Utilizing TAT data derived from natives of an agricultural village in Honshu, De Vos investigates the vicissitudes of superego formation in relation to child-rearing practices and cultural demands. He believes 'it is necessary to use a psychoanalytic framework to examine the psychological processes whereby social roles are internalized and influence the formation of an internalized ego ideal'. Writers who minimize guilt, and stress shame, as a motive force in Japanese character would do well to study De Vos's findings which reveal that his subjects,