Katsuhiko Ishikawa

Katsuhiko, Ishikawa

Ishikawa, Katsuhiko

Yamanashi Gakuin Repository / 山梨学院リポジトリ

経営学論集 第 3 号　2022.3－ 1 －IntroductionWhen an individual has a problem and is un-able to solve it on his or her own, seeking help from others as needed is an important coping strategy. This phenomenon is called help-seeking behavior （DePaulo, 1983）.It is not easy to ask for help from others. It has been pointed out that receiving help from others is in itself a threat to his/her self-es-teem （Fisher, et al., 1982） and lead to a nega-tive evaluation by others （Graham, et al., 1990）.For example, mothers with children have the following anxiety for help-seeking （水野，2017）. Reasons why mothers are reluctant to consult with familiar others and professional opportunities have been elucidated. For famil-iar others, those were shown “anxiety for mother and children （e.g. be blamed with child caring） “ and “anxiety for interpersonal relationships （e.g. The staff in charge do not understand mothers’ affair and anxiety）”. For profession, reluctance was “vague reluctance stem from an unknown about professional services （e.g. It’s useless anyway）” and “spe-cific concerns （e.g. I don’t feel confident in my ability to communicate well）.” And the anxi-ety related to consulting professionals in mothers with elementary school children （水野，2017） and in mothers with junior-high school children （水野，2017） was identified.What factors promote help-seeking? The more serious or severe the problems of vari-ous experience, the more they consult with their partner, their mother, their mother-in-law, their friends or professional organization or service （Pavuluri et al., 1996）. It becomes easy for parties to seek help when someone to consult with understands a state of them or their care target （Honda & Arai, 2010）. Help-seeker needs to be let trust the people around them. It is necessary for help-seeker to be let trust by potential helper.Alternatively, what trait promote people to initiate seeking help? Most studies to explore the factor or intervention promoting seeking help focused on what should be given to peo-ple who suffer from the difficulties on help-seeking rather than on what they can do. Isn’t there anything help-seeker can do? Are help-seeker involved completely helpless?This study investigated what traits pro-mote help seeking, in other words, what is help seeking competency?Nagai （2013） found three types of help seeking styles: avoidant, dependent and inde-pendent style. It is not enough to be able to request help to make people competent, but help-seeking should be conducted in such a way as to increase the social and psychological adaptability of those around help-seeker and help-seeker him/her-self. Nagai （2013） report-ed that only independent style of help seeking was positively related to self-esteem, and in-dependent style of help seeking was positively related to reassurance seeking. Nagai （2013） suggested that dependent help seeking was related to psychological maladaptation. And dependent style of help seeking was not relat-ed to the severity of problem, in which depen-dent help seeking prevent help-seeker from the acquisition of self-solving skills. This study investigated whether basic psy-chological stance, self-transcendent, is related to the independent style of help seeking. Self-transcendent was defined by Cloninger Is the style of help seeking predicted with  self-transcendent tendency?Katsuhiko ISHIKAWA論文Is the style of help seeking predicted with self-transcendent tendency?（Katsuhiko ISHIKAWA）－ 2 －（2015）, such as “the extent to which individu-als conceive themselves as integral parts of the universe as a whole.” Maslow （1971） said “Transcendence refers to the highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human con-sciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos.” “Self-actualization is indeed a lofty （and wor-thy） goal of development and should not be cast aside in favor of the shiny new need, but self-transcendence is truly the next level of development; it is other-focused instead of self-focused and concerns higher goals than those that are self-serving.” （Ackerman, 2021）. The description by Ackerman （2021） suggested that help-seeking get easy when help-seeker has traits contained in self-tran-scendence because self-transcendence is de-fined as the elimination of the distinction be-tween self and others. Nakamura （1998） summed up Maslow’s concept of self-transcen-dence into twenty-three points and state a certain point: “Transcendent beings recognize each other, and even when they meet for the first time, they seem to immediately become close and reached a mutual understanding. They can communicate not only verbally but also nonverbally.”We hypothesized that self-transcendence is positively correlated with independent help-seeking style and negatively correlated with avoidant style of help-seeking. Difficulties in seeking help are related to an excessive separation of self and others and to the trap of self-responsibility.MethodParticipants and ProcedureParticipants were all undergraduate students: 14 first-year students, 17 second-year stu-dents, 16 third-year students and 16 fourth-year students. They were asked to answer the questionnaire during the class. They were instructed that answering was free for stop anytime, and response data were held and managed by only researcher, and there was no possibility that data were published with personal information. Informed consent was considered to have been established with the response.ItemsSelf-transcendent scale （STS）: we used the items developed by Nakamura （1998）. Na-kamura （1998） developed a one-factor struc-tured self-transcendent scale （STS） consisted of 19 items. STS tried measuring individual differences in a tendency to embody self-tran-scendent. STS showed moderate internal con-sistency α=.84, so some degree of measure-ment reliability was certificated. The average STS score differed among gender and age c l u s t e r s ;  f e m a l e > m a l e  a n d 60s>50s-30s>20s>10s. Additionally, the group of employed showed higher STS score than the group of unemployed. And STS score was positively correlated with the score of psycho-logical sense of happiness.In this study, to reduce the burden of an-swering for respondents, 5 items that showed high factor loading in Nakamura （1998） were selected: “I can feel that my birth in this world has a great meaning,” “I feel that there is a “god-like” being in my heart that tran-scends humanity,” “I have the feeling that I am being kept alive by some great invisible force,” “I feel that I am living each day as hard as I can” and “I want to do what I can contribute to the progress and happiness of mankind as a whole.” Responses were ob-tained using a five-point scale from “1 not ap-plicable” to “5 applicable.”Help seeking scale （HSS）: we used the items developed by Nagai （2013） that discriminate-ly measured individual di f ferences of help-seeking styles: dependent style, avoidant style and independent style. Any style scale 経営学論集 第 3 号　2022.3－ 3 －showed high internal consistency （α=.79-.93）. As results of criterion-relevant validity verifi-cation, convergent validity was demonstrated （the score of avoidant style was negatively correlated with emotional dependency and in-strumental dependency while the score of de-pendent and independent styles was positive-ly correlated with two emotional dependency and instrumental dependency）. We selected 3 items among items of each scale of help-seek-ing style in order of factor loadings. Respons-es were obtained using a five-point scale from “1 not applicable” to “5 applicable.”AnalysisFirst, the factor structure of STS and HSS was confirmed. Next, to check how STS con-ditions the style of HSS, we conducted multi-ple regression analysis with HSS as the re-sponse variable and STS as the explanatory variable.ResultFactor analysisSelf-transcendent scale （STS）To decide number of factor structure, diago-nal SMC, MAP, parallel analysis and SMC parallel analysis were performed. All analyses suggested a one-factor solution. Factor analy-sis （maximum likelihood method with Promax rotation） was performed （Table1）. Model fit indexes show the goodness of the solution （CFI=.947, RMSEA=.115）. Internal consisten-cy was good: α=.778, ω=.785.Help-seeking styles （HSS）To decide number of factor structure, diago-nal SMC, MAP, parallel analysis and SMC parallel analysis were performed. All analyses suggested a three-factor solution. Factor anal-ysis （principle component analysis with Pro-max rotation） was performed （Table2）. The component structure was identical to the original scale （Nagai, 2013）, so that the names of each component were named same as Nagai （2013）: the first component: dependent style; the second component: avoidant style; the third component: independent style. Inter-nal consistencies were good: dependent style: α=.915, ω=.947 ; avoidant style: α=.821, ω=.903 ; independent style: α=.903, ω=.947.Comparisons with grade and genderSelf-transcendent scale （STS）The averages of STS did not differ with grade （F（3, 59）=0.588, p=.625, η2p=.029［.000, .108］）（Figure1）. The averages of STS did not differ with gender （t（61）=1.324, p=.463, d=-0.207 ［-0.758, 0.344］）（Figure2）.Help-seeking styles （HSS）In all three styles of help-seeking, the average scores did not differ among grade; dependent style: F（3, 162）=.276, p=.843, η2p=.015［.000, .070］; avoidant style: F（3, 162）=1.036, p=.378, η2p=.054［.000, .159］; independent style: F（3, 162）=0.086, p=.967, η2p=.005［.000, .010］ （Figure3）. In all three styles of help-seeking, the average scores did not differ among gen-Table 1　Factor pattern of STSItemFactorh21I can feel that my birth in this world has a great meaning. .81 .65I feel that there is a “god-like” being in my heart that transcends humanity. .68 .47I have the feeling that I am being kept alive by some great invisible force. .59 .35I feel that I am living each day as hard as I can. .59 .35I want to do what I can to contribute to the progress and happiness of mankind as a whole. .57 .32Factor Contribution 2.139Is the style of help seeking predicted with self-transcendent tendency?（Katsuhiko ISHIKAWA）－ 4 －Figure 1　Comparison of STS average with gradeFigure 2　Comparison of STS average with genderTable 2　Factor pattern of HSSFactorh21 2 3Talk to us about even the most trivial of problems. .95 .04 －.03 .88If you have a problem, talk to them about it, even if it’s notvery serious. .91 －.12 .01 .91Talk to others about problems, even if they don’t seem like abig deal when you think about it..90 .04 －.01 .78We do not talk to others about our problems, even if wecannot solve them ourselves..17 .99 .11 .87Even if the problem is so serious that I cannot solve it by myself,I do not discuss it with others.－.14 .82 －.06 .79I keep my problems to myself until the end. －.10 .73 －.07 .61Do trial and error on your own before asking for help, and askfor help when you get stuck.－.03 .06 .95 .90Even if it’s a little difficult, face your problems on your own, andif you still can’t solve them, ask for help..10 .07 .95 .88Try things on your own first, then ask for help. －.13 －.15 .84 .772.918 2.586 2.575経営学論集 第 3 号　2022.3－ 5 －Figure 3　Comparisons of help-seeking style component average among gradeFigure 4　Comparisons of help-seeking style component average among genderTable 3　Bivariate correlation matrix1 2 31　STS 1.002　dependent type .43** 1.003　avoidant type －.18 －.35** 1.004　independent type .07 －.06 －.09**p<.01, *p<.05, +p<.10Is the style of help seeking predicted with self-transcendent tendency?（Katsuhiko ISHIKAWA）－ 6 －der; dependent style: F（1, 168）=1.754, p=.187, η2p=. 0 3 0［ . 0 0 0 ,  . 1 5 7］;  avo i d an t  s t y l e : F（1, 168）=0.002, p=.968, η2p=.000［.000, .009］; independent style: F（1, 168）=0.114, p=.736, η2p=.002［.000, .078］ （Figure4）. Regression AnalysisThe correlation matrix was shown in Table3.We performed regression analyses to inves-tigate how STS had affected each help-seek-ing style. Each help-seeking style was entered into the regression model as dependent vari-ables and, STS and gender were entered as independent variables. And, modelings were performed by grade level.STS was positively related to dependent style in 1st-year and 4th-year sample （Table4）. And STS was negatively related to avoidance style in 3rd-year sample, in addition, positively related to the independent style in 4th-year sample.DiscussionIn this study, we examined how self-transcen-dence tendency defined the style of help seek-ing. The results of the analysis suggested that the relationship between them differed among participants’ grade.Self-transcendence was related positively to dependent style of help-seeking in 1st and 4th -year sample, and positively related to the in-dependent style in 4th-year sample while nega-tively related to avoidance style in 3rd-year sample. The results suggested that self-tran-scendence showed effects on help-seeking style with increasing both dependency and in-dependency, and reducing the avoidance of help-seeking. It would be necessary to explore the adjustment variable from self-transcen-dence to independent style of help-seeking compared to dependent style of help-seeking in the future.It is difficult for help-seeker to solve the dif-ficulty of requesting assistance itself by their own. Additionally, previous studies have shown that interventions such as information provision and destigmatization can enhance intentions for seeking help, but not behavior for seeking help （Gulliver, et al, 2012）. Need-less to say, the research for more effective in-tervention methods is urgent.However, what is important is not to make Table 4　Regression analyses: response variable=each style of help-seekingDependent styleAvoidonce stylelndependent styleVIF1st-year STS .48* .07 .15 1.02Gender －.65** .12 .47+ 1.02R2 .58** .02 .26+2nd-year STS .39 .02 .27 1.09Gender －.11 －.04 －.06 1.09R2 .14 .00 .073rd-year STS .29 －.52+ －.20 1.08Gender .14 －.02 .11 1.08R2 .13 .28* .044th-year STS .52** －.21 .26+ 1.02Gender －.02 －.17 －.16 1.02R2 .28** .06+ .11****p<.01,. *p<.05,. *p<.10経営学論集 第 3 号　2022.3－ 7 －help-seeker passive or to enable them to re-quest assistance on their own, but to elucidate the competencies that enable them to request assistance on their own and to elucidate tech-niques to gently encourage them for seeking help.This study suggested that self-transcen-dence promote independent help seeking be-havior in 4th-year sample. Self-transcendence might be one of the help-seeking competen-cies. The list of help-seeking competencies should be explored.ReferenceAckerman, C. 2021. What is self-transcen-dence? Definition and 6 examples. Posi-tive psychology.com https://positivepsy chology.com/self-transcendence/Cloninger, R. 2015. What is the tempera-ment and character inventory? The Cen-ter for Well-Being. Retrieved from http://psychobiology.wustl.edu/what-is-the-tci/Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M., Christensen, H. and Brewer, J. L. 2012. A systematic re-view of help-seeking interventions for de-pression, anxiety and general psychologi-cal distress. BMC Psychiatry, 12:81, doi:10.1186/1471-244X-12-81Maslow, A. H. 1971. The farther reaches of human nature. New York, NY, US: Arka-na/Penguin Books.水野治久．2017．「援助要請と被援助志向性の心理学：困っていても助けを求められない人の理解と援助」．金子書房．Nakamura, M. 1998. A study on self-tran-scendence and subjective well-being：A trial of constructing the tendency for self-transcendence scale．愛媛大学教育学部紀要教育科学，45（1），59-45.Nagai, S. 2013. The development of a Scale for Measuring Help-Seeking Styles. JAP-ANESE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 61, 44-55.Pavuluri ,  M. N and Luk,  S .  L .  1996 . Help-Seeking for Behavior Problems by Parents of Preschool Children: A Commu-nity Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychia-try, 35（2）, 215-222.

Is the style of help seeking predicted with self-transcendent tendency?

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Is the style of help seeking predicted with self-transcendent tendency?

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