A Developmental and Cross‐cultural Study on the Interpersonal Cognition of Swedish and Japanese Children

Abstract

The interpersonal cognition of Japanese children is compared with that of Swedish children in an attempt to understand how far sex‐inequality in society influences the interpersonal cognition of children. The findings support the view that the sex‐difference observed in Japanese children is the result of the sex‐inequality in the Japanese society: the sex‐difference observed in Swedish subjects is smaller in comparison with that of Japanese subjects and is insignificant in the older children. The development of emotional and conjectural cognition of Japanese children is affected by the interpersonal relations peculiar to Japanese society.