A Cross‐Cultural Examination of the Disjuncture Between Aspirations and Expectations/Perceived Outcomes: Strain and Academic Deviance in the United States and Japan

Using comparable self‐reported survey data collected among college students in the United States (n = 502) and Japan (n = 441), this study examines a paradox of higher academic deviance among otherwise more conforming Japanese youth while revisiting the debate concerning the disjuncture between aspirations and expectations/perceived outcomes in Agnew's general strain theory (GST). Confirming the paradox, our results indicate that Japanese students are significantly more deviant academically than American students. However, contrary to the expectation of GST, but in support of past empirical studies, the higher academic deviance among the Japanese, as compared to Americans, is explained by their lower aspirations, irrespective of the levels of expectations/perceived outcomes     

The Experimental Zone of Learning: Mapping the Dynamics of Everyday Experiment

Arguments in science and technology studies have prompted us to rethink the meaning of experimentation in the wider context of our everyday life, though its dynamics have not been fully analyzed. This article argues that the legacy of the sociocultural approach to learning, with special reference to the Becker-Lave/Wenger dialogue, provides such a clue, and hence proposes a framework—“experimental zone of learning”—for such purpose. This zone is the outcome of the dynamic interface between constraints and sociotechnical devices, and this framework enables analysis of the diversity of such conditions, as well as their longitudinal changes through time.     

Gender,Social Bond,and Academic Cheating in Japan*

There is evidence that females are less likely to cheat than males on college campuses. A frequently offered but still untested explanation is that females, with a stronger sense of responsibility for the maintenance of social relationships, tend to develop a stronger bond to a conventional society—a key explanatory concept in Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory. With academic cheating as the dependent variable, we test the hypotheses that the four elements of social bond are the intervening variables linking gender to such dishonesty among Japanese students who, due to their stronger orientation toward masculinity on Hofstede’s (1980) scale of gender role separation, are subject to more gender distinct socialization, leading to greater gender differences in the strength of social bond than those previously reported in the United States. The analysis provides rather limited support for the theory, most of which is due to the stronger belief in the legitimacy of societal rules among the females.     

Current Implementation of and Opinions and Concerns Regarding Suicide Education for Social Work Undergraduate Students in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study explored the current implementation status of and opinions and concerns regarding suicide education at schools of social work in Japan. We conducted a survey of faculty members who taught at least one of the social work subjects. About half the respondents had given a lecture of some kind on suicide, and more than 80% agreed that suicide is an important topic to include in social work program curricula. However, more than half indicated they did not have enough knowledge or skills to teach students about suicide, and more than 60% were concerned about adverse psychological effects of suicide education on students. Our findings highlight the importance of providing faculty members with guidelines for teaching students about suicide.     

Genetic analysis of the wing-form determination of the small brown planthopper,Laodelphax striatellus (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)

Summary The mechanism of the genetic control of wing form determination of the small brown planthopperLaodelphax striatellus was analyzed by selection and crossing experiments. The selection experiment for brachypterous and macropterous forms for 13 generations showed that the wing form is under some genetic control. The crossing experiment showed that the wing form polymorphism was not a simple Mendelian character but was under polygenic control. The data from the crossing experiment were applied to the liability method for the quantitative genetics by Falconer (1981). The analysis suggested that wing form determination was a threshold character under polygenic control, and the estimated minimum number of loci concerned was 2.07. The realized heritability estimated from the data of selection experiment was 0.36 for macroptery. On the other hand, the heritability in broad sense estimated on the basis of the variance of F₁ and F₂ in crossing experiment was 0.81.     

On the distribution of quadratic forms and applications in the analysis of repeated measurements

In this paper a unified approach is given to the distribution of scalar quadratic forms for dependent variables. Necessary and sufficient conditions are found for the sums of squares of the various hierarchical layers in ANOVA to be distributed as multiples of chi-square variables. Results concerning the usual univariate F-tests in ANOVA of repeated measurements are derived as a special case.