Antecedents and consequences of autonomy- and dependency-oriented help toward refugees

We tested antecedents (paternalistic beliefs; Study 1) and consequences (social change potential; Study 2) of autonomy- and dependency-oriented help and developed scales assessing paternalistic beliefs and both forms of help. In Study 1 (N = 143 Germans), we focused on paternalistic beliefs as an antagonist to social change and a key distinguishing variable between engagement in both forms of help. As expected, paternalistic beliefs were positively related to dependency-oriented help, mediated by concern for a positive national moral image, but negatively related to autonomy-oriented help, mediated by perceived competence of refugees. In Study 2, both refugees (N = 80) and Germans (N = 94) perceived autonomy-oriented help to have more potential for social change than dependency-oriented help.     

Self-compassion,empathy, and helping intentions

The trait of self-compassion has three components: (1) kindness toward oneself when facing pain or failure; (2) perceiving one’s experiences as part of a larger human experience rather than feeling isolated; and (3) holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness. The present research explores if self-compassion predicts willingness to help others and empathy for others in need of help. Study 1 found that self-compassion predicted greater willingness to help a hypothetical person while simultaneously reducing empathy for that person. Study 2 used a more nuanced measure of empathy and found that self-compassion was only related to feeling less personal distress in response to someone else’s emergency. In addition, in Study 2, self-compassion only predicted greater helping intentions when the target was at fault for the emergency. Lastly, both self-compassion and empathy were uniquely related to participants’ willingness to help an individual in need.     

African American Pastors on Mental Health,Coping, and Help Seeking

Within the Black Church, there remains much that is unknown about pastoral motivations, beliefs, and attitudes about mental health. The purpose of this study was to investigate pastors' responses to parishioners dealing with mental health issues, including perspectives on counseling services and coping strategies. According to this study's findings, African American pastors often are the first line of support for parishioners' mental health and recognizing adaptive and maladaptive forms of coping.     

Thanks, but no thanks: The role of personal responsibility in the experience of gratitude

Current theories of gratitude suggest that individuals feel grateful when they perceive someone else to be responsible for a desired outcome. However, it is unclear whether individuals must also feel a lack of personal responsibility in order to feel gratitude. This paper provides evidence that in achievement contexts, without the belief that they are responsible for their success, individuals do not experience gratitude, even when they acknowledge the help they have received. In two studies, the more helpful participants thought an experimenter had been, the more grateful they felt, but only if they also spontaneously felt responsible for (Study 1) or were induced to feel responsible for (Study 2) their outcomes.     

When intergroup apology is not enough: Seeking help and reactions to receiving help among members of low status groups

Relations between groups are characterized by competition and suspicion. As a consequence, members of low status groups may question the meaning of apologies offered by a high status group, especially under unstable status relations. In two experiments, the present research investigated the role of the intergroup versus interpersonal apology and the potential moderating effect of the stability of intergroup relations on low status group members' (a) help seeking (Study 1) and (b) responses to receiving help (Study 2) from a high status group. Consistent with our hypotheses, when status relations were unstable rather than stable, following a formal intergroup relative to an interpersonal apology by an Israeli official, Israeli‐Arab students sought less dependency‐oriented and more autonomy‐oriented help from an Israeli‐Jewish study coordinator (Study 1) and Jewish‐Ethiopian newcomers reacted more negatively when they read about an Ethiopian‐Jewish student receiving unsolicited dependency‐oriented help from an Israeli‐Jewish college student (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

寻求专业性心理帮助的预测因素研究的综述

在日常生活中,一些人在产生了自己难以解决的心理问题时,不寻求专业性心理帮助,以致使心理问题变得更加严重,这一问题已经引起了国内外不少学者的关注。他们运用各种问卷和访谈的方式,从分析求助者个人心理特点入手,并通过跨文化研究,揭示了人格特质和社会文化对心理求助的预测作用以及与心理咨询工作者有关的因素。该文概述并讨论了国内外关于此课题的研究成果,以期为我国的心理健康教育提供有价值的资料。     

How children can help adults grow spiritually

The wisdom of the ages recommends that adults heed the spiritual examples of children. This paper explores the evidence of how our adult relationships with children can help us adults in our own spiritual growth. An examination of research on some of the ways children manifest their spirituality, including recent brain research in that area, reveals some of the ways in which children can influence their parents, caregivers and other adults to grow spiritually, especially when the gift is acknowledged and appreciated.     

Book Reviews

This study examined various factors affecting attitude towards seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH) in Arabs living in the UK: causal beliefs, shame-focused attitudes, confidentiality concerns, ethnic identity and demographic variables. Participants completed an online questionnaire and results indicated that Arabs showed significantly less positive ATSPPH and had stronger causal beliefs in supernatural and non-Western physiology than British Caucasians. Confidentiality concerns, but not shame-focused attitudes were significant predictors of ATSPPH; confidentiality concerns were more significant for Arabs than for British Caucasians. Implications are drawn from the results.     

Examining the Prevalence and Predictors of Injury From Adolescent Dating Violence

Medical needs of youth who experience dating violence are not well understood because of limited past research examining the prevalence and predictors of injuries and medical help seeking. To address these gaps, the current study described the prevalence and predictors of injuries from dating violence from grades 8 through 12 in a large sample of youth. Results indicate that one third to one half of youth who experienced any physical and/or sexual dating violence also sustained an injury. Prevalence of injury was highest in the 8th grade and was significantly higher for females than for males across grades 8 through 11. Youth who experienced greater amounts of violent victimization in their relationships (physical, sexual, and psychological) were at the highest risk for injury. Results also suggest that victims at highest risk for injury are girls, White youth, those experiencing multiple types of violence, and those who also engage in perpetration. Given the high prevalence of injury among youth who report dating violence, healthcare professionals may be in a unique position to screen and counsel youth about dating violence. Because the highest prevalence of injury occurred before high school, prevention programs should start early and selected prevention may be used for youth at highest risk for injury.     

Perceptions of South Florida Hispanic and Anglo Catholics: From Whom Would They Seek Help?

Hispanic and Anglo Catholics in South Florida who attended Sunday services (N = 473) were surveyed to determine their help-seeking preferences for moral concerns, mental disorders, and practical life/family problems. Respondents were asked to indicate whether they would seek help from a priest; a priest with a degree and license in one of the helping professions (clinical social work, psychology, psychiatry, or mental health counseling); a layperson with a degree and license in one of the helping professions (clinical social work, psychology, psychiatry, or mental health counseling); or if they believed they could deal with the situation without external assistance. The findings suggest that Anglo Catholics prefer assistance from a person who was credentialed in one of the helping professions, whereas Hispanic Catholics would seek help from a priest with or without a background in the helping professions.     

The sociocultural conceptualisations of schizophrenia and patterns of help seeking in south-east Nigeria

Socioculturally influenced interpretations of mental illness play decisive roles on the time and choice of treatment. These often result in significant delays before patients present at the psychiatric services, with consequent worsening of the prognosis. The aim was to assess the association between sociocultural factors, choice of treatment and treatment delay among patients with schizophrenia. A cross-sectional study of 360 patients with schizophrenia, without previous contact with any statutory psychiatric services, was done. Of this, 75.8% of the participants had visited traditional/faith healers as the first treatment option and have attributed schizophrenia to magico-supernatural causation, despite 70.0% of the participants being educated, while 24.2% of them believed in the natural causation of the illness and presented early to psychiatric hospital. There is a need for community-based psychiatric services that would have mental health education as one of their core mandates; and collaborations with traditional and faith-based healers aimed to reduce delay in their facilities.     

Beliefs About Psychological Services (BAPS): development and psychometric properties

A scale to measure attitudes towards seeking psychological help was developed (Beliefs About Psychological Services [BAPS]) and evaluated. This scale was based on items gathered from students, colleagues, and the authors when asked about common positive and negative attitudes toward psychologists and their services. Items were also based on the Fischer and Turner (1970 Fischer, EH and Turner, JLeB. 1970. Orientations to seeking professional help: Development and research utility of an attitude scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 35: 79–90. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Services (ATSPPH) measure. Three studies are reported describing the construction and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the BAPS. The BAPS is an 18-item measure consisting of three subscales: Intent, Stigma Tolerance, and Expertness. Support was found for the reliability and validity of the measure.     

The Counseling Profession in Russia: Historical Roots,Current Trends,and Future Perspectives

Psychology was established in Russia before the Communist era. The social work profession was created in 1991 for a society in turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2011, the counseling profession officially emerged as a branch of social work called social psychological help. Professional counseling associations are in the formative stage. Concern about mental health issues, particularly substance abuse, suggests that the counseling profession could continue to grow in Russia.     

Predictors of help‐seeking behavior: Distinction between help‐seeking intentions and help‐seeking behavior

The overall goals of this research were to: (a) examine whether help‐seeking intentions, subjective needs, depressive symptoms, and social support can predict actual help‐seeking behavior; and (b) clarify the moderating effects of social support on help‐seeking behavior using a longitudinal design. University students (N = 370) completed questionnaires that measured social support, subjective needs, depressive symptoms, and help‐seeking intentions during Time1, and questionnaires that measured actual help‐seeking behavior during Time2. Only subjective needs showed a positive effect on both help‐seeking intentions and actual help‐seeking behavior. Although depressive symptoms had a negative effect on help‐seeking intentions, they had a positive effect on actual help‐seeking behavior. Moreover, social support had a positive effect on help‐seeking intentions, and moderated the influence of subjective needs on actual help‐seeking behavior. Simple slope analysis indicated that subjective needs did not facilitate help‐seeking behavior among those with low levels of social support.     

Men's experience of considering counselling: ‘Entering the unknown’

Agency statistics in the UK and North America reveal that fewer men than women attend counselling, at a ratio of about 1:2. This study investigated men's experience of considering counselling, with the aim of gaining further understanding of factors that might contribute to the existing gender discrepancy in utilisation of counselling. Following responses by 47 men to written questionnaires, 10 men who had considered and ultimately attended counselling were interviewed, and a grounded theory method of analysis was used to generate and analyse the participants' experiences. Three interconnected categories emerged: societal perceptions of counselling and gender roles; change of experience over time; and knowledge — ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’ the protocols of counselling. The implications of these findings are discussed. It is recommended that prospective male clients should be provided with information about the counselling process, and that there needs to be increased awareness by counsellors and referring agents of male gender issues.     

Prévention des situations à risque de forte charge émotionnelle : exemple dans le secteur de l’aide à domicile

Far from disappearing from the professional world, psychosocial risks remains a concern within organizations. Their rate is still high and their effects for the health are still deleterious (Eurofound and EU-OSHA, 2014). Nevertheless, it is possible to act in prevention to isolate these risks and reduce them. The analysis of several high emotional charged situations, based on workplace observations and interviews on work experience, lead to identify risky working conditions for the health, in terms of too much high work and emotional requests. This article exposes a research-action led in a small sized enterprise of home help. The aim was to analyze psychosocial risks factors and to reduce them. We made interviews with 25 home helps, 3 administrative staff, and the head of the service; then, we observed the activity of 13 employees. The video recording was used as an analysis vector, at first in the workplace, then in collective self-confrontations sessions. The feedback collected from these sessions, in addition to activity and emotions at work analyses, allowed to identify the noxious working conditions and to target potential or real psychosocial risks. The results show how much certain situations with high emotional labor echo in a negative way on the health of people having lived them. They also show that the implementation of preventive measures with regard to these risky situations facilitates the emotions regulation and are protective towards the health. Finally, this article highlights that the emotional component of work plays a fundamental role on the subjective relationship between employees, their work and their health, and shows that emotional component analysis can contribute to the psychosocial risks identification and their prevention.