The Moderating Effect of Low Agreeableness on the Relationship between Experience of Psychological Distress and Attitudes towards Psychological Help Seeking

The idea for my graduate thesis, entitled “The Moderating Effect of Low Agreeableness on the Relationship between Experience of Psychological Distress and Attitudes towards Psychological Help-seeking”, was conceived primarily because of my interest in people who externalize maladaptive behaviors in response to stressors causing distress to those around them while also appearing to be in distress themselves, but who are also hesitant and/or against seeking professional psychological help. The initial hypothesis was that the personal qualities relating to mistrust, non-cooperation, defiance, and externalizing negative behaviors possibly relates to low levels of the construct of trait Agreeableness.

The study’s main hypothesis was that Low Agreeableness will moderate the relationship between an individual’s experience of psychological distress and their willingness to seek professional psychological help. The participants were Filipino working adults who were recruited online to answer a survey which measured their psychological distress levels, personality traits, and attitudes towards seeking professional help. Online recruitment of respondents was done with consideration to greater ease of data gathering but may have limited the scope of the study to only those with active online presence and/or readily available internet connection.

The results showed that while there was no statistically significant moderating effect in the hypothesized relationship, participants who scored low on Agreeableness had less positive attitude towards seeking professional help, when distress level is not a factor. Moreover, it was found that psychological distress has a significant negative relationship with help-seeking attitudes. In addition, succeeding post-hoc exploratory analyses which factored in the skewed distribution of the study’s population (i.e., more female respondents than males) found that Conscientiousness moderated the relationship between distress and help-seeking. Female respondents in the study also registered higher mean scores in Conscientiousness than their male counterparts.

Given that the sample population was comprised of mostly highly conscientiousness working females, it could be speculated that, for this particular group, the decision to seek professional mental help may not be so much dependent on whether or not they are Agreeable (i.e., they are trusting of and willing to cooperate with mental health professionals) as much as whether or not they are Conscientious, such that they feel a strong sense of responsibility to keep their psychological distress under control and view their situations as their own obligation, which may in turn look like they are avoiding bothering others to keep harmonious relationships. In this sense, the initial focus on Agreeableness as a factor affecting one’s experience of psychological distress and their willingness to seek professional psychological help may have been amiss if trait Agreeableness was conflated with trait Conscientiousness.

Taking into account all other variables used in the study, significant predictors of help- seeking attitudes found were current experience with utilizing professional psychological services, accessibility of mental health services, and trait Openness. On the whole, this study contributes to the literature by examining the effects of personality traits on psychological distress and help-seeking. Traits, which may be seen as internal factors that may affect how one deals with distress vis-a-vis external factors (i.e., accessibility of mental health facilities, availability of mental health professionals, costs, etc.) are important to be examined when considering how to best foster the psychological well-being of people. To be more specific, the tendency of people, due to certain personality traits, who experience psychological distress to be less open about seeking help from mental health professionals may be detrimental to a society that seeks to improve the quality of mental health of its people. Even if we can make mental healthcare more accessible for all, people who are in distress and who can afford to seek professional psychological help but choose not to due to personal tendencies will still be left behind, leaving room for a gap to widen in the whole effort. In addition, creating a more complete profile of individuals possessing low levels of Agreeableness will help address gaps in the literature, provide preliminary information to mental health practitioners regarding possible intervention or treatment plans for clients in relevant cases, and impact individuals with such personality profile on a more personal level.

Experiencing psychological distress, while on a spectrum for everyone, is difficult for anyone. But it could be made more bearable if we could address the gaps both in terms of the external, environmental factors, as well as in terms of more internal, personal tendencies. At the same time that we strengthen our society’s mental healthcare system, there may be value in cultivating tendencies associated with certain personality traits that are found to impact for the better people’s attitudes towards help-seeking when they are experiencing distress. Cultivating the capacity to trust others that they can help you when you are in need, to understand that others may have better expertise to address your concerns, to be obliging to others’ perspectives about your problems, and to lower your own guard and recognize when you are in a vulnerable position and need help, may create a better state of mind for all of us – including for those who may be most hesitant.