The Moderating Effect of Type of Deviance on the Relationships among Gender,Morality, Deviant Peers,and Deviance

Empirical research indicates that males are not only more likely to associate with deviant friends, but are also more strongly affected by such association than females. Literature to date also finds that the gendered effect of deviant association is explained by the gender difference in morality, such that weaker morality leaves males more susceptible to the effect of deviant association. This study replicates previous research but goes further by utilizing unique self-reported data (N = 502) that contains 15 deviant behaviors and examines how the type of deviance moderates relationships among gender, morality, deviant association, and deviance.     

MULTILAYERED SOCIOCULTURAL PHENOMENA: ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SUBJECTIVE WELL‐BEING AND ECONOMIC STATUS

In this article, incoherent results of the associations between subjective well‐being and economic status at multiple social levels are shown. Although individual‐level positive associations are shown within developed countries, national‐level associations disappear among developed countries. Group/area‐level associations, meanwhile, do exist within Japanese societies. From these inconsistent phenomena, a sociocultural unit is proposed, within which well‐being of people is collectively shared based on mutual reciprocity. The simple addition of social scientific results themselves cannot reconstruct the whole range of phenomena. Humanities could be considered as the glue, which adds sociocultural meanings to the generalized scientific results.     

Resilience in Scientific Research: Understanding How Natural Product Research Rebounded in an Adverse Situation

The recent declining rate in the discovery of new drugs has made natural product (NP) research—the traditional method of using living organisms to acquire drug candidates—regain its importance, despite the fact that it was once regarded as an obsolete method in the face of the exalted expectations about emerging new approaches since the 1990s. The concept of ‘resilience’ in scientific research provides a clue for understanding the dynamism of this rebound in research. Four elements may be highlighted in the context of microbial NP research in Japan: first, ‘institutional precondition’ is essential in the sense that the research must be rooted in an institutional complex involving academia, drug companies, and national policies. Second, the dual nature of the ‘attack from rival innovations’ including semiotic labeling and technical advances is examined. Third, four approaches to NP research are observed as responses to such challenges: (1) reevaluating the naturalness of NPs; (2) adopting various technical elements from their rivals; (3) shifting the emphasis from the practical pursuit of drug candidates to biological research using bioprobes; and (4) examining the uneven degree of resilience between academia and industry. Fourth and finally, NPs are viewed as an icon of cultural practice. This view may eventually open the door to questions about the meaning of ‘tradition’ in the context of general contemporary scientific research.     

Religiosity,Delinquency, and the Deterrent Effects of Informal Sanctions

Past research in deterrence theory suggests that informal social sanctions intervene in the effect of religiosity on criminal and delinquent behavior, such that more religious individuals tend to perceive stronger informal sanctions (Grasmick, Bursik and Cochran 1991a Grasmick , Harold G. , Robert J. Bursik Jr. , and John K. Cochran . 1991a. “Render unto Caesar What is Caesar's”: Religiosity and Taxpayers' Inclination to Cheat.” Sociological Quarterly 32(2):251–266.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Grasmick, Kinsey and Cochran 1991b Grasmick , Harold G. , Karyl Kinsey , and John K. Cochran . 1991b . “Denomination, Religiosity and Compliance with the Law: A Study of Adults.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30 ( 1 ): 99 – 107 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This study examines the influence of religiosity and social deterrence on college students' delinquent behavior, as measured by anticipated violation of a university's alcohol policy. Data were collected through a survey of undergraduate students (n = 484) at a large South-Midwestern public university that instituted a campus alcohol ban. The survey took place three months after the ban was implemented and asked students about religiosity, perceptions of informal deterrence, and expectations of violating the policy. Results partially support the hypothesis that religiosity predicts conformity primarily through the deterrent threat of informal sanctions. Religiosity increased perceived threats of shame and embarrassment, which in turn reduced the likelihood of anticipated policy violation. When controlling for demographics, college lifestyle, attitudes, and past drinking behavior, shame remained a significant predictor of expected policy violation, but embarrassment did not. Also, contrary to expectations, one measure of fundamentalist religiosity (biblical literalness) retained a direct main effect on intended compliance, even when taking informal sanctions into account. Theoretical, methodological, and policy implications are discussed.     

Gender and Country Differences in Alcohol-Aggression Expectancy and Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Violence

Drinking is associated with a higher rate of violent offending among males and a higher rate of violent victimization among females. Using comparable self-reported data, this study examines between the United States (n = 2,363) and Japan (n = 1,660) whether the gender difference in alcohol-related Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is explained by alcohol-aggression expectancy. The results indicate that though males are more likely than females to expect that alcohol would make them more aggressive, alcohol-aggression expectancy cannot explain the gender difference in alcohol-related IPV. In both countries, instead, alcohol use of males most strongly accounted for the gender difference in alcohol-related IPV.     

The Gender Difference in the Association Between Early Onset of Drinking and Problem Drinking Between the U.S. and Japan

Using comparable survey data from the GENACIS Project, collected from representative samples of people aged 20 to 70 years old in the U.S. (n = 2,598) and Japan (n = 1,734), this study examined, across these two diverse societies, the gender difference in the association between the early onset of drinking and the development of drinking problems. The results of this study suggest that there does not appear to be a cross-national causal relationship between the early onset of drinking and problem drinking because of significant country and gender variations in this association and because there is no association found among Japanese females. As hypothesized, the early onset of drinking predicted problem drinking among males more strongly than among females in both countries.     

Bond to Society,Collectivism, and Conformity: A Comparative Study of Japanese and American College Students

An argument is developed that the purported collectivism in Japanese society generates stronger social bonds in Japan than in the more individualistic United States, which might then explain the lower level of deviance often found in Japan. We test this using survey data from samples of Japanese and American college students on measures of deviance and social bonds. Results indicate that Japanese students engage in significantly less deviance than Americans, and although variables from Hirschi's (1969 Hirschi , Travis. 1969 . Causes of Delinquency . Edison, NJ : Transaction Publishers . [Google Scholar]) social control theory behave similarly across cultures as predictors of deviance, the theory failed to account for the lower level of deviance among Japanese.     

Developmental change in fetal response to repeated low-intensity sound

The aim of this study was to investigate developmental changes in heart rate response to repeated low-intensity (85 dB) sound stimulation in fetuses between 32 and 37 weeks of gestation. We measured amplitude changes in heart rate as our index of fetal response. At 35 to 37 weeks of gestation, the majority of fetuses showed a deceleratory response at the first trial. Amplitude decreased with further trials using the same stimulus before recovering when exposed to another type of stimulation. In contrast, responses in fetuses at 32 to 34 weeks of gestation were variable across trials and there was no recovery with exposure to another type of stimulation. Our results suggest that fetal habituation of cardiac response changes with developmental age.     

Discovery and Revitalization of “Feeling of Hometown” from a Disaster Site Inhabitant's Continuous Engagement in Reconstruction Work: Ethnographic Interviews with a Radiation Decontamination Worker Over 5 Years Following the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident1

After hometown loss due to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident, many radiation decontamination workers started to engage in the reconstruction of their hometown. However, little is known regarding the meaning of experience of engaging in such work. We describe the process of such experience through a series of ethnographic interviews over 5 years with a radiation decontamination worker. The process was classified into the following three periods: “recovery of lost land by inhabitants' own hands,” “goal loss and semiotic trap in pursuit of recovery,” and “revitalization of feeling of hometown.” Consequently, the informant overcame the contradiction theorized as a “semiotic trap” that radiation decontamination for physical recovery would make his return to home impossible, and updated his narrative to the revitalization of “feeling of hometown” through continuous engagement in the work by creating a sense for transplacement, in which the individual focuses on the psychological aspects of his/her hometown instead of the physical aspects. Psychological reconstruction for disaster victims requires the discovery and revitalization of feeling of hometown rather than the completion of physical reconstruction.     

Narcissism, variability in self-concept, and well-being

The present research examined whether narcissism is related to higher variability in self-concept across roles and time points. Three indices of self-concept variability across roles were formulated based on the participants’ self-ratings for personality attributes. A probabilistic sample in Study 1 as well as a student sample in Study 2 revealed that the narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) positively correlated with the variability indices, except for the self-concept differentiation (SCD), while well-being measures were only related to SCD. The student sample also showed a significant correlation between NPI and longitudinal variability in self-concept within a month-long interval. Implications for the instability of the narcissistic self-concept and its relationship with psychological well-being are discussed.