Global Social Responsibility: Developing a Scale for Senior High School Students in Japan

This research was conducted with the aim of clarifying a concept of “global social responsibility.” A total sample of 395 senior high school students in Japan responded to a pool of items mostly adapted from a scale developed by Starrett (1996) and provided additional data concerning their social experiences. The data were used in the development of a Japanese version of the Global Social Responsibility (GSR) scale. It was found that “global altruism,” “active involvement with society,” and “understanding of interdependence” constituted a construct of global social responsibility. It was also found that females, those who discussed social problems with their family, those who revealed a high awareness of responsibility and those who had multiple experiences of volunteer activities for community service showed high GSR scores. The scale provides both an awareness of the concept and a measure for determining levels of global social responsibility. Counseling professionals are encouraged to consider their roles from a global and social perspective, with the notion of responsibility being seen as central to the concepts of freedom and personal development.

Appendix: Cosmopolitanism Scale (Iwata, 1989) translated here into English by the authors *(R) = Reverse Item

Low ethnic superiority

• 1. Japanese people are superior in terms of world standards. (R)

• 2. Since Japan’s huge trade surplus is a result of superior technologies and efforts, it should be accepted as a matter of fact. (R)

• 3. Our country’s huge trade surplus proves Japanese people’s superiority. (R)

• 4. Our country should lead the world in various fields. (R)

• 5. In the field of international politics our country should play an important role which matches its economic power. (R)

• 6. I am proud that our country is considered as a model of economic development by other countries. (R)

Orientation to cross-cultural experiences

• 1. Contact with foreign life and culture impresses me.

• 2. There is no superiority among nations or cultures.

• 3. I want to live in as many different countries as possible.

• 4. I want to know about as many countries, cultures or their lives as possible.

Awareness of global communities being bounded together

• 1. One country alone cannot survive no matter how much efforts it makes for the future.

• 2. Prosperous countries should assist poor countries even at a considerable sacrifice.

• 3. All countries on earth belong to a community of the same destiny.

• 4. Any nations have respective cultures worthy of their pride.

• 5. Poor countries in the process of development have as excellent a culture as ours.

Awareness of needlessness of the nation

• 1. National borders should be abolished in future when frequency of people’s travel and information exchange will increase much more.

• 2. National borders cause conflicts or wars.

• 3. The nation is needless on this small planet.

• 4. National borders should be abolished as they impede free economic activities.