medical sciences. These studies have focused on very important problems such as the care of terminally-ill cancer and AIDS patients in hospices, and life and death education. Palliative medicine is indispensable not only for terminally-ill patients, but also for curable cancer patients who suffer post-operative pain or nausea due .to chemotherapy. The study of palliative medicine is necessary for effective medical and psychological treatment. A promising area of study is psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), the cooperation of psychiatry and immunology in the development of bio-feedback, the so-called "healer within."

Key words

terminally-ill patients, thanatology, clinical-social psychology, palliative medicine, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

Title

A study of belief formation and its change (3) : Process of belief-system change by cult mind-control

Author

Kimiaki NISHIDA (University of Shizuoka)

Summary

This paper is intented as an investigation of process of belief-system change by means of a religious cult mind-control. This study analyzed the process by mainly using a questionnaire survey administrated to 272 persons of the cult exiters, with content analysis of text books of the dogma, videotapes of the dogma, recruiting manual, seminar's manuals and interviews to exiters from the religious cult supplementary used. It should be concluded from the analysis that the cult recruiters take advantage of camouflaged religious recruiting, interpersonal attraction, group attraction, personal and social reality operations for recruiter's mind control. In the process, to begin with, the recruiter are attracted by the recruiter's warm regard and they begin to learn the dogma without knowing that it is a religious recruiting. As the next step, recruiter come to believe the dogma through influence of reality operation and interpersonal attraction. And finally, the recruiters tell the truth of their own group to the recruiters and ask them to be the members of the group.

Key words

cult mind-control, belief change, religious group, interpersonal attraction, reality

Title

The influence of risk communication on advertisements

Author

Osamu HAYASHI (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Kazue YAMAOKA (Teikyo University)

Summary

Consumers base many decisions on information obtained from advertisements. For governmental advertisements, informations on risk communication has been found to create a favorable impressions on consumers. This study investigates risk communication in insurance advertisements. First, consumers' general attitudes toward advertisements were ascertained using a questionnaire. Based on the results, two types of advertisements were made. One informs only the merits of the product; the other advertisement included informations on risk communication (demerit points). The majority of the subjects preferred the second type. Thus, not only for governmental advertisements but also for commercial ones, advertisements that include information on risk communication are preferred.

Key words

risk communication, advertisement, consumption behavior, reliability