An Adaptation and Extension of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale¹

Abstract

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.

Investigating institutional abuse survivors’ help-seeking attitudes with the Inventory of Attitudes towards Seeking Mental Health Services

“…Psychological openness represents an individual’s disposition to acknowledge psychological problems and to consider seeking professional help. The extent to which individuals are concerned about significant others opinion if they find out that they were receiving professional help is represented through the indifference to stigma subscale (Mackenzie, Knox, Gekoski, & Macaulay, 2004). Mackenzie et al (2004) demonstrated that IASHMS discriminates between participants who had and those who had not used mental health services.…”

Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families

“…Among these dimensions, their empirical study further concluded that for those in need of services, affordability, availability, and accessibility are greater barriers than individuals' concerns about being stigmatized by others. In line with these arguments, Mackenzie et al (2004) also pointed out the weak relationship between indifference to stigma and help-seeking propensity which is complicated by factors such as "how busy individuals see themselves at any given time" (Mackenzie et al 2004(Mackenzie et al , p. 2428. These studies highlight the importance of understanding how individuals' beliefs about external control factors might affect help-seeking intentions and behaviors.…”

“…An interesting finding revealed by our review of this area might speak to this complexity: The correlation between stigma toward mental illness and mental health service utilization is inconsistent across several different studies. While some argue that stigma dissuades help seeking (Hirai and Clum 2000;Vogel et al 2006;Fox et al 2013), others find an insignificant relationship between indifference to stigma and help-seeking propensity (Farina 2000;Mackenzie et al 2004;Golberstein et al 2008). Future empirical studies are needed to incorporate cultural aspects as well as the experiences of ethnic minority and immigrant children and families, to better explore the complex mechanisms of how stigma toward mental health treatment impacts service utilization.…”

“…Fischer and Turner (1970) conceptualized items like this as indicators of "recognition of need for psychotherapeutic help," which, together with stigma tolerance, interpersonal openness, and confidence in mental health practitioners, forms comprehensive attitudes toward seeking professional help. Mackenzie et al (2004), building upon Fischer and Turner (1970)'s framework, and using "help-seeking propensity" to capture both willingness toward and agency of seeking professional help, argue that help-seeking propensity much more strongly correlates with mental health service use than either psychological openness or indifference to stigma. Though items of this kind have offered us empirical evidence supporting the relationship between the intention and action of service use as proposed by TPB, they are limited, compared to other domains of items we have reviewed, in further identifying how and why the intention to seek help or engage in services might have been developed and transformed.…”

“…Objective barriers and resources have long been discussed in the literature of mental health service utilization (e.g., Staudt 1999;Stefl and Prosperi 1985). Several recent studies have adopted a more comprehensive perspective, building upon the TPB model, taking into account the dynamics between perceived barriers and the subjective beliefs about one's willingness and self-efficacy regarding help seeking (King et al 2007;Mackenzie et al 2004). Besides, many studies on service utilization also include survey items measuring sources of help other than professional services that one might be inclined to reach out to (e.g., Cohen 1999;Rostain et al 1993;Scior and Furnham 2011).…”