+Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help short form (ATSPPH-SF)
Picco, Abdin, Chong, Pang, Shafie, Chua, … Subramaniam (2016) Fischer & Farina (1995)
Topic: Help-Seeking - Help Seeking
Description of Measure:
The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help (ATSPPH-SF) measure used in the article cited below, uses the measure to assess the propensity for various race/ethnic groups to have positive attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Using a likert scale of 0-3, Disagree-Agree, participants are asked to indicate the degree of agreement of statements related to seeking professional psychological help. The instructions accompanying this version of the measure, indicate that the purpose of this scale in this article is to facilitate a discussion regarding individual scores within a group of diverse sex and race/ethnicity.
Instructions:
Read each statement carefully and indicate your degree of agreement using the scale below.
Response Options:
(0)Disagree (1) Partly disagree (2) Partly agree (3) Agree
Items:
- If I believed I was having a mental breakdown, my first inclination would be to get professional attention.
- The idea of talking about problems with a psychologist strikes me as a poor way to get rid of emotional conflicts.
- If I were experiencing a serious emotional crisis at this point in my life, I would be confident that I could find relief in psychotherapy.
- There is something admirable in the attitude of a person who is willing to cope with his or her conflicts and fears without resorting to professional help.
- I would want to get psychological help if I were worried or upset for a long period of time.
- I might want to have psychological counseling in the future.
- A person with an emotional problem is not likely to solve it alone; he or she is likely to solve it with professional help.
- Considering the time and expense involved in psychotherapy, it would have doubtful value for a person like me.
- A person should work out his or her own problems; getting psychological counseling would be a last resort.
- Personal and emotional troubles, like many things, tend to work out by themselves.
Scoring:
Reverse score items 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10, then add up the ratings to get a sum. Higher scores
indicate more positive attitudes towards seeking professional help. Calculate a mean for males,
for females, and for each of the ethnic groups to examine group differences. Discuss any
observed similarities and/or differences between the groups with the class.
Citation:
(Article)
Picco, L., Abdin, E., Chong, S. A., Pang, S., Shafie, S., Chua, B. Y., … Subramaniam, M. (2016). Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: Factor Structure and Socio-Demographic Predictors. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 547. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00547 Links to an external site..
(Scale)
Fischer, E. H., & Farina, A. (1995). Attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help: A shortened form and considerations for research. Journal of College Student Development, 36(4), 368-373.
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