Redefining First-Year Japanese University Students’ Self-Construals through Social-Psychological Intervention

This article presents the results of a pilot study on the effectiveness of a social-psychological intervention administered to a group of first-year Japanese university students. The results provide insight into how learners perceived and comprehended the intervention, along with any influential or lasting effects that may have occurred. The intervention was employed every week in class for a period of 14 weeks, and at the end of the study, an in-class questionnaire was completed by 55 students. The objective of the study was to identify whether a brief social-psychological intervention could affect learners’ self-construals and foster the creation of self-enhancement cycles. Results indicated that an intervention directed at modifying learners’ self construals can be somewhat effective in terms of influencing learner mindsets, altering these mindsets in a positive manner, and delivering short-term motivational effects.