The Relationship Between Amae and a Sense of Basic Trust -Using Questionnaire Methods and Statistical Methods-

There are three types of amae: direct amae, narcissistic amae, and toraware. Prior research has indicated that amae is divided by trust. But there is little research on the different natures of the three amae. Clarification of this would lead to advances in amae research. The purpose of this study was to clarify the differences in the nature of direct amae, narcissistic amae, and toraware in terms of basic trust. 211 university students answered questions on the amae scale (direct amae and toraware), the narcissistic amae scale and a sense of basic trust scale. The data was analyzed by correlation analysis. The results showed that basic trust is associated with direct amae (r = −.46 p < .001), narcissistic amae (r = −.40, p < .001) and toraware (r = −.69, p < .001). This study has revealed that basic trust has a higher negative correlation with toraware than other amae concepts.