College students from secondary population centers in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, England, and the United States were asked to rate the importance of love for both the establishment and the maintenance of a marriage. Love tended to receive greatest importance in the Western and Westernized nations and least importance in the underdeveloped Eastern nations. These differences were stronger and clearer for decisions regarding the establishment of a marriage than for the maintenance and dissolution of a marriage. There were few significant sex differences, either across or within countries. Individualistic cultures, as opposed to collective cultures, assigned much greater importance to love in marriage decisions. Respondents assigning greater importance to love also tended to come from nations with higher economic standards of living, higher marriage rates and divorce rates, and lower fertility rates.

This study examined the effectiveness of group reminiscence therapy in a Japanese elderly community. The relationship between the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy and styles of daily reminiscence was also examined. Participants (Two men and 46 women, mean age = 81.9 years) were recruited from a welfare center of a community. The reminiscence group and the control group consisted of 22 and 26 participants, respectively. They completed the assessment of anxiety and insomnia, depression, integrity, life satisfaction, and self-esteem before and after the intervention and in the 12-week follow-up. Participants in the reminiscence group took eight one-hour weekly sessions. Results showed that the reminiscence group showed improvement in life satisfaction after the intervention. Results also revealed that the frequency of daily reminiscence positively correlated with self-esteem at the posttest, suggesting that older adults reminiscing frequently may improve self-esteem when they participate in reminiscence therapy. The results suggested the potential value of group reminiscence therapy for Japanese elders.

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