Recent Trends of Educational Psychology in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review studies published mainly in1992and1993and to examine the direction and status of educational psychology in Japan. At first, the35th Annual Convention of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology (JAEP)was outlined.Next,researches were reviewed on the following eight categories, that is,1)life-span development,2)health psychology,3)study of"self",4)everyday cognition in a socio-cultural context,5)development of social competence,6)school psychology,7)development of fundamental cognition,and8)handicapped children (people).As Yamamoto, Mimani & Yoshida(1993)pointed out in their review for this journal, from this research review,educational psychologists in Japan are found to face and wrestle with such socially new issues as rapid transition into aging society, concerns of people of all ages for health, wants for humanistic development after mid-life including self-actualization,and needs for school reforms and restructuring of school curricula.