The Role of Personal versus Intersubjective Mental Health Literacy in Seeking Professional Psychological Help

Abstract

Abstract: The present study examined the role of mental health literacy measured at both personal and intersubjective level in professional help-seeking. 557 community residents from 13 different regions of China and 555 undergraduates from three universities in Tianjin were recruited to complete a battery of questionnaires. The results showed that at both personal and intersubjective level, people generally believed that mental illness was caused by external environmental factors rather than internal biological or dispositional factors, and that mental health services were effective, and that the stigma associated with professional psychological help-seeking is low. Moreover, there were correlations as well as significant discrepancies between personal beliefs and the corresponding intersubjective beliefs. Both personal and intersubjective beliefs were significantly associated with help-seeking intention, while the correlation between personal literacy and help-seeking intentions is stronger than that between intersubjective literacy and help-seeking intentions. These findings deepen our understanding of the role of mental health literacy in professional psychological help-seeking from the perspective of social influence.

Key words: professional psychological help-seeking, mental health literacy, etiology, stigma, intersubjective approach.

摘要： 引入主体间理论视角,探讨心理疾病病因观、专业心理求助有效性和污名信念等三种心理健康学识在个人和主体间两个层面上的相互关联及其对专业心理求助意愿的解释能力,以此分析个人信念和对社会文化的知觉与专业心理求助的关系。对社区居民和在校大学生的问卷调查结果显示,个人和主体间学识信念关系紧密但又有显著差异,主体间内源病因观强于个人内源病因观,主体间有效性信念弱于个人有效性信念,主体间污名信念强于个人污名信念。个人和主体间层面的学识信念都存在人口学差异。个人和主体间学识信念均可独立评估求助意愿,但个人信念解释力更强。结果有助于从个人和社会文化两个层面同时理解专业心理求助行为。

关键词: 专业心理求助, 心理健康学识, 病因观, 污名, 主体间视角

CLC Number:

B849.1

Gao Wenjun, Li Qiang. The Role of Personal versus Intersubjective Mental Health Literacy in Seeking Professional Psychological Help[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2013, 11(6): 825-831.

高文珺, 李强. 个人和主体间心理健康学识与专业心理求助[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2013, 11(6): 825-831.

References

高文珺, 李强. (2008). 心理疾病污名社会表征公众影响初探. 应用心理学, 14(4),358-364.
夏勉, 江光荣. (2007) . 归因、自我效能和社会容认度对心理求助行为的影响. 心理学报, 39(5),892-900.
杨宏飞, 刘佳. (2005) . 875名大学生对心理咨询的认知调查. 中国心理卫生杂志, 19(9), 618-620.
周成超, 楚洁, 王婷, 彭倩倩, 何江江, 郑文贵, 等.(2008). 简易心理状况评定量表Kessler10中文版的信度和效度评价. 中国临床心理学杂志,16(6), 627-629 .
Chiu, C., Gelfand, M. J., Yamagishi, T., Shteynberg, G., & Wan, C. (2010). Intersubjective Culture: The Role of Intersubjective Perceptions in Cross-Cultural Research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 482-493.
Chiu, C., Ng, S. S., & Au, E. W. (2013). Culture and social cognition. In D. Carlston (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chen, S. X., & Mak, W. W. S. (2008). Seeking professional help: Etiology beliefs about mental illness across cultures.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(4), 442-450.
Conner, K. O., Lee, B., Mayers, V., Robinson, D., Reynolds, C. F., Albert, S., et al. (2010). Attitudes and beliefs about mental health among African American older adults suffering from depression. Journal of Aging Studies, 24(4), 266–277.
Eisenberg, D., Downs, M., Golberstein, E., & Zivin, K. (2009). Stigma and help seeking for mental health among college students. Medical Care Research and Review, 66(5), 522–541.
Eisenberg, D., Golberstein, E., & Gollust, S. E. (2007). Help-seeking and access to mental health care in university student population. Medical Care, 45(7), 594–601.
Fischer, R., Ferreira, M.C., Assmar, E., Redford, P., Harb, C., Glazer, S., et al. (2009). Individualism-collectivism as descriptive norms: Development of a subjective norm approach to culture measurement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(2), 187-213.
Goh, M., Xie, B., Wahl, K. H., Zhong, G., Lian, F., & Romano, J. L. (2007). Chinese students’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 29(3/4), 187-202.
Have, M., Graaf, R., Ormel, J., Vilagut, G., Kovess, V., Alonso, J., & the ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 Investigators. (2010). Are attitudes towards mental health help-seeking associated with service use? Results from the European study of epidemiology of mental disorders. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 45(2), 153-163.
Hill, D. J. & Bale, R. M. (1980). Development of the Mental Health Locus of Control and Mental Health Locus of Origin Scales.Journal of Personality Assessment , 44(2), 148-156.
Jorm, A. F., Barney, L. J., Christensen, H., Highet, N. J., Kelly, C. M., & Kitchener, B. A. (2006). Research on mental health literacy: What we know and what we still need to know. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40(1), 3-5.
Kessler, R. C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L. J., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D. K., Normand, S. T., et al. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine,32(6), 959-976.
Kinnear, P. R. & Gray, C. D. (2007). SPSS15 made simple (p.432-433). London: Psychology Press.
Lam, C. L. K., Tse, E. Y. Y., & Gandek, B. (2005). Is the standard SF-12 health survey valid and equivalent for a Chinese population? Quality of Life Research, 14(2), 539-547.
Link, B. G., Struening, E. L., Neese-Todd, S., Asmussen, S., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). The consequences of stigma for the self-esteem of people with mental illnesses. Psychiatric Services, 52(12), 1621-1626.
Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M., Sampson, N. A., Jin, R., Druss, B., Wang, P. S., et al. (2011). Barriers to mental health treatment: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey replication. Psychological medicine, 41(8), 1751-1761.
Shteynberg, G., Gelfand,M.J.,& Kim, K. (2009). Peering into the ‘‘magnum mysterium’’ of culture: The explanatory power of descriptive norms. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40(1), 46-69.
Wan, C., & Chiu, C. (2011). Culture as intersubjective representations of values. In A. K. Leung, C. Chiu, & Y. Hong (Eds.), Cultural processes: A social psychological perspective (pp. 40-64). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
Wan, C., Chiu, C., Peng, S., & Tam, K. (2007). Measuring cultures through intersubjective cultural norms: Implications for predicting relative identification with two or more cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 213-226.
Wan, C., Torelli, C. J., & Chiu, C. (2010). Intersubjective consensus and the maintenance of normative shared reality. Social Cognition, 28(3), 422-446.
Ware J. E. Jr., Kosinski, M., & Keller, S. D. (1996). A 12-item short-form health survey: Construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Medical Care, 34(3), 220-233.
Zou, X., Tam, K., Morris, M. W., Lee, S., Lau, I. Y., & Chiu, C. (2009). Culture as common sense: Perceived consensus versus personal beliefs as mechanisms of cultural influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 579-597.

[1]	WANG Jiangyang, WANG Mengge. The Relationship Between Rejection Sensitivity and Pathological Internet Use of Left-Behind Middle School Students: The Multiple Mediating Effects of Meaning in Life and Self-Stigma [J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2022, 20(2): 219-225.
[2]	WANG Jiangyang, YU Ziyang, NIE Jiaxin. The Relationship Between Self-Stigma and Negative Emotions Among Orphan Students: The Multiple Mediational Effects of Explanatory Style and Perceived Social Support [J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2020, 18(6): 777-783.
[3]	DONG Shenghong, WU Jie, ZHU Hongjian, WANG Yan. The Component and Relationship Between Explicit and Implicit Stigma Toward Mental Illness Based on Semantic Difference Scale [J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2018, 16(5): 694-700.