Can Psychotherapists Improve Help Seeking Behavior: A Case Study of Accra Polytechnic Students

摘要

The aim of this study was to find out if psychotherapists could improve help seeking behavior. The research instruments used were validated and standardized instruments, namely, the General Help Seeking Questionnaire-Vignette (GHSQ-V) and the Actual Help Seeking Questionnaire (AHSQ). These instruments were used to measure the participants' general help seeking intentions and actual help seeking behavior respectively. A demographic questionnaire was also used to determine the demographic variables of the participants. The population for this research was students who had been enrolled in Accra Polytechnic, in the Republic of Ghana. A repeated measures design was used to evaluate an invention procedure involving the use of psychotherapeutic strategies to improve help seeking intentions and behavior. It was hypothesized that participants will have an increase in their help seeking intentions and report more help seeking behavior after the intervention. The study's hypotheses were analyzed with the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Singed-Rank (T) Test with the aid of the version 17 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V 17). The results indicated that psychotherapists could improve help seeking behavior. The limitations and implications of the study are then discussed. Areas for further research are also recommended.