Predicting professional psychological help-seeking intentions for Indians through envisioning counseling and psychotherapy as Western cultural healing practices

Abstract

There remains considerable ambiguity in predicting which Indians seek professional psychological services during times of distress and which do not. This study expands past research on predicting professional psychological help-seeking attitudes of Indians to help-seeking intentions. Drawing on variables previously examined as predictors of help-seeking attitudes from a frame of psychotherapy as a manifestation of Western culture, this study aimed to investigate the predictive ability of six cultural variables (Asian values, European American values, importance of one’s ethnic group to their identity, commitment to one’s ethnic group, westernization, and cultural mistrust). Participants were 377 university students from India. The results can be taken to suggest that a highly westernized lifestyle and greater adherence to European American values are best predictive of professional psychological help-seeking intentions among Indians. Assessing these two variables will enable practitioners to direct prospective clients to culturally congruent treatment methods that they are most likely to attend and perhaps benefit more from. Overall, the findings of this study are in line with conceptualizing professional psychological treatment as a manifestation of Western culture.