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This paper presents the results of replications of Aschʼs (1946) experiments 1 and 3. According to Asch, peopleʼs formation of their impressions of others is greatly influenced by their central trait with warmth considered to be the important factor. The results of this experiment have been quoted in many social psychology textbooks: that the overall impression of a person is determined by the description of the person as “warm” (or “cold”) regardless of other peripheral traits. In fact, however, it seems that “warm” and “cold” are not the only traits that influence peopleʼs impression formation. In the present study, we replicated Aschʼs experiments 1 and 3 (experiment 1, N＝71) and extracted the trait that seemed to influence interpersonal impressions through a preliminary survey (N＝69) in experiment 2. We examined whether these traits had a strong influence on forming interpersonal impressions as well as “warm” and “cold” (experiment 3, N＝73). The results showed that “warm” and “cold”; “polite” and “blunt,” which were considered peripheral characteristics in Asch; and “expressive” and “ expressionless,” which were newly examined, all had a significant effect on impressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the first half of this paper, we trace the relation of sociology, psychology, and psychoanalysis in the history of sociology. In the first section, the position of psychology among the works of sociologists of early times is elucidated. In the second section, we show that the psychological uneasiness that arose due to the collapse of mediated relation introduced the viewpoints of psychology and psychoanalysis into sociology. In the third section, various trends of psychologized societies in the post-war United States are explained from the viewpoint of the self-reference of self-construction. In addition, in the fourth section, we discuss the self, as described by Giddens and Beck, and the difference between their viewpoints and those of theories on psychologized society. In the second half of this paper, we first analyze psychologizations as the knowledge and technique through which we rebuilt the society (the social) when individualization began. We show that it began in 1968 and that the ideology in 1968 has become "the spirit of new capitalism" (Boltanski and Chiapello). Second, we describe how, due to the lack of tradition, psychologization initially spread in the United States as a resource for building a new society. Third, we point out that in Japan. psychologization has occurred only in marginal domains such as religion and sub-culture because a welfare state has not been constructed satisfactorily in Japan and individual independence has not been fully supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, different aspects pertaining to the negative consciousness that the Japanese residents living in the industrial city which has a large population of foreign residents harbor toward foreign residents, and their contribution factors are clarified through a local resident investigation conducted twice in 1999 and 2005. Firstly, I analyzed the contribution factor of "exclusive consciousness." Subsequently, it became clear that the "relative size of foreign population" in an area had an impact on the "exclusive consciousness" harbored toward the foreign residents in the area in the investigation in 1999. On the other hand, in the investigation in 2005, the effect of the "relative size of foreign population" was lost and the variables of individual attributes and personal characteristics exhibited considerable effect on the exclusive consciousness of the Japanese residents. These findings support the "group threat theory." Secondly, I analyzed the contribution factor of the "consciousness of deteriorating life environment" as perceived by Japanese residents. No variable barring "education" revealed significant effects. This result suggested that the "consciousness of deteriorating life environment" is shared widely among Japanese residents. This paper revealed the following two findings. One is that the group threat theory is supported in the industrial city which has a large population of foreign residents in Japan, and the other is that there is a clear difference between the contribution factors of the "consciousness of deteriorating life environment" and "exclusive consciousness." This implies that different mechanisms are working between "perception" of the "deteriorating life environment" and "manifestation" of the "exclusive consciousness." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological investigations into collective and/or public memory have revealed that memory is treated as a resource for the construction of a collective identity. While this idea is generally accepted, some critics believe that this sociological analysis itself can be ironically utilized as a resource for collective identity construction. If this criticism is correct, we need to examine the basic assumptions of this form of analyzing memory. In the context of this problem, the purpose of this paper is to explore the historical process in which sociology has made itself what it is through the reconceptualization of memory. In particular, the construction of William I. Thomas' "social theory" and its relation to the problems of immigrants in those days will be the major focus areas of the paper. The central point of this discussion is the shift of the concept of memory from the one coincides with the concept "heredity" in Neo-Lamarckian framework to another that is distinctively human which cannot be attributable to biological traits. In addition, Thomas focuses mainly on the memory of the immigrants, considering their assimilation into the United States. Furthermore, he and his followers suggest apparatuses that operate on the memories of immigrants to promote this assimilation. In this sense, sociology in its early days can be regarded as not only as a science of memory but also as a technology of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze the spreading of psychological knowledge as a source of power for individuals and organizations, and the relationship between psychology and emotional labor. Most sociologists have criticized the spreading of psychological knowledge and emotional labor, as this could cause the alienation of one's emotions. However, nowadays, people like to engage in emotional labor and derive positive emotional experiences. There are two reasons for which people engage in such behavior. First, they may regard relationships as a reward of emotional labor. Second, psychological knowledge, like emotional intelligence, has supplied the method to deal with human relationships. Through such considerations, a new perspective for the concept of emotional labor is suggested, particularly in relation to how people engage in emotional labor by using emotional intelligence and positive attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at bringing out the relation between nihilism and the psychologized society. To accomplish this end, I reconsider Anthony Giddens' Modernity and Self-Identity (MSI) for his theory of the psychologized society and begin by discussing the issue posed by Giddens in MSI. According to his theory, modernity has been constructed by reflexive movements through the mediation of the expert system, one of which is "psychology," and is based upon the institutional repression of existential questions. Thus, we can see that in general, "psychology" has contributed to maintaining nihilism despite providing some opportunities to overcome nihilism. The same recognition can be seen in the works of Viktor Frankl, the founder of existential analysis, which criticizes psychologism and aims to help clients realize the meaning of their lives in order to overcome nihilism. Moreover, repressed existential questions have returned. There is an increase in the number of people who are concerned about "life politics," bringing to the fore repressed existential questions such as "how should I live?" From the arguments of Giddens and Frankl, it seems correct to conclude that "psychology," directly or indirectly, has urged people to conquer nihilism by seeking for the meaning of life. However. according to Martin Heidegger, the very act of seeking the meaning of life is the essence of nihilism. On the basis of his ontology, I show that the psycohologized society falls under two types of nihilism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, first, the meaning of "theory" is considered and then the three kinds of sociological theory, namely, the fundamental theory, the middle-range theory, and the idealistic theory, are presented. Second, the problems of interaction and intersubjectivity — including the problems of corporeality and/or intercorporeality — are brought into discussion from a standpoint of (phenomenological sociological) "genetic interactionism": then the four basic social aspects of our contemporary society, i. e., the scientific-technological society, knowledge-information society, capitalistic-consumer society, and modern nation-state, are mentioned. Third, I primarily wish to present the theoretical route to the problem of nation-state, with a special focuson the concept of "champ (=field)" raised by P. Bourdieu. Finally, within the context of sociological theory as the social theory in the age of globalization, I propose my own conception that the main issues in contemporary Japanese sociological associations are located in the spheres of both corporeality/intercorporeality and post-national orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]