The Role of Self-Construal and Perceived Social Support in Prediction of Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate sources of social support and to examine predictive power of self-construal and social support on attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among young adults. Study group consists of 229 young adults who are university graduates. Attitudes toward Seeking Psychological Help Scale-Shortened, Relational, Individual, and Collective Self-aspects Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were utilized to collect the data. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, and stepwise regression analysis. It was found that participants share problems primarily with their parents, spouses, and friends. Regression analysis revealed that individualistic self-construal, collectivistic self-construal and perceived social support from friends significantly predicted attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Individualistic self-construal and perceived social support from friends positively predicted attitudes toward seeking psychological help, whereas collectivistic self-construal negatively predicted attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. The findings obtained from the study were discussed in the light of the related literature and some suggestions were made for future research.