Help-seeking

[1] Help-seeking was, «in the early studies of socialization and personality development», often viewed as an indicator of dependency and therefore took «on connotations of immaturity, passivity, and even incompetence».

[3][4][5][6] The academic literature does not provide an agreed upon definition of help-seeking, and several attempts have been made to define the complex construct.

It is adaptive when exercised to overcome a difficulty and it depends upon the person's recognition, insight and dimension of the problem and resources for solving the same, this is valued as an active strategy.

Dynamic barriers in seeking help can also affect active process (e.g.: culture, ego, classism, etc.

Nelson-Le Gall (1981) made a central differentiation between adaptive (i.e. instrumental) and maladaptive (i.e. executive) forms of help-seeking.

As a consequence, there is considerable variation across individuals to the types and qualities of problems that receive attention and generate sufficient concern to seek help.

The second stage of the help-seeking process model involves recognising that seeking help is an appropriate way of dealing with the problem at hand.

Determining that help is needed depends on several factors, including the perception of insufficient personal resources,[9] whether other strategies have been exhausted,[12] and attributions for why problems exists that are help-relevant.

[8] Unlike many other self-regulated learning strategies (e.g. memorisation, organisation, and elaboration), help-seeking may require a complex balancing of perceived enticing benefits and intimidating costs.

[8] Adaptive help-seeking involves improving one's capabilities and/or increasing one's understanding by seeking just enough help to be able to solve a problem or attain a goal independently.

If the assistance falls short in alleviating the difficulties, a learner must request further help or will possibly have to identify a new helper.

[8][30] An important aspect of help-seeking – and self-regulated learning in general – is the utilising of skills and strategies in order to process the received help.

While self-judgment entails self-evaluating one's performance and attributing causal significance to the outcome, self-reactions refer to the comparison of self-monitored information and a standard or goal.

Several researchers have found that women have significantly more positive attitudes than men towards seeking help from professional psychologists.

[38] Shea & Yeh, 2008[39] When facing need, students with high self-efficacy tend to manifest high help-seeking behavior, whereas students with low self-efficacy are, under similar circumstances, more reluctant to seek help (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003; Nelson & Ketelhut, 2008; Paulsen & Feldman, 2005; Pintrich & Zusho, 2007; Tan et al., 2008).

In 2011 it was reexamined and peer-reviewed that affiliation cues can prime people to seek help in closed group contexts.