U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in the Comparison of U.S. and Japanese National Character

该奖项将支持斯坦福大学胡佛战争、革命与和平研究所高级研究员Alex Inkeles教授和东京统计数学研究所跨学科统计数学系铃木达夫教授之间为期两年的美日合作研究项目。Inkeles教授将前往日本，与铃木教授和同样隶属于统计数学研究所的Chikio Hayashi教授合作，开发一种共同的方法，进一步比较美国和日本的国民性格。这两位杰出的日本社会科学家一直参与日本国民性研究委员会的工作。Inkeles教授是国民性研究的领军人物之一，他将为这项研究带来比较的观点，这很可能导致这一主题的新发展。尽管国民性格往往被定性地对待，不允许进行科学测试，但有一种公认的方法确实依赖于社会科学的基本方法。这种方法将民族性格定义为一组相对持久的个人心理社会特征，这些特征在特定的国家人口中占主导地位，或具有鲜明的或典型的特征。因此，它成为比较国家的一般方法中的一个特殊因素。采用这一方法可以进行经验性测试，以确定国家和国家以下各级人口的实际特征，使用人格测试，或者更常见的是，定期对具有代表性的国家样本应用态度和价值观。这一方法在日本国民性格研究委员会的研究中得到了最系统和始终如一的应用。

This award will support a two-year U.S.-Japan cooperative research project between Professor Alex Inkeles, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford Univesity, and Professor Tatsuo Suzuki, Department of Interdisciplinary Statistical Mathematics, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo. Professor Inkeles will travel to Japan to work with Professor Suzuki and Professor Chikio Hayashi, also affiliated with the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, on developing a common methodology for further comparative study of U.S. and Japanese national character. These two distinguished Japanese social scientists have been involved with the Japanese Research Committee on the Study of the Japanese National Character. Professor Inkeles, who is one of the leading experts on the study of national character, will bring a comparative viewpoint to the study, which will very likely lead to new developments in this topic. Although national character is often treated in qualitative terms that do not admit of scientific testing, one well established approach does rest on basic methods of social science. This approach defines national character as a set of relatively enduring psycho- social characteristics of individuals that are predominant in, or distinctive, or modal to a given national population. It thus becomes a special element in the general methodology for comparing nations. Taking that approach permits empirical testing to establish the actual characteristics of national and sub-national populations using either tests of personality, or, more commonly, attitudes and value scales applied to representative national samples at periodic intervals. This approach has been most systematically and consistently applied in the studies of the Research Committee on the Study of the Japanese National Character.