IMPLICIT AND SELF-ATTRIBUTED DEPENDENCY STRIVINGS - DIFFERENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS TO LABORATORY AND FIELD MEASURES OF HELP-SEEKING

D. C. McClelland, R. Koestner, and J. Weinberger (1989) argued that se lf-report tests assess self-attributed needs (i.e., motives that are o penly acknowledged by the actor), whereas projective tests assess impl icit needs (i.e., motives that affect behavior without conscious aware ness on the actor's part). The present studies examined the effects of implicit and self-attributed dependency strivings on laboratory and f ield measures of help seeking. In Study 1, college students were presc reened with widely used objective and projective dependency tests, the n underwent an information manipulation designed to influence their at tention to dependency-related issues. As expected, dependency status a nd information condition interacted to predict help-seeking behavior. Study 2 used experience-sampling procedures to demonstrate that implic it and self-attributed dependency needs differentially predict direct and indirect help seeking in vivo.