Underachievers generally lack internal locus of control, compete poorly, and undervalue effort. Many underachieving children who have adopted dependent or dominant defense mechanisms can be reached using the Family Achievement Clinic's Trifocal method. This multi-step process features assessment, parent-child communication, identification of the…

Cultural expectations provide meaning to human perceptions of who-does-what-to-whom-where. However, the effects of actions directed at oneself have been much less systematically studied. This article replicates the American factorial design of Britt and Heise (1992) in a Japanese setting. The analysis demonstrates both cultural similarities and…