Social Support: Seek and Ye Shall Find

Abstract

Studies of social support typically have relegated the recipient of support to a passive role. Little empirical work has looked at an individual's active attempts to garner support from others. Two studies are reported that investigate individual differences in active support seeking. In study one (n = 66), the criterion validity of a new scale - dubbed SEEK - was demonstrated. Subjects who reported that they seek support from others in times of need (as measured by SEEK) requested more social support following failure at a laboratory task than did subjects who reported that they do not seek social support. Study two (n = 60) examined the relationship between the reported seeking of social support and its perceived availability. As predicted, a positive relationship obtained, suggesting that those who received social support may in part have created this condition. Seeking social support was also positively associated with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimistic beliefs about the consequences of seeking support. People who seek social support may be psychologically predisposed to do so. Taken together, these studies imply that investigations of social support should take into account: (a) people's active roles in obtaining support, and (b) the psychological concomitants of support seeking.