“Connectedness, Identity and Alienation: The 21st Century Enigma”
March 28–31, 2013 | The Ramada Osaka, Osaka, Japan
ACERP2013 was held alongside ACP2013, welcoming 275 delegates from around the world to join in discussion ranging from trust, motivation and psychological concerns and mental health issues in modern social systems to practical studies on emotions, policies, and clinical psychology. In the plenary session, our Keynote speaker, Professor Dennis McInerny of The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, addressed the interconnectedness of child education, parental psychological support, and caring schools. His speech, "Harnessing the Power of Social Forces for Healthy Self Development and Successful Engagement in Education" touched on the self-identity formation relative to the self-determination theory, which could predict a child's learning outcome. He also advocated for the concept of parental involvement/engagement being a strong factor for the child's development as well as connectedness with the school. Professor McInerny emphasised that teachers are still a powerful source of reinforcement for a child's academic behaviour and encouraged high quality teacher-child relationships to facilitate higher academic achievement.
Later on in the conference, Featured Speaker Professor Jiro Takai from Nagoya University, Japan, spoke on "When Japanese Are Not Japanese: Being Betrayed by Japanese Samples in Cross-cultural Comparisons" and gave details of how Japanese people could not properly respond to questionnaires without context. Other featured speakers included Dr Sandra Neil from the Satir Centre of Australia, Australia, who gave a presentation on "New Concepts in Family Psychology: Reconnection of Couples, Families and Cultures; Through Affinity, Love and Compassion" and Dr Monty Satiadarma from Tarumanagara University, Indonesia who gave his presentation on "Münchausen by Internet: Psychological Concerns in Modern Communication Systems".