We investigated the relation of help-seeking history, sex, and depression to college students' attitudes, beliefs, and intentions about obtaining professional psychological help. College students completed questionnaires that included the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961), an inquiry about help-seeking history, and an attitude scale constructed according to the method posited in the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Of these 429, 126 who represented extremes of the depression continuum were selected as subjects for data analyses. Though sex differences were not found, results indicated that the experience of having sought help is positively related to how one feels about seeking help and that the experience of depression, regardless of help-seeking history, is also related to more positive attitudes, beliefs, and intentions. Implications for educative interventions are considered.Research in counseling psychology is replete with efforts to better understand and describe potential clients of counseling services. One particular question that continues to provoke empirical examination concerns the factors that are most influential in the decision to seek professional counseling. Approaches to this issue are varied and have included work on client expectations about the nature of counseling (

Downloaded by [Purdue University] at 16:38 12 April 2015 DIS. Halgin, Weaver and Donaldson are members of the-pamnent of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. Requests for reprints should be addressed to h. Halgin.

No abstract

No abstract