Relationships Among Personality, Expectations About Counseling, and Help‐Seeking Attitudes

A common phenomenon noticed by many professionals and laypersons is that there exists an interesting paradox: Some individuals with severe psychological issues adamantly refuse to seek psychological help, whereas others talk to a counselor. In fact, less than one third of individuals who experience psychological concerns that meet criteria for a mental disorder seek professional help (Andrews, Issakidis, & Carter, 2001). It is important to consider the characteristics of people who view seeking psychological help more favorably and the characteristics of people who have negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Such knowledge may help counselors understand their clients and help gear their services to appeal to the more reluctant group. By recognizing the personality variables related to help-seeking attitudes, therapists will be able to go into a session with a client with better understanding of some aspects of the client's personality. Knowing what other, outside factors influence the decisions that individuals make about counseling could prove to be invaluable when deciding how to educate the public about services offered by professional psychologists. Previous research indicates that educational efforts about mental disorders are related to more willingness to discuss symptoms of depression and suicidality with others (Bhugra & Hicks, 2004), and education focused on dispelling myths about mental health is related to more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (Sharp, Hargrove, Johnson, & Deal, 2006). Perhaps knowing the factors related to seeking counseling may help counselors develop educational programs that are especially targeted to appeal to the more reluctant population. Help seeking has received much attention in past research. Investigators trying to find an answer to the question of what influences individuals' help-seeking tendencies have conducted numerous studies examining the relationship between gender (Fischer & Turner, 1970; Good, Dell, & Mintz, 1989; Leong & Zachar, 1999; MacKenzie, Gekoski, & Knox, 2006), personality (Apostal, 1968; Fischer & Turner, 1970; Mendelsohn & Kirk, 1962; Minge & Bowman, 1967), openness (Komiya, Good, & Sherrod, 2000), emotional distress (Greene, 1999), self-concealment (Cepeda-Benito & Short, 1998; Kelly & Achter, 1995) and self-disclosure (Vogel & Wester, 2003; Vogel, Wester, Wei, & Boysen, 2005), and help-seeking behaviors and attitudes. Individuals who are female, score as perceivers and intuitors on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Saunders, 1958), have external locus of control, are open, score lower on scales of dominance, experience more emotional distress, and do not self-conceal are more likely to seek help from a professional counselor. Other research suggests that the way people view mental illness accounts for a large percentage of their helpseeking attitudes (Leong & Zachar, 1999). Specifically, those with a more friendly and nurturing view of individuals with mental illness and those who do not see individuals with mental illness as dangerous tend to have more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Also, people's perceptions of the stigma associated with mental illness were found to be related to self-stigma associated with seeking counseling (Vogel, Wade, & Hackler, 2007). Self-stigma was, in turn, negatively correlated with help-seeking attitudes. Individuals who perceive there to be a lot of risk associated with self-disclosure to a counselor have more negative help-seeking attitudes (Vogel & Wester, 2003). People with previous counseling experiences also tend to have more positive attitudes toward seeking help (Cash, Kehr, & Salzbach, 1978; Fischer & Turner, 1970; Kahn & Williams, 2003; Vogel & Wester, 2003). One of the most fundamental assumptions in the area of research on expectations about counseling is that individuals have different notions of what a counseling experience is going to be like (Tinsley, Brown, de St. …