The Graduate School of Human Relations Training Room: Cultivating Research and Practical Skills

The Graduate School of Human Relations Training Room (hereafter, the Training Room) was established as a training facility for graduate students. Originally, it was a standalone house built on the first floor of what is now the South Building on the Mita Campus. This was a consideration to ensure privacy in clinical psychology research, preventing the paths of clients and university students from crossing.

Since then, it has been actively used for educational purposes, such as graduate students' master's and doctoral thesis research. Since its establishment, the following types of research have been conducted using the Training Room. Led by the Major in Sociology: acquisition of counseling and psychological assessment techniques, personality research, and experimental social psychology research. Led by the Major in Psychology: behavior modification training classes, acquisition of behavior therapy techniques, practice and research in support for children with developmental disabilities, and research on the development of behavior and brain function in infants. Led by the Major in Education: intelligence testing practice for infants and adults, twin survey research, and research on group activities of infants.

After several relocations, it moved to its current location on the 3rd floor of the South Annex in 2011. The current Training Room consists of a "Playroom" where children can play in groups, a "Training Room" suitable for individual developmental support, and "Interview Room 1" and "Interview Room 2" for interviews with adolescents and adults, surveys, and basic experiments. In addition, there is a soundproof cabin for measuring brain function using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and a storage room for research data.

The Playroom and Training Room are separated by a one-way mirror, and there is an "Observation Room" for monitoring both rooms, allowing for data collection and parallel mother-child interviews without the subjects being aware. The Playroom and Training Room can be monitored from the Observation Room, and the footage can be recorded as digital video.

Furthermore, the facility possesses most of the tests used in Japan—including psychological tests, developmental tests, language tests, cognitive function tests, motor tests, adaptive behavior tests, and stress tests—and provides them for the education and research of graduate students.

To ensure training hours for graduate students, training is actively conducted outside of class hours. For example, the certification for "Clinical Developmental Psychologist" (Japanese Certification Board for Clinical Developmental Psychologists), which began in 2001, requires 200 hours of practical experience in addition to earning credits in related fields during a master's program. Developmental support training classes in the Training Room are essential for obtaining this qualification. To date, many graduate students and researchers have gained practical experience in the Training Room, obtained their "Clinical Developmental Psychologist" certification, and are now active in developmental clinical settings as researchers or professionals. Currently, many graduate students are preparing to obtain this certification.

Looking at research, observational and survey research targeting twins is underway. Additionally, the number of graduate students conducting neuroscientific research on infants is increasing. Experimental research using NIRS, eye-tracking devices, and physiological measurement devices installed in the Training Room is also actively conducted. Furthermore, in collaboration with engineering research groups, analysis of movement and social interaction using motion capture has also begun.

The Graduate School of Human Relations Training Room will continue to enhance its educational foundation to help graduate students succeed in their future research and practical fields, while leveraging the originality of interdisciplinary academic approaches that bridge the humanities and sciences.