KJC Korea
Journal Central

To study the characteristics of close social relationships and its influences on life satisfactions in the middle age, convoy model was used through interview with 315 middle aged men and women. Participants were divided into three age groups(forties, fifties, sixties). In the convoy model distinguishing three levels of closeness, sixties had smallest inner, middle and outer circles and forties and fifties had significant sex differences in the size of convey. Interestingly partner, children, mother and father were included in the inner circle, and sibling, friends, co-workers were included in the middle and outer circle. Outer circle had more various relatives than middle circle. As partner, children and friend were members of inner circle, inner circle was obvious to represent attachment relationships. In addition sixties had more life satisfaction than forties and fifties and sixties with larger convoy than smaller convey.

This study tested the extreme male brain (EMB) theory of autism. According to EMB theory, people with autism show an extreme of the male profile in terms of empathizing and systemizing, that is low empathizing and high systemizing. Two groups of children matched with verbal mental age (36-90 months) participated: children with autism and typically developing children. Each participants were given TOM tasks, and their mothers were asked to complete the children's versions of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-C), Systemizing Quotient (SQ-C) and Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-C). The autism spectrum condition group scored significantly lower than control on the TOM Tasks and EQ-C, and significantly higher on AQ-C, but there were no differences on the SQ-C. In addition, EQ-C and TOM were positively correlated to AQ-C, but not correlated to SQ-C. The EMB theory of autism has not been supported.

The purpose of this study were to investigate the relationships between executive attention, strategies for attention deployment, and ability to delay gratification. The subject of the study were 62 children who lived in Seoul and Incheon and they were 48 to 75 months. Subjects were divided into control group(which was not offered the strategy to distract their attention during the delay period) and two experimental groups(which was offered the strategy to distract their attention during the delay period). The results of the study are as follows: First, the correlation between child's intellectual ability and ability to delay gratification was significant. Also, there was significant relationship between child's executive attention and ability to delay gratification. Second, there were significant differences between the control group and the experimental groups. That is, the experimental groups offered the strategies to distract attention have longer waiting time than the control group. However, there was no significant difference in the experimental groups. Third, offering the strategies to distract attention and executive attention were significantly contributed to the prediction of the ability to delay of gratification. Also, there was significant interactive effect between the type of strategies to distract attention and executive attention. This is, as the group was suggested to play with 'toy', children's high executive skills have a strong effect on the ability to delay gratification.

In a group of 630 first-year middle school students (54.9% boys), the present study examined the roles of empathy, self-efficacy, and beliefs in classroom norm in defending behaviors. This study also examined whether beliefs in classroom norm moderate the relation between empathy/self-efficacy and defending behaviors. Results indicated that regardless of gender, negative beliefs in classroom norm on bullying as well as more empathy and self-efficacy increase defending behaviors for victims. However, the moderation effect of beliefs in classroom norm appears only among boys. The belief that the majority of classmates disapprove of bullying further increases the influence of empathy and self-efficacy in boys' defending behaviors. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of paying attention to perceived classroom norms as a part of bullying prevention and intervention. More gender-specific approaches for bullying prevention and intervention is another implication of this study.

This research examines relationship between the unrealistically optimistic beliefs at early childhood and verbal intelligence at middle childhood. Fifty-six children participated at the age 4 and seven. The level of optimistic belief was measured using the malleability of negative traits and stability of positive traits over time(Choi & Kwak, 2007) and children's intelligence by K-WISC-Ⅲ. Our results reveal that high optimistic belief at early childhood was significantly related to their later verbal intelligence. This study examined optimistic belief at early childhood not as a psychological deficit but as a positive strength and proved that this trait longitudinally brought psychological adjustment to children.

The present study examined three to six-year-old Korean-learning children's production and comprehension of evidentials (esp., indirect inference and hearsay markers), and whether the development of Theory of Mind(ToM) contributes to the development of evidential understanding and use. The production of hearsay marker(-tay) became reliable after four years of age and yet, development of comprehension of this marker was delayed until 6 years. Indirect inference marker, -kes kata, by comparison, begin to develop rapidly after 5 years of age in both production and comprehension. Development of ToM showed positive correlations with evidential comprehension and production(in particular, production of indirect inference). However, its unique contribution to evidential development was difficult to tease apart due to its high correlation with age.

The relationship between joint attention and temperament was examined in two studies. In Study 1, two aspects of joint attention-initiating joint attention(IJA) and responding to joint attention(RJA)-were assessed by means of Early Social Communication Scale(ESCS) at 12, 15, an 18 months and 9 dimensions of temperament were assessed by means of Toddler Temperament Questionnaire(TTQ) at 15 months. IJA showed significant positive correlations with persistence at 15 and 18 months. RJA showed significant correlations with mood at 12 months and approach at 15 months. In study 2, joint attention of infants between 14 and 18 months of age was evaluated both in ESCS and in infant-mother free play and temperament was also assessed by means of TTQ. IJA in ESCS and coordinated joint attention in infant-mother free play showed significant correlations with rhythmicity. Coordinated joint attention in infant-mother free play showed meaningful relationships with several other dimensions of temperament such as threshold, distractibility, intensity.