The relative contribution of knowledge of counseling services, personality style, and psychological distress on attitudes toward seeking professional help: A test of three theoretical models

This study tested and integrated three theoretical models of help-seeking. By studying the relative influence of knowledge of counseling services, personality style, and psychological distress on attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, the current research investigated the impact of each model. Further examination of these areas was necessary due to conflicting results demonstrated in other research.;Participants completed five surveys assessing their attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, knowledge of available counseling services, personality style, and levels of psychological distress. Additionally, participants completed basic demographic questionnaires. This study utilized step-wise regression analyses to indicate the extent to which attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were predicted by knowledge of counseling services, personality style, and psychological distress. The three predictor variables were selected from help-seeking models proposed by Gross, Fisher, Nadler, Stiglitz and Craig (1979), Fischer and Turner (1970), Tracey, Sherry and Keitel (1986), and Hourani and Khlat (1986).;Results of this study indicate that participants who identified a higher number of professional sources of help (e.g. psychologists, counselors) had more favorable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than did participants who identified fewer professional help sources. When data were analyzed using only a total number of help sources identified, knowledge of counseling services did not significantly predict attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Personality style and psychological distress did not significantly predict attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. The interaction of knowledge of counseling services, personality style and psychological distress was the most influential predictor of help-seeking attitudes when knowledge of counseling services was measured by summing the total number of help sources identified. When knowledge of counseling services was measured by assigning a weighted rating to each identified help source, the interaction term was not significant.;Exploratory analyses revealed sex differences in using knowledge of counseling to predict help-seeking attitudes. Women's attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were predicted only by knowledge of counseling services, while men's attitudes were predicted by both knowledge of counseling services and the interaction of all predictor variables. This research includes a discussion of the results as well as implications of the current findings.