Correspondences among pupillary dilation response,subjective salience of sounds,and loudness

A pupillary dilation response is known to be evoked by salient deviant or contrast auditory stimuli, but so far a direct link between it and subjective salience has been lacking. In two experiments, participants listened to various environmental sounds while their pupillary responses were recorded. In separate sessions, participants performed subjective pairwise-comparison tasks on the sounds with respect to their salience, loudness, vigorousness, preference, beauty, annoyance, and hardness. The pairwise-comparison data were converted to ratings on the Thurstone scale. The results showed a close link between subjective judgments of salience and loudness. The pupil dilated in response to the sound presentations, regardless of sound type. Most importantly, this pupillary dilation response to an auditory stimulus positively correlated with the subjective salience, as well as the loudness, of the sounds (Exp. 1). When the loudnesses of the sounds were identical, the pupil responses to each sound were similar and were not correlated with the subjective judgments of salience or loudness (Exp. 2). This finding was further confirmed by analyses based on individual stimulus pairs and participants. In Experiment 3, when salience and loudness were manipulated by systematically changing the sound pressure level and acoustic characteristics, the pupillary dilation response reflected the changes in both manipulated factors. A regression analysis showed a nearly perfect linear correlation between the pupillary dilation response and loudness. The overall results suggest that the pupillary dilation response reflects the subjective salience of sounds, which is defined, or is heavily influenced, by loudness.     

Psychological and behavioral implications of connectedness to communities with opposing values and beliefs

Without a doubt, people can feel simultaneously connected to multiple communities (e.g., Deaux, 1993; Roccas & Brewer, 2002). But, to what degree can people feel simultaneously connected to communities with opposing beliefs and values? And, more importantly, what are the psychological implications of being dually connected to these communities? Capitalizing on a sample of individuals positioned to potentially feel connected to two very distinct communities, we examined jail inmates' (N = 256) sense of connectedness to the criminal community and to the community at large. Results indicated that (a) connectedness to the community at large is orthogonal to connectedness to the criminal community, supporting the supposition that it is possible to be dually connected to opposing communities; and (b) connectedness to the community at large moderated the relationship between criminal connectedness and indicators of psychological distress, suggesting that connectedness to the criminal community is especially problematic when it occurs in tandem with connectedness to the community at large. These findings are consistent with predictions from the self-expansion model.     

Employee satisfaction and job climate: An empirical study of Japanese manufacturing employees

This study identified supportive supervision, co-worker social support, and job awareness as three factors that affect job satisfaction of employees from two mid-sized Japanese manufacturing companies. In addition to the significant main effects of supportive supervision and co-worker social support, a significant interaction effect between supportive supervision and job awareness was obtained. This interaction suggests that supportive supervision is very important in increasing job satisfaction when workers have low levels of job awareness.We appreciate the comments and assistance of Professor Y. Hara, Associate Professor M. Yano, S. Kobayashi, J. Nukata, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable recommendations on the earlier version of the article.     

Influence of social context on the relationship between guilt and prosocial behaviour

While some previous researchers have found that guilt encourages prosocial behaviour towards a victim at the expense of other people, others have found the opposite, that is, people allocate resources at the expense of themselves. The present research used a hypothetical scenario method to determine which of these patterns would be replicated in the collectivistic context of Japanese society. In addition, we separated the cause of feelings of guilt into having caused harm and being at fault, and examined in more detail the effect of guilt on prosocial behaviour. Our results show that, in line with the second set of previous researchers, participants who were induced to feel guilt for having caused harm were more likely to allocate their resources to their victim at the expense of themselves than were individuals in the no‐harm condition. This suggests that differences in social context influence the effect of guilt on prosocial behaviour in different ways.     

Fitness of Job Type and Management by Objectives: Mediating Effects of Perception of Effectiveness and Goal Commitment and Moderating Effects of Supervisor's Behavior

Abstract : This study investigated the influence of job type (line or staff) on perceptions of management‐by‐objectives (MBO) effectiveness, goal commitment, and goal‐attainment behavior, as well as mediating effects of perceptions of MBO effectiveness and goal commitment and moderating effects of supervisor behavior. Participants were 152 employees of a factory that manufactures drugs for a Japanese pharmaceutical company. The primary duties of line personnel involved production. The duties of staff personnel who supported production included supplying materials and production planning. Results indicated that line personnel perceived MBO as a more effective system for improving individual performance and showed higher goal commitment and more active behavior related to goals than staff personnel. Although perception of MBO effectiveness was related to goal commitment, it had no mediating effect. Goal commitment mediated between job type and goal‐attainment behavior. Supervisors’ goal‐setting behavior had different positive effects on goal commitment and goal‐attainment behavior for those in line and staff positions. MBO was a better fit for line positions than staff positions. However, supervisor behavior increased goal‐attainment behavior in staff positions. The results indicated that it is important for supervisors in a business organization to operate a management system flexibly.     

Relationship between types of humour and stress response and well‐being among children in Japan

This study examined the relationship between three types of children's humour (aggressive, self‐defeating, and playful) and the children's stress response and well‐being in the Japanese context, where a collectivistic culture is prevalent. To do so, 500 study participants (250 elementary and 250 junior high school students) were recruited. The participants reported the types of humour, stress responses, and level of well‐being that they experienced. After correlation analysis, aggressive humour and playful humour showed a positive correlation with stress responses; in addition, aggressive humour showed a negative correlation with well‐being. Self‐defeating humour showed a negative correlation with stress responses and a positive correlation with well‐being. We also conducted a cluster analysis using the scores for the three types of humour, analysing four groups: “aggressive humourists” (respondents who demonstrated above‐average aggressive humour and scored average for all other humours), “nonhumourists” (below‐average humour in all areas), “self‐deprecating humourists” (above‐average self‐defeating humour, below‐average aggressive humour, and average playful humour), and “multiple humourists” (above‐average humour in all areas). Upon comparing the results of stress responses and well‐being scores among the four groups, we found that self‐deprecating humourists reported the highest level of well‐being. These results show that in collectivistic cultures, self‐defeating humour may be adaptive.     

Guilt Signals a Crisis of Rejection: Two Types of Individual Differences Related to Social Rejection Have Dissimilar Effects on Guilt and Compensatory Behavior

We investigated whether feelings of guilt, which signal crises in interpersonal relationships (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1994), are differently evoked by two types of individual differences in social rejection: rejection detection capability (Kawamoto, Nittono, & Ura, 2015) and rejection sensitivity (Downey & Feldman, 1996). Using the hypothetical scenario method, we found that in situations with a potential risk of being rejected as a consequence of causing another person harm (i.e., harm‐present condition), participants with higher rejection detection capability felt more guilt and engaged in more compensatory behavior towards the victims. In addition, guilt mediated the relationship between rejection detection capability and compensatory behavior. Conversely, in situations with no potential risk of being rejected (i.e., harm‐absent condition), participants with higher rejection sensitivity felt more guilt but did not engage in much compensatory behavior. These results suggest that individual differences in social rejection foster different responses to specific threats.     

Interoceptive sensitivity predicts sensitivity to the emotions of others

Some theories of emotion emphasise a close relationship between interoception and subjective experiences of emotion. In this study, we used facial expressions to examine whether interoceptive sensibility modulated emotional experience in a social context. Interoceptive sensibility was measured using the heartbeat detection task. To estimate individual emotional sensitivity, we made morphed photos that ranged between a neutral and an emotional facial expression (i.e., anger, sadness, disgust and happy). Recognition rates of particular emotions from these photos were calculated and considered as emotional sensitivity thresholds. Our results indicate that participants with accurate interoceptive awareness are sensitive to the emotions of others, especially for expressions of sadness and happy. We also found that false responses to sad faces were closely related with an individual's degree of social anxiety. These results suggest that interoceptive awareness modulates the intensity of the subjective experience of emotion and affects individual traits related to emotion processing.     

The structure of yutori and its functions

A scale for measuring yutori was developed, and then used to examine the effectiveness of efforts made by companies to promote yutori among their employees. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the following eight factors in the structure of yutori : economic wealth, free time, environmental amenities, competence, contentment, enjoyment, challenge, and behavioral freedom. Covariance structure analysis suggested that yutori was not only related to objective, material measures, such as time and economic sufficiency, but also included very subjective psychological concepts. An examination of the systems and measures provided by Japanese companies to promote yutori found a low correlation between ratings of the effectiveness of such systems and measures, and employees' scores on the eight yutori factors, even between systems and measures for reducing working hours and the free time factor, for example. No effective systems and measures for the promotion of yutori were observed. There is a need for a psychological perspective in studies of the promotion of yutori .     

Effectiveness of Child-Directed Interaction Training for Young Japanese Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of Child-Directed Interaction Training (CDIT), the first phase of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), for Japanese children with autism spectrum disorders. The participants were 21 mother-child dyads with children aged 4–7 years; participants were assigned to an Immediate Treatment (IT) group or to a Waitlist (WL) control group. Across eight training sessions, mothers learned positive attention skills that were adapted from traditional PCIT training. Results showed CDIT not only improved social cognition skills and decreased disruptive behavior in Japanese children, but also reduced stress/distress among their mothers, particularly in relation to their own parenting skills and their child’s problem behaviors.