著者

池内 裕美 藤原 武弘 土肥 伊都子

出版者

日本社会心理学会

雑誌

社会心理学研究 (ISSN:09161503)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.16, no.1, pp.27-38, 2000

---

"Extended self" is defined as "the aggregation of all obiects that people regard as a part of themselves; for example, their body parts, parents, friends, pet animals, job, social roles, etc." The purposes of this study were 1) to investigate the emotional reaction of involuntary loss of the extended self, that is, "material possessions" and 2) to examine the structure of "extended self" and its relation to the values attached to the possessions. We collected samples from the victims of the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake (209 university students) and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (87 university students). The questionnaire asked them to describe what kind of favorite possessions they lost, the emotions when they lost them, the values they attached to the possessions and to what extent they regarded the external objects as a part of themselves. The results showed both similarities and differences between the victims of two earthquakes. The main findings were as follows: 1) Most victims of both earthquakes showed a similar emotional reaction, that is, "sadness" to the loss of important possessions. 2) For the values they attached to their lost possessions, "functional value," "emotional value," "self-presentational value," and "symbolic value of relationship" were extracted. 3) The more emotional value the victims of the Hanshin Earthquake gave to their possessions, on the other hand, the more self-presentational value the victims of the Northridge Earthquake gave to their possessions, the more the victims of both earthquake regarded their possession as a part of extended self.