Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
McCarthy, Randy J.
Degree Name
M.A. (Master of Arts)
Legacy Department
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Needing help is a common occurrence in the everyday lives of many people. Seeking help, however, is not. Even though most people experience needing help regularly, many people do not ask for help. Not asking for help when it is needed may be caused by several factors. Some people may not ask for help because they think it is going to be awkward, while others may not ask for help because they think they are going to be negatively perceived by others. These fears may get worse when needing to seek emotional social support for a personal issue, since this can be an issue that is relevant to people’s sense of self. Consistent with the idea that people’s decisions to seek help can be affected by their anticipated experience of seeking help, two pilot studies found that as people predicted that seeking help would be uncomfortable, their self-reported likelihood of seeking help decreased. This was found both for seeking help in an academic context (Pilot Study 1) and for seeking emotional social support (Pilot Study 2). The main thesis study tested whether a self-affirmation intervention would help people to seek emotional social support when they needed it. Although the self-affirmation intervention increased reported likelihood of seeking emotional social support, regardless of how awkward or uncomfortable they anticipated the experience to be, it did not influence actual help-seeking behavior. This study has implications for assessing effective motivational methods to encourage support-seeking.
Recommended Citation
Heinlein, Selena, "Testing a Self-Affirmation Intervention to Increase the Likelihood of Seeking Emotional Social Support" (2026). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 8207.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/8207
Extent
80 pages
Language
en
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
