Willingness to Seek Help as a Function of Self‐Disclosure and Problem Severity

Abstract

In this study the authors examined the effects of problem severity, amount of self‐disclosure, and self‐disclosure flexibility on willingness to seek help for a problem. The participants were 101 midwestern university students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who had not had previous counseling experience. The participants completed the Jourard Self‐Disclosure Questionnaire (SDQ), the Chelune Self‐Disclosure Situations Survey (SDSS), and responded to questions after reading a scenario depicting a personal problem of either high or low severity. The results indicated that the factors that predicted the greatest amount of variance in willingness to seek help were the interaction of problem severity with willingness to self‐disclose to a counselor, followed by problem severity; no gender differences were found. Implications for counseling and further research are discussed.