In two studies conducted in the US and Japan in 2012, more than 1000 respondents in each country were asked to report their subjective opinions and attitudes about situations that caused them regret, concern, worry, and anxiety. Although exploratory factor analyses extracted many latent factors from the 80 questions, a common latent inner factor was extracted from five questions that examined key psychological phenomena: worry at the present time, bothersome concerns in the present, regret for the past, anxiety about the future, and unpleasant experience in the past. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling of the latent variables (SEM/LV) provided convincing evidence of the existence of the common latent inner factor in both countries. Because each of the five key phenomena reflected concerns involving the self, the common latent inner factor was labeled "Being unable to detach from concerns involving the self." The same latent inner factor was also confirmed in SEM/LV of the combined USJapanese data. Women, younger people, and people with lower levels of education were less able to detach from concerns involving the self than were men, older people, and people with higher levels of education. This was true in the samples from both independent (US) and interdependent (Japan) cultures. Psychological and philosophical implications of the latent inner factor were discussed.
We empirically investigate the relationship between environmental management and economic performance using such data as environmental rating, credit rating, and accumulated earnings ratio of companies listed in the manufacturing sector on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. We performed a path analysis using two types of structural equation modeling: Model A with a terminal economic performance path and Model B with a terminal environmental management path. As a result, we found that Model B has better goodness of fit in the path analysis than does Model A. This is because it is natural to place the economic performance path before the environment management path since companies pursue profits for stockholders. We also confirmed that in Model B, the path from the accumulated earnings rate to environmental management has a significantly negative coefficient. This suggests that two groups of enterprises exist: profitoriented and environment-oriented companies. Since our results are based on Japanese companies, it is advisable to investigate further to generalize the results worldwide.
In two studies (2010 and 2011), more than 2000 respondents living in Japan were asked whether they gained more happiness from ownership or from taking action. In the 2010 study, many more individuals preferred taking action to ownership; this preference was greater in women than in men and in older people than in younger people. Reasons for this preference were plainly expressed in respondents' free writing, and a categorical distinction between ownership and taking action was readily recognized and widely shared. Social desirability concerns probably did not play a role in responses. In the 2011 study, many individuals valued action more than ownership as like as the 2010 study. The preference for taking action over ownership was greater in women than in men, in older people than in younger people, and in people with higher levels of education than in people with lower levels of education. There was no relationship with annual income. The correlations with gender and level of education were similar to results of comparable studies conducted in the USA, although in the US studies, experiential purchases were evaluated, rather than taking action; however, the correlation with age was uncertain in the US studies. Further studies with US respondents will be necessary to examine this correlation. Possible reasons why many more people preferred happiness gained from taking action to happiness experienced from ownership were discussed.
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