小松 孝至

Our life is full of invisibility that exerts power on our acts, relationships, and construction of the self. This paper discusses psychological processes in which invisibility plays an essential role, and constructs a typology of invisibility in society and in our lives. After a brief look at the crucial role of invisibility in prevailing theories of psychology, I first show how invisibility works in children's meaning constructions, the process in which their selves become clear for observers (the presentational self, Komatsu 2010). The development of children's meaning making is led by different types of invisibility concerning the children themselves. Second, I extend the discussion from the development of individuals to the role of socially regulated invisibility that controls our acts and relationships with others, introducing examples concerning religious belief in history. After these discussions, I present a hierarchical classification of invisibility from a simple spatial-temporal separation of concretely existing objects and ourselves to an abstract aspect of invisibility in which the object and its meaning are unclear.

Although our environments and ourselves are usually thought about as relatively stable over time, there is always a tension between sameness and non-sameness in our lives. Because any development is considered as emerging non-sameness, I report that the inquiry into the development of human mind must regard this tension as essential. In this paper, first I show that this tension is a highly relational and dynamic phenomenon that cannot be fixed or measured in numerical terms. Non-sameness is not only a result of development but also a ground that leads to further development in the future. After illustrating the function and regulation of the {same <> non-same} tension in development by analyzing an excerpt from a mother-child conversation, I explain that this tension, or more generally the dialectic nature, is within the core of psychological phenomena, in terms that were introduced to psychology by James Mark Baldwin a century ago. These discussions imply the importance of inquiring into the process of development that emerges from the dialectic tension and fluctuations of our movements and that is observable in various relationships, including the relationship between researchers and study participants.

ショートレポート論文

本研究は,presentational self(Komatsu, 2010, 2012)の枠組みを用いて,子どもの自己を内面にある実体ではなく,子どもの意味構築の過程から観察者が感知するものとして捉え,小学校6年生の1学級の国語の授業の観察記録(計7回)を,テクストや担任教諭との関係,および児童同士の関係における,子どもの固有性(=自己)の明確化プロセスの観点から考察した。授業の過程では,児童とテクストとの多重な関係形成がなされており,音読のように定型化された身体性を伴うかかわりにおいて個別の意味構築は制約されると考えられる一方,その後の問いかけにおいて担任教諭は個々の児童の固有の読み取りを明確化し,相互の関係の中に位置づけることを目指していた。一方,こうした相互作用と並行してなされた,書くことによる担任教諭と各児童の個別のかかわりの中で,授業の相互作用にはあらわれない,より固有性の強い意味構築もみられた。以上から,これまで研究対象としてきた会話や日記の例とは異なるものの,授業の相互作用を通して子どもの自己を見て取る可能性と今後の課題が示された。This study investigated the interaction in the Japanese language classes of an elementary school, with a specific focus on children's selves. The discussion was based on Komatsu's (2010, 2012) theoretical framework of the presentational self that considers a child's self not as an internal entity but as what emerges from meaning construction by children. Japanese language classes (Kokugo) in the 6th grade, where 32 children and a teacher read a story, were recorded for seven days. Exploratory analysis of the recorded interaction showed that children made multiple types of relationship with the text, where their presentational selves emerge. Children's reading the text aloud according to the teacher's instructions were considered as a type of relationship where each child's unique meaning construction from the text is suppressed. After this reading, children's clarifying themselves through presenting their understanding of the text was required by the teacher who stressed the importance of imagining what did not appear in the text. In addition to the oral interaction, children wrote about their thinking on the text and their classmates' comments. The responses were interpreted by the author as other types of meaning construction where their uniqueness emerge more clearly.

In this study, I will elaborate and extend the theoretical framework of the presentational self (Komatsu, Human Development 53:208-228, 2010) that finds the self in two aspects of our interaction with others or objects. From this perspective, the self is not an internal entity, a representation that can be revealed voluntarily when directly queried by researchers (e.g., through items of a questionnaire or an interview), but is what emerges from constantly relating with the immediate environment. The process structure of being in the environment that emerges in this relationship is the presentational self, which both an external observer and the person him/herself can detect but not necessarily describe in words. For further elaboration, first, I clarify that the triangular relationship between a study participant, others or objects, and observing researchers, which is essential in the presentational self, is also common in the methodological presuppositions of existing psychological studies on the self. Second, I apply the framework to a daily activity of oral storytelling in a Japanese elementary school, where the emergence of children's self is observable through sequences of organized interactions with others. From these discussions, I demonstrate both the theoretical and practical importance of considering the self to refer to the relationships that we constantly create in our daily life.

In this paper, I will examine the semiotic mediation process of meaning construction and the functioning of signs, focusing on a group of characteristic words, Gitai-go in the Japanese language. Mimic words in the Japanese language, including Gitai-go are applicable to various subjects based on their inter-sensory nature, and appear frequently in informal communication among Japanese, not only for young children but also in adults' communication. When I consider their functioning from the viewpoint of meaning construction, their characteristic feature is their indefiniteness that is open to diverse forms of extension, including that of no further elaboration and continuous diffusion of the affective flavor within the current setting. Though the process is interpretable in terms of the Japanese culture that is characterized by vagueness, it is also a clear exemplification of how the indefiniteness of signs works in the process of meaning construction and in our communication.

In this article, I take a relational and discursive perspective on young children's self observed in daily natural conversations, and consider the process of semiotic mediation in the observer's recognition. Based on the ideas of co-construction of relationships and identities in conversation, and using excerpts of dialogues between a young child and her mother that deal with the child's experiences at daycare center (hoikuen in Japan) recorded during their car rides, I present how the self of young children in relation to others appears to observers. I regard this genre of self - 'presentational self' - as a kind of Gestalt quality appearing in the act of positioning and in the configuration of the child and others presented through the conversation. As a basis of this process, I will discuss the semiotically mediated process of differentiation in 2 aspects of the conversation: first, in the process of conversation when the children and the partners make further extensions of what is shared, and second, in the array of self and others as exposed in the conversation. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel

本論文では,発達心理学における幼児期の自己に関する研究,特に,インタビューへの回答や会話における子どもの言語表現から,自分自身に対する認識の特徴や発達を検討する研究を,どのように教育実践と関連づけてゆけるかを,幼稚園での観察記録を参照しつつ考察した。主な内容は次の3点にまとめられる。1)幼稚園教育では,適切かつ独自な行為の主体としての「自己」の育ちが強調され,自己を理解することへの着目は必ずしも明確ではない。しかし,2)幼稚園教育の中では,子どもたちの行為やその自己制御が,「集団カテゴリー」と関連づけられており,(子どもの自己理解の一側面である)そうしたカテゴリーが,どのような行為や規範と結びついて理解されているかを明らかにすることで,自己理解研究を幼稚園教育と関連づけて捉えうる。3)また,幼稚園教育では子どもが自分の行為を振り返って理解すること,さらにそれを当事者以外の子どもたちも共有することが求められが,こうした活動を支えるためにも,日常的な「自己の経験に関する語り」を重視し,その意義を明確化することが必要である。In this study, we aimed to explore future directions of developmental study concerning young children's selves, particularly focusing on the development of self-understanding and constructions of the 'narrative self', based on the analysis of early childhood education. We used certain episodes observed at one kindergarten as a starting point for our discussion. Firstly, we performed a short analysis about how the issue of children's self understanding is treated in the kindergarten curriculum. Subsequently, we discussed two perspectives to extend a developmental study, based on actual practices at the kindergarten. One is a need to focus on the relationship between children's knowledge concerning categories like their gender or grade, which is thought to be part of their self-understanding, and their self regulations of behavior. Understanding that they are a member or non-member of a certain social category may represent not only knowledge about grouping but criteria which have multiple effects on their behavior. The other is the possibility to investigate children's daily personal narratives as a foundation of their reflection on their behavior, which is repeatedly demanded in early childhood education.

本研究では,保育園に通園する女児1名とその母親が,保育園からの帰宅時を中心に,母親の運転する車内で録音した会話の記録(4歳4ヶ月〜5歳8ヶ月,のべ153日分,34時間)から,保育園で出会う友人と女児自身が関連づけて描かれる会話事例を分析し,会話における対象児の自己の構成とその発達的変化について考察した。50事例を分析した結果,能力,ままごとや演劇での役名などにもとづいて,対象児と友人が対比される表現がしばしばみられた。この表現を中心に発達的な変化を検討したところ,記録開始の時期には対象児自身と友人を単純に挙げるだけであった表現が,次第に対比の基準とは異なる観点からの情報が加えられて複雑化してゆき,最終期には,対比に加えて挙げられた友人の特徴を描くさまざまな説明や物語が組み込まれた会話事例がみられた。また,母親の役割も,子どもの表現を直接修正する支援者的な側面が弱まり,挙げられた友人や対象児について共同で話題を展開する,話し相手としての側面が強くみられるようになった。

本論では, 幼児期の日常会話を, 子どもの社会的発達の場として具体的な子どもの生活の中に位置づけつつ意味づけることを試みた。その際, 幼児期の生活の中で一定の共通性を持って繰り返される会話として, 保育での経験に関する幼児と家族の会話をとりあげた。まず, この会話の生起を, 家庭と保育の場という, 質的に大きく異なる世界の間の往復がはじまる幼児期の生活と結びつけて考察した。次に, 子どもの社会的発達という観点から考えたとき, この会話が (1) 保育の場という生活世界と, その中での子ども自身のあり方の再構成と評価, 意味づけ (2)家族と離れて固有の経験を持つことになる子どもと家族の関係形成という2つの意義を持つことを指摘した。これらの議論を通して, 保育での経験に関する幼児と家族の会話を, 子どもの生活の基本的な構造に結びついて生起し, 実践される固有の活動として捉えうることを指摘した。Conversations between young children and their family (mainly their parents) are important for children's social development. In this study, we discussed the family conversation regarding the children's daily experiences at kindergarten, as a recurring unique conversation. First, we pointed out the conversation was inseparably related to the young children's routine transfer between their home and kindergarten. Then we discussed two meaning of the conversation. In the conversation, children and their family reconstruct children's experiences at kindergarten, where the daily routine or children's interpersonal realtionships are quite different from those at home, and they evaluate and make sense of children's experience at kindergarten. Another meaning of their conversation is `relational work'between children and the family. Though sharing children's experience is supposed to increase the sense of family membership or child-parent bond, the impossibility of coownership of experience reflects the individuality of children.

本研究は,子どもの幼稚園での経験に関する母子の会話内容とその特徴を検討する。検討にあたっては,子どもが園で出会う他者および他者との関係を含む子ども自身の経験に着目し,質問紙に対する母親の報告から検討した。協力者は幼稚園児の母親235名である。7月と11月に,15種類の話題について,それが取り上げられる頻度の評定,および会話における子どもの語り方の特徴(7項目)に関する評定を母親に求めた。検討の結果,園での遊びや子どもが有能さを感じた経験('できること'),肯定的な情動などの話題の頻度がもっとも高く,他者の特徴や他者との関係もしばしば話題となることが示された。また,この会話に子どもが積極的に参加していることも示唆された。さらに,友だちの性格を取り上げる頻度が7月から11月にかけて増加すること,'保育者にしてもらったこと'に関する話題や,ある話題を繰り返す,他者の真似をするといった語り方の特徴が3歳から5歳にかけ減少するなどの結果がみられた。以上の結果は,園での子どもの経験に関する会話に多く見られる内容や特徴を示すものであり,この会話が生活の中で成立・変化し,社会化の場として機能する様子を検討するための基礎資料を提供するものと考えられる。

本研究は,子どもの幼稚園での経験に関する母子の会話が持つ意義と機能を議論するものである。まず,自身の経験に関する語りと子どもの自己の構成との関連を論じた近年の研究をもとに,この会話が持ちうる多様な意義を考察した。次に,幼稚園の3歳児クラスに所属する子どもとその母親(7組)による会話の録音記録を検討した。また,この会話に対する母親の信念を検討するため,幼稚園生活についての情報源や子どもの仲間関係に関する母親へのインタビューをあわせて行った。検討の結果,会話の中では子どもの対人関係や子どもの一貫した好みへの言及がなされていた。このことから,会話が子どもを対人関係に位置付け,子ども自身の連続性を強調する機能を持つことが示唆された。また,母親がこの会話を通して子どもの生活について知りたいという積極的な動機を持つ一方で,子どもの経験の独自性を尊重し,過度な問いかけを控えるという信念も持つことが示された。In this study, we focused on mother-child conversations about the children's daily experiences at kindergarten. To begin with, we discussed the significance of the conversation, based on recent studies dealing with young children's self-construction in their conversational narrative about their personal experiences. Then we examined conversations between seven 3-year-olds and their mothers. We also asked mothers about their perceptions of their children's peer relationships at kindergarten and their means of collecting information about their children's life at kindergarten. Main findings were as follows: 1) In the conversations, the children's interpersonal relationships were often mentioned; their relatively stable likes were also mentioned. These results suggested that the function of the conversation was to locate the children within their social world and to emphasize the continuity of the children. 2) Mothers had great interest in the conversation as an information-collecting activity, though they expressed anxiety that their excessive questioning in the conversation might destroy their children's individuality.