A Cognitive Construct of Motivation in JAPAN

本研究旨在探讨日本人的学习动机是如何被文化习俗和集体意义所塑造和构成的。本研究以日语为研究对象，通过三个方面的研究来确定日本的相互依存动机动态系统的性质。1)目标的文化方面--日本与美国的比较。从20年后和70年后的描述内容分析来看，日本被试用不明确和模糊的句子描述未来，而美国被试用明确和目标导向的句子描述未来。同时，日本人在努力方面表现出明显的过程导向倾向。（2）在研究二中，我们采用CAMI工具和包含人际效能感的日语项目对高中生的学业成绩信念进行了调查。结果表明，日本被试与学业成绩和人际关系项目表现出较高的相关性。关系效能感在日本学生中的重要性显著。（3）关于日本文化规范与日本人的自我塑造方式的关系，我们分析了自由随笔的内容。这些结果支持了日本人的动机结构与其人际关系和文化规范高度相关的假设。

This study aimed at exploring ways in which Japanese motivation is shaped and constituted by cultural practices and collective meanings. Three studies are conducted in Japanese to determine the nature of dynamic system of interdependent motivation in Japan. 1)Cutural Aspects of the Goal-Japan VS US comparison. From content analysis of description of 20years latter and 7years later, Japanese subjects described their future with unclear and vague sentences while American subjects described their future with clear and goal-oriented sentences. Also, Japanese showed clear tendency of process-oriented with effort. 2)In study 2, we examined high school students about their beliefs about the academic performance with CAMI instruments and Japanese items which included interpersonal efficacy items. The results showed that Japanese subjects showed high correlation with academic performance and interpersonal items. The importance of relation concerned efficacy was pronounced among Japanee students. 3)As to the relationship between Japanese cultural norms and Japanese way of self-making, we analyzed the content of free essays concerning their past life. In most of those essays, Japanese cultural moral norms, Hansei, scripts were shown.Those results support to the hypothesis that Japanese construct of motivation highly related their interpersonal relationship and cultural norms.