Validating a Psychology as a Helping Profession Scale

Abstract

We developed an 11-item Psychology as a Helping Profession (PHP) scale that measured aspects of personal growth/helping skills and applied helping. The scale was only weakly correlated with Friedrich's (1996) Psychology as Science (PAS) scale, implying that the 2 scales measure different conceptions of the nature of psychology. Psychology majors were more likely to endorse psychology as both a helping profession and as a science than were nonmajors. Students with higher scores on the PAS were more likely to endorse the idea of conducting research in the future, whereas students with higher scores on the PHP were more likely to endorse the idea of being a therapist in the future. Using the PHP and PAS in tandem might help in departmental assessment of interests and needs of students.