Perceptions of People with Psychological Problems: Effects of Seeking Counseling

Abstract

The present experiment examined the effects of variations in psychological history and academic qualifications on impressions of college applicants. 94 male and 81 female undergraduates were led to believe that the applicant had previous psychological problems or had previous psychological problems and sought professional help, or they were given no information about psychological history. Subjects also were informed that the person had strong or weak academic credentials or they were given no academic data. Applicants with previous psychological problems were rated more favorably when they sought counseling than when they did not. Applicants for whom no psychological problems were indicated were rated most highly over-all on security and sociability whereas applicants who had problems and sought counseling were evaluated most favorably on competence and character. A main effect for academic credentials was also obtained: subjects generally rated applicants with strong credentials most highly. The over-all pattern of results supports previous research indicating that people are ambivalent about persons with psychological problems.