Vol.26,No.1 August, 2010

Title

The effect of mentoring on the working intentions of regular female employees rearing children: Considering work-family conflict and vocational identity as mediators

Author

Makiko KODAMA and Hiromi FUKADA (Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University)

Summary

This study examined the effects of three types of mentoring, such as career mentoring, child-care mentoring, and double-roles mentoring, on the working intentions of regular female employees rearing children. In addition, it also examined the effects of work-family conflict and vocational identity as mediators. Survey data from 247 regular female employees whose youngest child was less than 16 years old were used. The results showed the following: (a) double-roles mentoring directly promoted working intention, and (b) career mentoring promoted vocational identity formation directly, and the degree of vocational identity formation positively influenced working intention.

Key words

regular female employees rearing children, working intention, mentoring, work-family conflict, vocational identity

Title

Investigation into the mechanism of interpersonal communication-cognition as a social skill

Author

Masanori KIMURA (Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University/Japan Society for the Promotion Science)
Ikuo DAIBO (Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University)
Masao YOGO (Faculty of Letters, Doshisha University)

Summary

We placed observers' interpersonal communication-cognition as a social skill and investigated the mechanism behind it. From the result of Study 1, although ability in face-to-face approaches influenced the accuracy of an observer's judgment of interpersonal communication in highly expressive conversations that were easy to judge, this did not occur in low-expressive conversations that were difficult to judge, suggesting a relationship between the two. In addition, to examine clues for improvement in accuracy, we conducted a lens model analysis in Study 1. Interactants' judgments about conversations were positively correlated to speeches and negatively correlated to adapters, while those of observers were positively correlated to speeches, gestures, and smiles, resulting in asymmetry of interpersonal communication-cognition between interactants and observers. In Study 2, a series of observational experiments showed the possibility of improvement in accuracy by skill training. These results suggested the validity of the placement of observers' interpersonal communication-cognition as a social skill and helped to explain some part of its mechanism.

Key words

interpersonal communication, actor and observer, social skills

Title

Perceived occupational stigma and coping strategies

Author

Yumiko KAMISE (Edogawa University)
Hiromoto HORI (Nihon University)
Koichi OKAMOTO (Toyo Eiwa University)

Summary

The present research investigated relations between perceived occupational stigma and their attributes, the coping strategies of those affected by occupational stigma, and the effects of perceived stigma on global and occupational self-esteem mediated by coping strategies. Data from 501 respondents, a representative set of data stratified by age and gender, showed that (a) approximately 10％ of the respondents perceived themselves as occupationally stigmatized, (b) low-income men, especially young or contingent workers, were apt to show awareness of their occupational stigma, (c) five coping strategies in particular (Re-evaluation, Group identification, Social comparison, Attribution of discrimination, and Disengagement) were common, (d) group identification positively enhanced occupational self-esteem in persons who perceived occupational stigma strongly. Lastly, the characteristics of the coping strategies and issues for further research were discussed.

Key words

occupational stigma, perceived occupational stigma, self-esteem, coping strategy

Title

Crime control by local communities: Focusing on social capital and cooperative behaviors in neighborhoods

Author

Daisuke TAKAGI (Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)
Ryuhei TSUJI (Faculty of Arts, Shinshu University)
Ken'ichi IKEDA (Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo)

Summary

In this study, we examined crime control in local communities through interpretations mainly from social capital. Using data obtained from a mail survey in an urban area, we investigated the effects of cooperative behaviors promoted by individual-level or macro-level social capital in neighborhoods on the number of respondents' crime victimizations. The results show that the network size of cooperative acquaintances at the individual level promotes the number of respondents' cooperative behaviors. Moreover, having a neighborhood where greeting and standing talking are frequent promotes respondents' cooperative behaviors. It is also suggested that cooperative behaviors aggregated at the macro level have an inhibitory effect on the number of victimizations in terms of "burglaries of the communities."

Key words

crime control, social capital, cooperative behaviors, hierarchical linear model, ecological fallacy

Title

A strategy for preventing the rebound effect on suppressing negative stereotypes: Focusing on the content of replacement thoughts

Author

Yoshika TADO'OKA and Koji MURATA (Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University)

Summary

Suppressing stereotypical thoughts ironically leads to a rebound effect (i.e., an increase in the accessibility of the stereotypes after suppression). Past research has shown that using the counterstereotypes (e.g., that the elderly are competent) as replacement thoughts was not successful in diminishing the rebound effect. In this research, based on the stereotype content model, we hypothesized that on suppressing one dimension of the stereotype (i.e., incompetence) another dimension (i.e., warmth) could be an effective and practical replacement. Specifically, we tested whether participants who suppressed the incompetence-related aspects of elderly stereotypes would diminish the rebound if they used warmth-related aspects of the elderly as a replacement. Experiment 1 confirmed the rebound effect after suppressing incompetence-related aspects of the elderly, and experiments 2 and 3 examined the effect of the thought-replacement strategy. On suppressing incompetence of the elderly, participants who focused on warmth-related aspects decreased the rebound effect compared to those who focused on the counterstereotypes. We discussed the efficacy of using another dimension of stereotypes to prevent the rebound effect.

Key words

stereotype suppression, rebound effect, replacement thoughts, stereotype content model

Title

Naive cynicism among Japanese dating couples

Author

Mia TAKEDA (Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University)
Makoto NUMAZAKI (Faculty of Urban Liberal Arts, Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Summary

We examined whether Japanese dating couples have cynical intuitions about how their partners assess responsibility and whether the strength of this “naive cynicism" varies with the intimacy of the relationship. Thirty-eight undergraduates and their dating partners rated their own responsibility for six desirable and six undesirable joint activities and predicted their partner's self-ratings. They expected their partners to overestimate responsibility for desirable activities and underestimate responsibility for undesirable activities. In addition, this tendency was at least a result of their expectation that their partner's allocation of responsibility would be motivationally biased. Although partners in a more intimate relationship appeared to expect their partner's allocation of responsibility to be more biased, whether this tendency was found because of an assumption that their partner was more biased or because of the stronger self-effacing tendency of more intimate partners was not clear. Results were discussed in terms of judgmental bias in self versus others.

Key words

naive cynicism, self-enhancement and self-effacing, intimacy

Title

Effects of facial expression and linguistic information on judgments of trustworthiness

Author

Hiroki OZONO, Yuko MORIMOTO, Satoshi NAKASHIMA, and Asuka KOMIYA (Kyoto University)
Motoki WATABE (Waseda University)
Sakiko YOSHIKAWA (Kyoto University)

Summary

How do we come to trust strangers- Previous studies have shown that participants trust smiling faces more than they trust nonsmiling faces. In daily communication, both facial and linguistic information are typically presented simultaneously. In this context, what kind of person will be judged as more trustworthy- In our experiment, 52 individuals participated as donors in a Trust Game involving many partners. Prior to the game, participants were shown photographs of their partners' faces (smiling/nonsmiling) as well as answers to questions indicating their partners' level of trustworthiness (neutral/somewhat trustworthy/trustworthy). Participants then decided how much money to give to each partner. The results showed that more trust was placed in partners providing trustworthy answers than in those providing neutral answers. Smiling female partners were trusted more than nonsmiling female partners. In addition, smiling partners were less trusted than nonsmiling partners only when the answers were trustworthy. These results suggest that individuals displaying too many signs of trustworthiness can actually be viewed with distrust.

Key words

trustworthiness, smile, linguistic information, signaling, cooperation

Title

Communication in a mock mixed-court jury trial: Its structure and the satisfaction and understanding of jurors

Author

Ayumu ARAKAWA and Ikuo SUGAWARA (Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University)

Summary

To maximize the value of jury deliberations, it is important to recognize how lay citizens in a mixed-court jury think about communication during deliberations. In this study, we analyzed jury deliberations during a mock mixed-court jury trial to examine situations in which jurors feel satisfaction or otherwise, and the situations in which they agree with an opinion. We examined several forms of data: A videotape of the deliberation process; pre- and post-trial questionnaires completed by six jurors who participated in the mock trial; and post-trial interviews with the same jurors. Some jurors thought that the opinion needed to be well-founded, and a juror who agreed with that thought was satisfied with the deliberation process. However, those jurors who were unable to discern the reasoning behind the opinion were not satisfied with the deliberation process. If there are relationships between satisfaction and agreement with the rule, these findings suggest that communication during deliberation needs to appear valid not only from the point of view of an observer but also from the perspective of jury members.

Key words

juror, saiban, expert-lay communication, heterogeneity