College of Comprehensive Psychology, Ritsumeikan University

SATO Tatsuya, Ph.D. on Ars Vivendi project (Ritsumeikan UNiversity)


Tatsuya Sato, Ph.D.

Professor, College of Comprehensive Psychology

Ritsumeikan Univesity

(Applied Social psychology, History of psychology)

Japanese Version is  here.


Research interests:

Social psychology, Cultural psychology and History of psychology.

New Adventure for Quatlitative Inquiry;Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA)
TEA consists of Historically Structured Sampling (HSS), Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM) and Three Layers Model of Genesis (TLMG)Empowerd by Jaan, Yuko and Tatsuya


New Adventure for Personality Research;International Situations Project


Sato, T. 2010 Minding Money: How Understanding of Value is Culturally Promoted. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. DOI: 10.1007/s12124-010-9142-7

Sato,T., Wakabayashi,K. ,Nameda,A., Yasuda,Y., & Watanabe,Y. 2010/08/15. Understanding a Personality as a Whole. in Toomera,A., & Valsiner,J.(Eds.) Methodological Thinking in Psychology: 60 Years Gone Astray? Charlotte, N.C.: InfoAge Publications, pp 89-119.

Sato, T., Hidaka, T. & Fukuda, M. (2009). Depicting the Dynamics of Living the Life: The Trajectory
EquifinalityModel. In . In J. Valsiner, P. Molenaar, M. Lyra and N. Chaudhary (Eds), Dynamic
process methodology in the social and developmental sciences (p. 217‐240).

Tatsuya Sato, Yuko Yasuda , Ayae Kido, Ayumu Arakawa , Hazime Mizoguchi and Jaan Valsiner 2007 Sampling Reconsidered: Idiographic Science and the Analyses of Personal Life Trajectories. In Valsiner, J. and Rosa, A. (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Socio-Cultural Psychology,Chapter 4, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, Pp.82-106.

The related article.

Jaan Valsiner (Clark University) and Tatsuya Sato (Ritsumeikan University)

Historically Structured Sampling (HSS): How can psychology's methodology become tuned in to the reality of the historical nature of cultural psychology?
To appear in
Pursuit of Meaning. Advances in cultural and cross-cultural psychology (edited by Jurgen Straub, Carlos Kolbl, Doris Weidemann and Barbara Zielke), pp.215-251, Bielefeld: transcript 2005

ABSTRACT. Cultural psychology is the new synthetic direction in contemporary psychology that brings back to psychology the crucial role of history. Cultural phenomena are historical at all levels: personal (personal life histories), that of society (history of any given society) and at the level of the microgenesis of actions. This leads to the need for new methodology. Such methodology needs to fit the nature of phenomena-which in psychology are of open systemic nature. A number of habitual empirical practices on non-historical psychology-such as random sampling and generalization from samples to populations-- are made inappropriate for science by such change. We show that "random sampling" constitutes a conceptual dead-end street that moves psychology away from-instead of towards-- adequate strategies of generalization. Instead, Historically Structured Sampling (HSS)-selection of individual cases at a currently similar setting (equifinality point) on the basis of their trajectories of past development-constitutes a constructive alternative. Some of these equifinality points are obligatory-set by the phylogeny of the species or by collective cultural construction, others-elective as possibilities created through culturally constructed activity settings. Cultural psychology allows psychologists to study the developmental processes that take place at these equifinality points-loci where social and personal worlds meet in guiding further development.


Selected Publications on the Cultural Psychology and Qualitative Psychology

In English
Tatsuya Sato 2007 Rises and Falls of Clinical Psychology in Japan: The Current Status of Japanese Clinical Psychology. Ritsumeikan Journal of Human Sciences, 13, 133-144.

Tatsuya Sato (2007;in press) Development, Change or Transformation: How can psychology conceive and depict professional identify construction? European Journal of School Psychology.

Tatsuya Sato 2005 The History of Applied Psychology in Japan. The Rits Reports for Human Services(学術フロンティア推進事業プロジェクト研究シリーズ)、9,76-90.

Oh Seon-Ah, Pian Chengnan, Toshiya Yamamoto, Noboru Takahashi, Tatsuya Sato, Kazuko Takeo, Soonja,C. and Soonja,K. 2005 Money and the Life Worlds of Children in Korea; Examining the Phenomenon of Ogori (Treating) from Cultural Psychological Perspectives. 共愛学園前橋国際大学論集,5, 73-88.

In Japanese with English abstract

Tatsuya Sato , Yuko Yasuda, Ayae Kido , Saori Takada and Jaan Valsiner 2006 The Discovery of Trajectory Equifinality Model, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5, 255-275.(Abstract in English)


Research tour(History of psychology) in USA! Web site(English Version) is here

"History of Psychology and Psychology Studies" Web site(English Version) is here

Editorial Committee of the Journal "History of Psychology and Psychology Studies" , "Japanese Journal of Qualitative Psychology", "Japanese Journal of Law and Psychology".


Selected Publications on History of Psychology:

In English

Sato, T., Nakatsuma, T. and Matsubara , N. 2012 Influences of G. Stanley Hall on Yuzero Motora as the First Psychology Professor in Japan. How kymograph as a motor made enough energy to power Motora’s career in psychology, American Journal of Psychology,125, 395-407.

Tatsuya Sato 2010/June The History of Personality Psychology in Japan.
P: The Online Newsletter for Personality Science, Issue 5, June 2010.

SATO, Tatsuya 2007 Rises and Falls of Clinical Psychology in Japan: A Perspective on the Status of Japanese Clinical Psychology.  Ritsumeikan Journal of Human Sciences, 13, 133-144.

SATO, Tatsuya 2005 The History of Applied Psychology in Japan. The Rits Reports for Human Services, 9, 76-90.

SATO, Tatsuya and SATO, Takao 2005 The early 20th century: Shaping the discipline of psychology in Japan. Japanese Psychological Research, 47, 52-62. (Abstract in English)

Tatsuya Sato, Hiroshi Namiki, Juko Ando and Giyoo Hatano (2004) Japanese conception of and research on human intelligence. Sternberg (Ed.) "International Handbook of Intelligence". Chapter 10, (Cambridge University Press), Pp.302-324.

Tadasu Oyama, Tatsuya Sato and Yuko Suzuki (2002) Shaping of Scientific Psychology in Japan. International Journal of Psychology,36,396-406.

In Japanese

SATO, Tatsuya (2002). Japanese Educational Psychology in the 21st century. The Annual Report of Educational Psychology in Japan, Vol.41, 139-156.Abstract in English)

Sato, T. (2001). Motora Yuzero, ZEN Practice and "The Idea of Ego in Oriental Philosophy". History of Psychology and Psychology Studies, 3, 11-20.;Abstract in English).

Sato, T. (1999). New Psychology Curriculum Arises from a Dispute during Pre-WWII Japan. History of Psychology and Psychology Studies, 1, 19-29.;Abstract in English).

Sato, T. and Mizoguchi, H.(Eds.) (1997). History of the Japanese Psychology. Kitaohji-shobo: Kyoto

Sato, T. (1997). Intelligence Quotient. Kodansha: Tokyo, Japan.

Sato, T. (1993). Blood-typing: As a lay personality theory. Japanese Journal of Social Psychology, 8, 197-208.


Sato, T. and Watanabe, Y. (1993). Psychological Studies on Blood-typing in Japan.Japanese Psychological Review, 35, 234-268.


Sato, T. and Watanabe, Y. (1995). The Furukawa theory of blood-type and temperament: The origins of a temperament theory during the 1920s. The Japanese Journal of Personality, 3, 51-65(Abstract in English).

International Conference Presentations:

In English

Sato, T. (2002) History of Research on Human Intelligence in Japan: 1860-1960. The International Society for the History of Social and Behavioral Sciences 34th Annual Meeting.Abstract in English.

Takasuna, M. and Sato, T. (2002) Japanese Psychology in Times of Rapid Political Change. The International Society for the History of Social and Behavioral Sciences 34th Annual Meeting, Workshop. Abstract in English.

Sato, T. , Mizoguchi, H., Takasuna, M., and Nishikawa,Y. (2000)

Yuzero Motora, as the first Japanese psychologist.−Psychophysics, Educational Psychology, and Zen The 27nd International Conference of Psychology(Sweden); Abstract in English.

Sato, T. (1997).

Japanese blood-typing as biased stereotypes. The 2nd Conference of The Asian Association of Social Psychology(Kyoto), P65.


Professional Experience

  1. 1988.4-1994.3 Research Associate(Joshu), Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan.
  2. 1994.4-2001.3 Associate Professor, Department of Sociology(Social Psychology), Faculty of Administration & Social Sciences, Fukushima University , Fukushima, Japan.
  3. 1997.5-1998.2 Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
  4. 2001.4- 2006.3 Associate Professor, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
  5. 2006.4- Now Professor, Department of Psychology(Social Psychology and History of Psychology), Faculty of Letters, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.


(former VSITING FELLOW at the Department of Psychology, the University of Tokyo),

LINK TO History of Department of Psychology, University of Tokyo

E-mail: satot@lt.ritsumei.ac.jp