The association between Western components of psychotherapy and psychotherapy help-seeking attitudes among Asian Indians: A practice innovation

Abstract

Despite the cross-cultural use of psychotherapy, there is limited understanding of when and why people in India are receptive to it. This study aims to capture some of the Western cultural components underlying psychotherapy to better predict positive attitudes toward seeking psychotherapy in India. Three hundred twelve individuals from India completed six measures of correlative signifiers for the underlying Western components of psychotherapy as generated from the Frank and Frank common factors model: Asian values, European American values, ethnic identity, collective self-esteem, Westernization, and cultural mistrust. Linear regression was used to test six theoretical hypotheses about psychotherapy help-seeking attitudes. Results indicated that Asian values (B = −.12, p = .005), collective self-esteem (B = −.22, p = .000), and cultural mistrust (B = −.02, p = .006) are negatively correlated with help-seeking attitudes, and that European American values (B = .12, p = .001) and Westernization (B = .13, p = .015) are positively correlated with help-seeking attitudes. Ethnic identity was not significantly associated with attitude toward psychotherapy help seeking (B = −.15, p = .118). The best multiple regression equation for predicting positive attitudes included lower (non-Western) collective self-esteem, higher Westernization, and lower cultural mistrust. Findings from this study suggest that the cultural congruence between a client’s culture and the elements of Western culture underlying psychotherapy shape help-seeking attitudes and ultimate acceptance of psychotherapy as a legitimate intervention. Collective self-esteem, Westernization, and cultural mistrust may be particularly informative to clinicians when determining cultural appropriacy of psychotherapy.