食前, 用便後などに石鹸を用いての手洗いを励行させようとする場合に, 被験者達に対して講義を行ってその必要と効果を力説する方法と, 被験者達にこれについて討議による集団決定を行わせる方法と何れがより有効な教育法であるかを実験的に検討した。女子大学の寮生に対して(1)石鹸を用いての手洗いをどの程度に実行しているかを事前に調査し, (2)3つの寮の代表者10名づつに対して各寮別に講義を行い, 4つの寮の代表者10名づつに各寮別に討議による集団決定を行わせ, (3)10日後に再び, 石鹸を用いての手洗いをどの程度に実行しているかを調査した。講義, 討議を行う前の調査の結果と, その10日後の調査の結果とを比較してみると, 討議群の方が講義群よりも石鹸を用いての手洗いの実行度の増加がより大であった。討議や講義には直接参加しないで, 自分の寮の代表者達から石鹸を用いての手洗いについて勧告, 伝達を受けた寮生についても, 討議群の方が講義群よりも, その実行度がより多く増加する傾向が見られた。この結果は, 討議に参加した代表者の方が講義群代表者よりも, 残りの寮生に対する勧告, 伝達がより熱心であったことを示すものと考えられる。

Purpose : To find out which is more likely to produce the desired behavior from a group ・・・・・・when the desired behavior is explained by a lecture from, or when a conclusion is reached by discussion in the group. Procedure : For the above purpose, an experiment on "cleaning hands with soap as precaution against dysentery" was made in June - July, 1952, usually the season of dysentery which was especially violent that year. 1) The experiment was made on the dormitory students of Japan Women's University; the girls were devided into 3 groups as follows : 1)50 girls in 4 dormitory buildings in the Discussion Group. 2)55 girls in 3 dormitory buildings in the Lecture Group and 3) 83 girls in 7 dormitory buildings in the Control Group. 2) B fore experiment, all the subjects were asked to fill Questionnaire made up of 16 questions that were to measure how much the girls were observing "cleaning hands." 3) For the Lecture Group, 3 separate lectures were given to the selected group of 10 from each of the 3 dormitories, including the dormitory representatives who should be regarded as "gate-keeper". To these 3 groups, the same one lecturer explained on how dysentery occurs and how to prevent it, quoting ample examples and with the use of posters stressed the importance of carefully cleaning hands with soap to avoid the disease. The contents of the lecture was exactly alike on all three occasions. The representatives were asked to tell what they had heard to all the dormitory girls. Each lecture took about 40 minutes. 4) For the Discussion Group, 10 "gate-keepers" were selected from each of the 4 dormitories and discussion was held separately in each of the 4 groups. In the first place, the subjects were instructed to "think about how the dormitory students can prevent dysentery now near its s ason, by simple method that can be easily practised and then to decide which method is most effective."Then they elected discussion leader. The discussion was conducted in such a way that the subjects could reach to the conclusion of their own. Discussion took from 15-40 minutes.