Applied Developmental Psychology: Theory, Practice and Research from Japan. Shwalb, David W., Jun Nakazawa, and Barbara J. Shwalb. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2005. xxv + 353 pp.
Reviewed by: Harold L. Odden, Indiana University – Purdue University, Fort Wayne
The recently published, research anthology edited by David and Barbara Shwalb and Jun Nakazawa is an important contribution to our understanding of the nature and diversity of child development as it provides an excellent overview of contemporary research by leading Japanese developmental psychologists. The 16 different chapters provide English-speaking audiences with access to the innovative work being conducted on Japanese children and their families on topics including disability, literacy, cognitive development, peer relations, the impact of television and video games, and family dynamics. As such this volume represents a significant contribution to the fields of developmental and applied psychology, psychological anthropology, education, human development, and Japanese area studies.
At first glance the volume’s contribution to developmental and applied psychology seems most obvious, as it is these fields of study that are most directly addressed by this body of work. While most of the chapters include fairly substantial discussion of the applied dimensions of the topic addressed, the presentation is sufficiently broad to appeal to generalists as well. The chapter on the impact of television on children’s development by Muto, Sumiya, and Komaya is emblematic of the broad scope of the individual contributions. They begin by describing historical and contemporary patterns of television viewing by Japanese children, and survey the existing literature on the psychological impact of television. They then describe a school intervention seeking to promote “television literacy”, and conclude by detailing a large longitudinal study of 5th and 6th grade students’ television viewing patterns and their correlations with internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. This broad sweep, which is characteristic of most chapters, may enable individual contributions to be productively used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses without requiring extensive additional materials to provide context. Most of the authors’ engage theoretical positions and research findings of North American and Western European researchers, and refer to points of commonality and divergence. Such a demonstration points to the value of cross-cultural comparison - a point long recognized in anthropology - but certainly worth repeating for our sister disciplines of psychology and human development.
The contribution of this volume to psychological anthropology and the increasingly large and excellent literature on child development in Japan should also not be overlooked. Many of the chapters address cultural practices and social institutions of great significance in contemporary Japan including: the development of manga (comic book) literacy, the impact of tanshunfinin (job-related father absence) on aspects of a child’s development and family dynamics, and the cultural dimensions of child abuse, bullying and school absenteeism. Processes of child development, as they are described in the chapters of this volume, are clearly and unmistakably situated in the context of a rapidly shifting, urban, and post-industrial Japan, and the text is far richer because of this grounding in contemporary social practice.
The 16 chapters focus on five thematic areas. The first section deals with technology and media, and includes chapters on the development of manga literacy, and the impact of video games and television on children’s development. Jun Nakazawa’s contribution on children’s developing manga literacy is particularly interesting, as he examines it in terms of children’s developing information processing skills in adapting to this uniquely Japanese but increasingly global symbolic system.
The second and longest section deals with cognitive development, and includes contributions on children’s meta-cognitive skills, science and mathematics learning, and literacy. I found the chapters by Akita and Shwalb, Sugie and Yang to be of particular interest. Akita's chapter includes description of the phases in Japanese children’s developing ability to read hiragana and katakana, as well as discussion of how characteristics of the orthographic system support children's relatively smooth transition into elementary school and literacy. Shwalb, Sugie and Yang focus on the unofficial, after-school abacus schools and its influence on mathematics learning and children’s motivation in formal school settings.
The third section focuses on developmental disability and includes chapters on developmental delays, Down syndrome, and autism. Readers with applied interests will find considerable relevant material here, including discussion of a diversity of interventions. Beppu’s chapter presents case study data challenging perspectives that autistic children lack “theory of mind” and argues that these children may be acquiring some understanding of the mind of others through their attachment relationships with caregivers.
The fourth section - “Research on the Family with Policy Implications” – examines maternal employment, job-related father absence, and child abuse. The article by Tanaka and Nakazawa was of particular interest as it demonstrated a particularly nuanced examination of the impact of job-related father absence (tanshunfinin), which remains a common aspect of the employment trajectory in Japan. This chapter is nicely complemented by Sugawara’s chapter describing her excellent longitudinal study of the impact of maternal employment on child development. Similar to findings from the U.S. and Europe, her study demonstrates no detrimental effects for maternal employment on early childhood development, and refutes the “three-year-old-myth” that mothers must take care of their children during the first three years of life or risk disrupting their early development. Finally, there is a chapter by Shoji discussing the complex issue of child abuse from cultural, developmental and applied perspectives.
The fifth and final section examines peer relations, and includes three excellent articles on bullying, school absenteeism, social support and peer relationships in the Japanese context. Toda’s article provides considerable insight into the nature and context of bullying and school absenteeism in contemporary Japan, while Hosaka’s complements this with discussion of school-based applied interventions. The article by Makoto Shibayama on the adjustment processes of a five year old Chinese boy during his movement into a Japanese daycare is surely to be of interest to psychological anthropologists as she employs both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to elucidate the reciprocal processes of adjustment that occur between the child and his new social ecology as well as processes of peer group formation.
In summary, this edited volume represents a very interesting collection of articles that should be wide interest. Given the comprehensive way in which each chapter reviews the specific topic from developmental, applied and cultural perspectives, psychologists, anthropologists, and developmentalists will find much of value.
