Associations of Psychosocial Factors with Maternal Confidence Among Japanese and Vietnamese Mothers

We conducted this cross-sectional study among 392 Japanese and 294 Vietnamese mothers who attended routine child health visits in a Japanese city and at a tertiary hospital in Vietnam, in order to investigate the prevalence and associated sociodemographic, parenting, and psychological characteristics of low maternal confidence in child rearing among them. All data were collected from medical files in Japan, and from medical files and self-administered questionnaires in Vietnam. The proportion of mothers without secure feeling of confidence in the present study was 22% in Japan and 66% in Vietnam. Significant factors associated with a lack of confidence were first-time motherhood and unintended pregnancy in the Japanese dataset and younger age in the Vietnamese dataset. In both groups, a higher proportion of mothers who lacked confidence reported negative parenting outcomes than did confident mothers. Among the three psychological measurements (mood, self-efficacy and depression), higher self-efficacy was associated independently with a significantly reduced risk of not having confidence in child rearing. These results suggest the importance of developing parenting support programs to help Japanese and Vietnamese mothers, particularly those who are young, first-time mothers or who became pregnant unexpectedly, improve their self-efficacy.     

Effects of relational uncertainty in heightening national identification and reactive approach motivation of Japanese

This study investigated whether relational uncertainty poses uncertainty threat, which causes compensatory behaviours among Japanese. We hypothesised that Japanese, as collectivists, would perceive relational uncertainty to pose uncertainty threat. In two experiments, we manipulated relational uncertainty, and confirmed that participants exhibited compensatory reactions to reduce aversive feelings due to it. In Study 1, we conducted direct comparison between relational uncertainty, independent self‐uncertainty and control conditions. The results revealed that participants who were instructed to imagine events pertaining to relational uncertainty heightened national identification as compensation than did participants in the control condition, but independent self‐uncertainty did not provoke such effects. In Study 2, we again manipulated relational uncertainty; however, we also manipulated participants' individualism‐collectivism cultural orientation through priming, and the analyses yielded a significant interaction effect between these variables. Relational uncertainty evoked reactive approach motivation, a cause for compensatory behaviours, among participants primed with collectivism, but not for individualism. It was concluded that the effect of uncertainty on compensatory behaviour is influenced by cultural priming, and that relational uncertainty is important to Japanese.     

A Taste for Justice: Unpacking Identity Politics in a Nascent Democracy

This article examines attention to justice cues in the novel context of the nascent democracy of Tanzania. Using secondary national survey data, we illustrate Tanzanian citizens' attention to justice cues. We then test two competing hypotheses about the impact of religious identity on attention to justice cues. The first hypothesized model, based on System Justification Theory, predicts that subordinate group members (Muslims) will stay more loyal than dominant group members (Christians) to their government due to a decreased attention to justice cues. The second hypothesized model, based on the relational model of procedural justice, predicts that subordinate group members (Muslims) will dissent more than dominant group members (Christians) from their government due to an increased attention to justice cues. Multiple regression and mediational analyses indicate support for the procedural justice framework, with trust in the dominant political party mediating the relationship between process satisfaction and party identification. Implications for political and psychological theorizing about democratic processes will be discussed.     

Using an Individual Differences Approach to Examine Two Distinct Types of Suggestibility Effects

Two studies were conducted to examine relations between suggestibility effects studied in two commonly used research paradigms and a group of individual difference factors that have been theoretically linked to eyewitness suggestibility. In Study 1, we examined relations between the immediate acceptance of misinformation as measured by errors on misleading questions and individual differences in conformity, agreeableness, imagery ability, and memory. As predicted, the immediate acceptance of misinformation was associated with conformity but was not related to imagery ability. In Study 2, we examined relations between delayed retrieval errors produced during a classic misinformation paradigm and the same set of individual difference factors. Consistent with our predictions, delayed misinformation retrieval errors were related to imagery ability but were not related to conformity or agreeableness. Taken together, this predicted pattern of results across the two studies provides some preliminary evidence for an emerging distinction between these two types of suggestibility effects. Underlying theoretical, methodological, and practical issues related to the assessment of suggestibility effects are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency of visual selection in duplex and conjunction conditions in partial report

Factors that determine the efficiency of visual selection were investigated in two precued partial-report experiments. There were four selection conditions: acolor condition (e.g., selecting purple letters among blue letters), aclass condition (e.g., selecting letters among digits), aduplex condition (e.g., selecting purple letters among blue digits; that is, the targets differed from the distractors both in color and in alphanumeric class), and aconjunction condition (e.g., selecting purple letters among blue letters and purple digits; that is, the targets differed from the distractors either in color or in alphanumeric class). The efficiency of visual selection was highest in the duplex condition and lowest in the conjunction condition. Thedifference in performance across the different selection conditions within subjects was accounted for by variation in the value of a single parameter of the fixed-capacity independent race model (FIRM) proposed by Shibuya and Bundesen (1988), which assumes independent parallel processing, limitations in both processing capacity and storage capacity, and time-invariant selectivity. By assuming that the factors that determine the efficiency of selection in the color and class conditions also underlie the efficiency of selection in the duplex and conjunction conditions, an extension of FIRM, FIRM⁺, accounted for therelationship with respect to efficiency of selection among the different conditions.     

Impact of the mobile phone on junior high-school students' friendships in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The proportion of having keitai (Japanese mobile phone) has increased rapidly in young children. To research how junior high school students use their own keitai and to examine the impact of using it on their psychology, especially on their friendship, we recruited 651 students, grade 8, from five public junior high schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Each student participant completed a questionnaire that we had created. The response rates were 88.8% (n = 578) for participants. The proportion of having their own keitai was 49.3% (n = 285) and that of not having it was 50.7% (n = 293). We found that they used it much more frequently for e-mail than as a phone. Most of them exchanged e-mails between schoolmates, and more than a half of them exchanged e-mails more than 10 times a day. Sociable students estimated that their own keitai was useful for their friendship. But they experienced some insecurity or started staying up late at night engaged in e-mail exchanges, and they thought that they could not live without their own keitai. Our findings suggest that keitai having an e-mail function play a big part in the junior high-school students' daily life, and its impact on students' friendships, psychology, or health should be discussed among students to prevent keitai addiction.     

The Mediating Effects of Benefit Finding on the Relationship Between the Identity Centrality of Negative Stressful Events and Identity Achievement

Which types of benefit finding in negative events central to identity lead to higher identity achievement? This study examined the relationships between the identity centrality of negative events, benefit finding, and identity achievement, with consideration of differences between benefit-finding domains. Participants included 245 undergraduates, who recalled a previous negative event and completed the Identity Scale, Centrality of Event Scale, and items regarding benefit finding. Path analysis showed that benefit finding regarding personal growth consistently correlated with identity achievement, while the effects of recognizing warmth in others were unstable depending on event category. The findings demonstrated the role of benefit finding regarding personal growth in promoting identity achievement and buffering the original adverse impact of negative events on identity.     

There’s no ball without noise: cats’ prediction of an object from noise

We used an expectancy violation procedure to ask whether cats could use a causal rule to infer the presence of an unseen object on hearing the noise it made inside a container and predict its appearance when the container was turned over. We presented cats with either an object dropping out of an opaque container or no object dropping out (turning-over phase) after producing either a rattling sound by shaking the container with the object inside, or no sound (shaking phase). The cats were then allowed to freely explore the experimental environment (exploration phase). The relation between the sound and the object matched with physical laws in half of the trials (congruent condition) and mismatched in the other half (incongruent condition). Inferring the presence of an unseen object from the noise was predicted to result in longer looking time in the incongruent condition. The prediction was supported by the cats’ behavior during the turning-over phase. The results suggest that cats used a causal-logical understanding of auditory stimuli to predict the appearance of invisible objects. The ecology of cats’ natural hunting style may favor the ability for inference on the basis of sounds.     

Self-construal predicts reading motivation: A comparison between Hispanic American and Japanese college students

Social Psychology of Education - Self-construal refers to how individuals view themselves independently from others (Independent self-construal) or interdependently with others (Interdependent...