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Effects of Threats to Self-Esteem and Goal Orientation on Asking for Help

This paper studied whether threats to self-esteem and goal orientation affected an individual?s propensity to ask for help. Eighty-two undergraduate students from the University of Waterloo completed a self-esteem and goal orientation questionnaire in addition to completing two tests. One test was designed to be more self-relevant than the other, making that test more potentially threatening to an individual?s self-esteem. In each test, subjects were given the opportunity to ask for help on each question. The results show that the use of social comparison motivates individuals to engage in self-protection by reducing their willingness to ask for help. In situations where many others had asked for help, help seeking behavior increased. These results extend other research in showing the impact of social comparison on individual behaviour.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OWTU.10012/788
Date January 2005
CreatorsChung, Andrew
PublisherUniversity of Waterloo
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf, 275924 bytes, application/pdf
RightsCopyright: 2005, Chung, Andrew. All rights reserved.

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