| Abstract: | A scale measuring future psychotherapy practitioners' attitudes toward seeking psychotherapy was developed and standardized. Participants were 275 master's degree and doctoral students being trained to provide counseling and psychological services. Subjects were recruited from five schools across the United States. The scale reliably distinguished between students who previously sought psychotherapy and those who did not and correlated significantly with E. H. Fischer and A. Farina's (1995) version of the Attitude toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. Factor analysis revealed four dimensions of the attitude: importance for professional growth/effectiveness, concern with professional credibility, concern with confidentiality, and need for self-sufficiency. Results showed that the scale may be used to study trainees' attitudes toward seeking psychotherapy for themselves and to measure the effectiveness of educational interventions aimed at attitude change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
