Date of Award

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Major

Psychology

First Advisor

Dina Anselmi

Abstract

Research has shown a relationship between an individual’s attachment style and help seeking behaviors. However, most studies have focused either on academic or psychological help seeking separately. The goal of my study was to see if, for Trinity College students, there were differences in attitudes about two different types of help seeking depending on one’s attachment style. I predicted that students with a secure attachment would report willingness to seek help in both academic and psychological settings when necessary. Students with an avoidant attachment would report a strong resistance to seeking both psychological and academic help. Students with an anxious/ambivalent attachment would report the greatest willingness to seek help. Lastly, I predicted that female participants would report greater willingness to seek both academic and psychological help than male participants. To measure attachment style I used the Adult Attachment Scale (Collins and Read, 1990). To measure students’ propensity for seeking psychological help I used the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (Fischer & Farina 1995). To measure students’ willingness to seek academic help I used Karabenick’s Help-Seeking Scale (2003). No significant relationship was found between students’ attachment styles and their willingness to seek psychological help, but there do appear to be some differences in attachment styles’ influence on academic help seeking. There also appears to be a relationship between gender and willingness to seek psychological help.

Comments

Senior thesis completed at Trinity College for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

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