The Impossible Case of Japan

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dag Leonardsen
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Society ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Context ◽  
The Individual

If increasing crime seems to be an unavoidable concomitant of rapid urbanisation, Japan might be an interesting exception. Both statistics and research tell us that Japan is a modern, rapidly urbanised society with little crime. This article raises the question if, and eventually in which way, one may talk about Japan as a low crime nation. Is there anything of criminological interest to learn from Japan? After describing the Japanese society along five analytical dimensions the answer to this question is that while in the West we can talk about “community lost”, in Japan we should rather talk about “individual lost”. At the individual level the obliteration of the self is the price to be paid for less crime. However, at the collective level Japan might teach the West a lesson. If crime is regarded as actions committed by outsiders, then Japanese society has succeeded in linking the individual to a group context which most likely functions in a crime preventive way. Instead of endless crime preventive programs of “social engineering”, the West should pay more attention to basic sociological insights concerning collective obligations and identities. In this regard we might look to Japan.

Bayesian Prediction in Hybrid Conjoint Analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frenkel Ter Hofstede ◽  
Youngchan Kim ◽  
Michel Wedel
Keyword(s):  
Prior Information ◽  
Current Model ◽  
The Self ◽  
Attribute Importance ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Full Profile ◽  
Credible Intervals ◽  
Competing Models ◽  
The Individual

The authors propose a general model that includes the effects of discrete and continuous heterogeneity as well as self-stated and derived attribute importance in hybrid conjoint studies. Rather than use the self-stated importances as prior information, as has been done in several previous approaches, the authors consider them data and therefore include them in the formulation of the likelihood, which helps investigate the relationship of self-stated and derived importances at the individual level. The authors formulate several special cases of the model and estimate them using the Gibbs sampler. The authors reanalyze Srinivasan and Park's (1997) data and show that the current model predicts real choices better than competing models do. The posterior credible intervals of the predictions of models with the different heterogeneity specifications overlap, so there is no clear superior specification of heterogeneity. However, when different sources of data are used—that is, full profile evaluations, self-stated importances, or both—clear differences arise in the accuracy of predictions. Moreover, the authors find that including the self-stated importances in the likelihood leads to much better predictions than does considering them prior information.

scholarly journals WHETHER INDIVIDUALISM MAKES PEOPLE FROM THE “WEST” HAPPIER AND COLLECTIVISM MAKES PEOPLE FROM THE “EAST” MORE SATISFIED IN LIFE: AN INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 128 (6B) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Nguyễn Hữu An ◽  
Lê Duy Mai Phương
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
The West ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Collectivistic Cultures ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Determinants of the variation of happiness have long been discussed in social sciences. Recent studies have focused on investigating cultural factors contributing to the level of individual happiness, in which the cultural dimension of individualism (IND) and collectivism (COL) has been drawing the attention of a large number of scholars. At the cultural level of analysis, happiness is associated with personal achievements as well as personal egoism in individualistic cultures, while it is related to interpersonal relationships in collectivistic cultures. Empirical research yields unconventional results at the individual level of analysis, that is, individuals in collectivistic cultures favor IND to be happy, in contrast, people in individualistic cultures emphasize COL be satisfied in life. Using data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS), this study takes the cultural dimension of IND and COL at the individual level of analysis to detect its effects on happiness (conceptualized as subjective well-being – SWB) in the comparison between the two cultures. Multiple linear regression models reveal results that individuals from the “West” experience greater happiness when they expose themselves less individualist, while, individuals from the “East” feel more satisfied and happier in their life when they emphasize more on IND or being more autonomous.

An Introduction, Review, and Conceptual Analysis of Mattering as an Essential Construct and an Essential Way of Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 073428292110576
Author(s):  
Gordon L. Flett
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sense Of Mattering ◽  
Extended Discussion

While the importance of having self-esteem is widely recognized and has been studied extensively, another core component of the self-concept has been relatively neglected—a sense of mattering to other people. In the current article, it is argued that mattering is an entirely unique and complex psychological construct with great public appeal and applied significance. The various ways of assessing mattering are reviewed and evidence is summarized, indicating that mattering is a vital construct in that deficits in mattering are linked with consequential outcomes at the individual level (i.e., depression and suicidal tendencies), the relationship level (i.e., relationship discord and dissolution), and the societal level (i.e., delinquency and violence). Contemporary research is described which shows that mattering typically predicts unique variance in key outcomes beyond other predictor variables. Mattering is discussed as double-edged in that mattering is highly protective but feelings of not mattering are deleterious, especially among people who have been marginalized and mistreated. The article concludes with an extended discussion of key directions for future research and an overview of the articles in this special issue. It is argued that a complete view of the self and personal identity will only emerge after we significantly expand the scope of inquiry on the psychology of mattering.

The collective body: Legacies of monastic discipline in the post-Soviet prison

2020 ◽  
pp. 136248062093067
Author(s):  
Lyuba Azbel ◽  
Evan Winter Morse ◽  
Tim Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Male Prisoners ◽  
Healthy Body

The emergence of the prisoner subject is an element of local practices, including how health is governed. Yet, disciplinary practices have been overlooked in research on health in post-Soviet prisons. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 40 male prisoners in Kyrgyzstan, this article performs a genealogical analysis by applying models of subjectivity from Christian monasticism to understand how a healthy body emerges through the contingent governing relations of the post-Soviet prison. An apparatus of “collective self-governance” produces bodies that extend the self to the collective and blur the boundaries between physical and moral health. Here, unlike in the West, the idealization of an autonomous subject is inimical to agency and, by extension, health. Rather, a healthy body is produced through a healing process that rests on submission to the collective, with the threat of exile imminent. In such settings, health interventions aimed at the individual are unlikely to succeed without a consideration of collective healing practices.

Empires within and without: the conquest of the self and the Florentine avant-garde

Modern Italy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Bertrand Marilier
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Intellectual Formation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Intense Debate

This article examines the relationship of the young Giovanni Papini to the notion of imperialism. The period of Papini's intellectual formation was a time of intense debate among the Italian intelligentsia concerning imperialism and its relationship to nation and culture. He joined the conversation with a distinctive interpretation of the idea, one that could at once make him heir apparent to the tradition of Umbertian nationalism, while also rejecting the positivist slant of his forebears. William James's porous conception of the subject and Papini's sense of his own fragmented subjectivity provided the ground for a psychological understanding of imperialism: one that relied on knowledge and appreciation, which translated into literature at the individual level, and into culture at that of the nation. Ultimately, however, disappointments abroad, the demands of nationalist politics, and Papini's own avant-garde posture, led him to abandon his intellectual empire in favour of a more concrete one.

Ethnic Identities and Boundaries: Anthropological, Psychological, and Sociological Approaches

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Landon E. Hancock
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
The Self ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Ethnicity and identity are largely about boundaries; in fact, there is no way to determine one’s identity—ethnic or otherwise—without reference to some sort of boundary. In approaching the study of ethnicity and identity, sociology, anthropology, and to a lesser extent political science and international relations tend to focus on the group level and define ethnicity and ethnic identity as group phenomena. Psychology, by contrast, focuses on the individual level. These two disciplinary areas represent the opposite ends of a conceptual focus in examining both ethnicity as a group phenomenon and identity as an individual phenomenon, with a “middle ground” outlined by symbolic interactionism focusing on the processes of formation and reformation through the interaction of individuals and groups. The thread that runs through each of these ordinarily disparate disciplines is that, when examining ethnicity or identity, there is a common factor of dialectic between the sameness of the self or in-group and differentiation with the other or out-group. Moreover, an examination of the manner in which the generation of identity at one level has an explicit connection to the germination of identity at other levels of analysis shows that they combine together in a process of identification and categorization, with explicit links between the self and other at each level of analysis.

scholarly journals Putting the Self in Self-Correction: Findings From the Loss-of-Confidence Project

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162096410
Author(s):  
Julia M. Rohrer ◽  
Warren Tierney ◽  
Eric L. Uhlmann ◽  
Lisa M. DeBruine ◽  
Tom Heyman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Record ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Ideal

Science is often perceived to be a self-correcting enterprise. In principle, the assessment of scientific claims is supposed to proceed in a cumulative fashion, with the reigning theories of the day progressively approximating truth more accurately over time. In practice, however, cumulative self-correction tends to proceed less efficiently than one might naively suppose. Far from evaluating new evidence dispassionately and infallibly, individual scientists often cling stubbornly to prior findings. Here we explore the dynamics of scientific self-correction at an individual rather than collective level. In 13 written statements, researchers from diverse branches of psychology share why and how they have lost confidence in one of their own published findings. We qualitatively characterize these disclosures and explore their implications. A cross-disciplinary survey suggests that such loss-of-confidence sentiments are surprisingly common among members of the broader scientific population yet rarely become part of the public record. We argue that removing barriers to self-correction at the individual level is imperative if the scientific community as a whole is to achieve the ideal of efficient self-correction.

scholarly journals Effects of the Internalization of Peer-Modeled Self-efficacy on Coping with L2 Communication Stress

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-87
Author(s):  
Jennifer Claro
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Possible Selves ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Stressful Situation ◽  
Peer Modeling ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Coping

This mixed-methods study explores the self-regulation of two Japanese university students in response to the stressful situation of feeling unable to communicate effectively in English with foreigners. Qualitative data from interviews are used to interpret the quantitative results of the two students, who were part of an online intercultural Japan-Canada university exchange in which half of the communication was in English. Due to the reality check of using English for communication with foreigners, both students realized that their English communication skills were weak. Self-efficacy and coping strategies modeled by peers were internalized by one student who could subsequently cope with the demands of interacting in English, and who developed a challenge orientation and set a new goal as a result. The other student became demotivated and withdrew over time. Theories related to stress and coping, self-efficacy, peer modeling, internalization, self-regulation, and possible selves are incorporated to provide a multi-dimensional view of the processes involved in the self-regulation of these students. By looking at the experiences of the two students at the individual level, insight may be gained into the reasons behind student engagement in and withdrawal from L2 learning processes. In particular, the importance of peer modeling to positive changes in student actual and ideal selves is examined.

scholarly journals Production of the Self during the Age of Confessionalism

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Warren Sabean
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Multiple Selves ◽  
The West ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
Identity Privacy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual

During the last several decades, the history of the self, its nature, essential shifts, and trajectory have undergone considerable re-examination. The Western Civilization textbook premise that the history of the West and the rise of individualism correlate closely with each other is being critically examined. There are a number of different historical, anthropological, literary, and sociological discourses about bodies, memory, conscience, subjectivity, identity, privacy, sexuality, and gender, which have developed separate narratives about the self, frequently (mostly) in isolation from one another. Some recent feminist theory finds the thesis of individualism irrelevant for women and suggests that the self as a continuing story (autobiography) is gendered. Some theorists counter the creative possibilities of forgetting to a self constructed around a memory core. Multiple selves, schizoid selves, and decentered selves challenge older ideas of identity. The dialectic between public and private produces new problems about who “owns” the self, its image, and its location. Bodies, sexualities, and desire turn out to be shaped and disciplined within hidden forms of power. Old ideas about the rise of the individual and new ones about the pathologies of the self make the self and its history a central issue for contemporary debate.

Self-construal and perspective taking: partial support for the attentional hypothesis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuong-Van Vu ◽  
Catrin Finkenauer ◽  
Lydia Krabbendam
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The Self ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Separate Entity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Self Construal ◽  
Egocentric Bias ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Director Task

How efficiently one can take the perspective of another might be influenced by individualism (I) and collectivism (C), characterized by whether the self is construed as independent or interdependent. Collectivism can be associated with more accurate and faster inference of others’ mental states because of heightened attention to others’ perspective (the attentional hypothesis). However, construing the self as a separate entity from others, as in individualistic self-construal, could lead to better distinction between one’s and another’s mental states because egocentric bias (the tendency to conflate what oneself sees with what another sees) is better mitigated (the representational hypothesis). We measured IC on an individual level (Individual IC), primed participants (N = 142) with either I or C (Situational IC) and assessed their perspective-taking performance with the Director task. Participants primed with collectivism were significantly faster than the control group but not faster than those primed with individualism. On the individual level, being predominantly collectivistic did not lead to faster perspective taking, but was associated with slower non-perspective-taking performance. These findings provide more support for the attentional hypothesis than the representational hypothesis and improve our understanding of how the representation of the self can contribution to the representation of others’ mind.

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