Massey University Departments

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Browsing Massey University Departments by Subject "1701 Psychology"

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    Attitudinal differences towards mental health services between younger and older New Zealand adults
    (New Zealand Psychological Society Inc., 2008) James SA; Buttle H
    This study aimed to explore attitudinal differences between young and older New Zealand adults to seeking professional mental health services, including effects of previous help, and the types of service preferred. A questionnaire which included the Inventory of Attitudes towards Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS), together with questions regarding previous help, and preferred services for mental health needs, was administered to 125 participants aged 27-91 residing in the north Auckland area. Older adults were higher in help-seeking propensity (HSP) but less psychologically open (PO) than their younger counterparts. In older adults only, previous help contributed positively towards PO, while increased satisfaction with previous help correlated with increased indifference to stigma (IS). Older adults had a preference for physicians for mental health issues, followed by friends, God, clergy and psychiatrists. Attitudes towards help-seeking were generally favourable in older adults, but their lower PO and preference for service provider may inhibit their use of professional psychological services. General practitioners and clergy need to be provided with resources which enable them to refer older adults appropriately.
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    Polish adaptation of the driving and riding avoidance scale
    (Versita, 2013) Blachnio A; Przepiórka A; Sullman M; Taylor J
    Driving anxiety is a relatively undervalued topic of research, despite the fact that it can have a substantial detrimental impact on an individual’s life. The prevalence of driving anxiety in motor vehicle crash (MVC) survivors has been found to range from 18-77%. Although driving anxiety can develop without crash involvement, no information currently exists on the prevalence of driving anxiety in the general population. One barrier to gathering this information is that most of the instruments are designed to measure driving anxiety in MVC survivors. However, the Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS; Stewart & St. Peter, 2004) is one instrument that shows promise as a more general measure of driving anxiety, although previous research has noted the need for some minor adaptations (Taylor & Sullman, 2009). Therefore, the present study investigated the psychometric properties of an adapted version of the DRAS and the level of driving anxiety amongst a sample of 210 Polish participants. Internal consistency for the overall DRAS was .91 and ranged from .77 to .85 for the subscales. Factor analysis of the DRAS resulted in two clear factors, with the first containing driving avoidance items and the second consisting solely of riding avoidance items. Therefore it appears that the DRAS can be a useful measure of driving avoidance in samples drawn from the general population as well as MVC survivors.