The Concept of Responsibility and Determinants of Responsibility Judgment in the Japanese Context

As in the case of the English word responsibility, the Japanese equivalent sekinin is an over-used term with multiple meanings. At least two distinctive usages are noted for the Japanese concept of responsibility: 1) to describe duties or obligations pertaining to a person's role or position; and 2) to assign blame or sanction to someone when an untoward occurrence is observed. By utilizing a number of peculiar incidents that resulted in some harm, the present study has found that subjects' responsibility judgments in terms of the second type of usage were largely determined by the following two factors: 1) the causal relationship of the agent's act to the harm that ensued; and 2) the morality of the act itself without regard to consequences. In the cases where these two aspects contradicted, especially where the blameworthy act was not directly connected to the harm, judgments about the agent's responsibility were found to diverge among subjects. It was also shown that subjects most often referred to these aspects in elucidating the reasons for attributing responsibility to, or negating the responsibility of, the agent.     

Syntactic comprehension in Japanese aphasics: effects of category and thematic role order.

Syntactic comprehension disturbances in Japanese aphasics were investigated focusing on the role of category order and thematic role order. The data from Japanese aphasics show that the canonicity of thematic role order determines the ease of interpretation of different sentence types. This finding implies that language-specific factors, rather than language-universal factors, influence the sentence comprehension mechanisms that are retained by aphasic patients.     

The independent effects of skin tone and facial features on Whites' affective reactions to Blacks

Research on skin tone and Afrocentric features provides evidence that people use phenotypes (visible physical characteristics) to make inferences about the degree to which stereotypes about the racial group apply to the individual (i.e., to make impressions of others). However, skin tone and Afrocentric features have been confounded in prior research on this topic. The present study examines whether facial features (lip thickness, nose width) have effects on Whites' affective reactions to Black targets, above and beyond the well-documented skin tone effect by experimentally crossing variation in facial features and skin tone. The results showed that both skin tone and facial features independently affected how negatively, as opposed to positively, Whites felt toward Blacks using both implicit and explicit measures. The findings that Whites reacted more negatively toward Blacks with darker skin tone and more prototypical facial features than toward Blacks with lighter skin tone and less prototypical facial features on the explicit measure may indicate that Whites are unaware of the negative effects that Blacks' phenotypes can have on their racial attitudes. The present study demonstrated that subtle facial features, in addition to salient skin tone, also play an important role when predicting Whites' feelings about Blacks. One implication is that it is important to raise people's awareness about the effects that Blacks' phenotypes can have on their attitudes.     

Racial healthcare disparities: A social psychological analysis

Around the world, members of racial/ethnic minority groups typically experience poorer health than members of racial/ethnic majority groups. The core premise of this chapter is that thoughts, feelings, and behaviours related to race and ethnicity play a critical role in healthcare disparities. Social psychological theories of the origins and consequences of these thoughts, feelings, and behaviours offer critical insights into the processes responsible for these disparities and suggest interventions to address them. We present a multilevel model that explains how societal, intrapersonal, and interpersonal factors can influence ethnic/racial health disparities. We focus our literature review, including our own research, and conceptual analysis at the intrapersonal (the race-related thoughts and feelings of minority patients and non-minority physicians) and interpersonal levels (intergroup processes that affect medical interactions between minority patients and non-minority physicians). At both levels of analysis, we use theories of social categorisation, social identity, contemporary forms of racial bias, stereotype activation, stigma, and other social psychological processes to identify and understand potential causes and processes of health and healthcare disparities. In the final section, we identify theory-based interventions that might reduce ethnic/racial disparities in health and healthcare.     

Japanese television as a window on other cultures

Beginning with a brief review of issues regarding the effects of television on viewers in Japan, this paper examines how foreign programming and features relating to other countries are utilized on terrestrial television, the most influential of the mass media today. Foreign cultures are introduced either through importation of programs from abroad or through indigenous programs dealing with such topics. An overview of the changing role of imported programs emphasizes comparison of the public and commercial networks. News reporting and commercials are highlighted in a discussion of the treatment of foreign cultures in indigenous programs. Survey results show that Japanese people are favorably disposed toward foreign program imports, suggesting that the major reason for the failure of imported programs to flourish in Japan is the strong competition offered by domestic productions, not xenophobic attitudes on the part of viewers. I also consider the distinguishing characteristics of television and the cinema in order to explain the popularity of films as opposed to television dramas from abroad. In conclusion, studies that examine the effects of television on viewers' perceptions of foreign cultures are presented to suggest the importance of analyzing images of foreign cultures as depicted in programs that are domestically produced, rather than analyzing those that are imported.     

Avoidance behavior associated with depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Objective: Many patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators experience depressive symptoms. In addition, avoidance behavior is a common problem among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. We examined the association between avoidance behaviors and depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Method: We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study with self-completed questionnaires between May 2010 and March 2011. We measured avoidance behaviors (avoidance of places, avoidance of objects, and avoidance of situations) and depressive symptoms (using the Beck Depression Inventory, Version II) in 119 participants. An avoidance behaviors instrument was developed for this study and we confirmed its internal consistency reliability. Results: Ninety-two (77.3%) patients were aged older than 50 years, and 86 (72.3%) were men. Fifty-one (42.9%) patients reported “avoidance of places”, 34 (28.6%) reported “avoidance of objects”, and 63 (52.9%) reported “avoidance of activity”. Avoidance behavior was associated with increased odds for the presence of depressive symptoms (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.06–1.62). Conclusions: This was the first study to identify the relationship between avoidance behavior and depressive symptoms among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators; however, there are a few methodological limitations.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Style and Personality: Direct Influence or Mediation?

In order to examine the relationships between parenting styles and personality traits over generations, a cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted for fathers and mothers of school-age children of grades 5–9. The parenting styles measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the personality traits measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) were correlated within and between the consecutive generations (the grandparents and the parents for the PBI and the parents and the children for the TCI). A series of structural equation modeling showed that (1) while the parenting styles were transmitted directly from the grandparents to the parents, it was partly mediated by the fathers’ Co-operativeness (C) but not so for the mothers, (2) while the personality traits were transmitted directly from the parents to the children, it was only the fathers’ parenting styles that mediated C, and (3) the parents’ parenting styles had independent effects upon the children’s personality traits.     

The Role of Coping Styles and Self-efficacy in the Development of Dysphoric Mood Among Nursing Students

Coping styles and self-efficacy have been recognized as important determinants of dysphoric mood. The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of these two factors on depression and anxiety in Japanese students. A set of questionnaires, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and the Self-efficacy Scale (SES) was distributed to 146 nursing students. Structural equation modelling was conducted to specify the relationships between measured variables. The HAD depression and anxiety scores were predicted by emotion-oriented coping. The HAD depression alone was predicted by avoidance-oriented coping. Self-efficacy scores predicted the emotion-oriented coping and HAD depression scores. Students’ dysphoric moods were influenced by emotional-oriented coping that mediated the effects of low self-efficacy, and self-efficacy also had a direct effect on depression.     

Group identification moderates attitudes toward ingroup members who confront discrimination

Three studies examined the hypothesis that group identification moderates African Americans’, Asian Americans’, and women’s attitudes toward fellow ingroup members who challenge an outgroup member’s discriminatory comments or who do not speak up about the comments. Highly identified racial minorities expressed more positive attitudes toward ingroup members who confronted discriminatory comments compared to those who did not confront; whereas weakly identified minorities did not express different attitudes across the two conditions. Among women, the weakly identified expressed more negative attitudes toward other women who confronted discrimination relative to those who did not confront; whereas highly identified women did not differentially evaluate ingroup members in the two conditions. The less women identified with their group, the more negatively they evaluated ingroup members who confronted sexism. This research highlights the important role of group identification in understanding how members of devalued groups respond toward ingroup members who take a stand against discrimination.