The objectives of this study were to explore age and gender differences in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and to examine whether attitudes negatively influence intentions to seek help among older adults and men, whose mental health needs are underserved. To achieve these objectives 206 community-dwelling adults completed questionnaires measuring help-seeking attitudes, psychiatric symptomatology, prior help-seeking, and intentions to seek help. Older age and female gender were associated with more positive help-seeking attitudes in this sample, although age and gender interacted with marital status and education, and had varying influences on different attitude components. Age and gender also influenced intentions to seek professional psychological help. Women exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from mental health professionals than men, likely due to their positive attitudes concerning psychological openness. Older adults exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from primary care physicians than younger adults, a finding that was not explained by age differences in attitudes. Results from this study suggest that negative attitudes related to psychological openness might contribute to men's underutilization of mental health services. Help-seeking attitudes do not appear to be a barrier to seeking professional help among older adults, although their intentions to visit primary care physicians might be. These findings suggest the need for education to improve men's help-seeking attitudes and to enhance older adults' willingness to seek specialty mental health services.

Despite its utility, several conceptual and methodological concerns are raised regarding Fischer and Turner's (1970) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS). These concerns were addressed in an adaptation and extension of the ATSPPHS using 208 adult volunteers. The new Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) consists of 24 items and 3 internally consistent factors: psychological openness, help‐seeking propensity, and indifference to stigma. We replicated this 3‐factor model with 293 university undergraduates, and established test‐retest reliability with 23 student volunteers. Validity was demonstrated by the ability of the IASMHS to distinguish between those who had and had not used mental health services in the past, and those who would and would not use these services in the future. It also discriminated between participants’ intentions to use professional and nonprofessional help. Finally, expected gender differences in help‐seeking attitudes were demonstrated.

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The AGED Inventory was designed to overcome shortcomings identified in the Aging Semantic Differential, a frequently used measure of how age groups are perceived. The new instrument was developed to allow assessment both of age stereotypes and of attitudes toward age-specified targets. The Inventory was developed with data from 300 male and 300 female respondents. Two seven-item evaluative factors (the Goodness and Positiveness dimensions) resulted from a series of factor analyses used to reduce an initial set of thirty-five evaluative adjective pairs. Two seven-item descriptive factors (the Vitality and Maturity dimensions) resulted from a separate series of factor analyses used to reduce an initial set of fifty adjective pairs judged to differentiate age groups. Using confirmatory factor analyses and coefficients of congruence on data from an additional 800 respondents, the factor structures of the two evaluative factors and of the two descriptive factors were found to be replicable for young, middle-aged, and old targets assessed in either between or within subject designs. Its ease of administration, multidimensionality, flexibility of targets specification, and capability for assessing attitude and/or stereotype in a manner congruent with current conceptualizations of these constructs make the AGED Inventory useful in a variety of contexts.

Psychotherapists' preference ratings indicate that they prefer to treat young clients over middle-aged clients and these over older clients. Preferences for treating older clients were related to the extent of the therapists' professional experience and knowledge of geriatric psychotherapy, as opposed to therapeutic orientation or degree of personal contact with older adults. Overall, therapists' preferences for treating different clients appeared to be related to perception of prognoses for different client groups.The present study examines the relationship between psychotherapists' preferences for treating persons over 65 years of age and the therapists' knowledge of, experience with, and exposure to psychotherapy with older adults. It has been well documented that older adults (persons aged 65 and older) suffer disproportionately from mental This study is based on the second author's doctoral dissertation. A previous version of this article was presented at the 1986 meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in