Manifestations of psychological maturity and immaturity in men’s attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. 2022. Vol. 21. No. 4. P. 367–384.

Roman A. Shapovalov, Veniamin V. Kolpachnikov

This paper analyses the manifestations of psychological maturity and immaturity in men’s attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (PPH) through the lens of person-centered theory. A questionnaire and coding agenda were developed based on Carl Rogers’ theory of personality to study men’s attitudes toward seeking PPH. A content analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews with Russian men found that the basic manifestations of psychological maturity in men’s attitudes toward seeking PPH were awareness of attitude, openness to experience, and reliance on one’s experience, and that the basic manifestations of psychological immaturity in men’s attitudes toward seeking PPH were the absence of an awareness of attitude, being closed to experience, and reliance on other’s experience. Men’s attitudes toward seeking PPH may differ because of the tendency toward self-actualization, which actualizes only a portion of symbolized experience in the self-concept. The results identified three methods that men use to deal with psychological difficulties based on accurate symbolization, inaccurate symbolization, and the absence of symbolization.

Keywords: person-centered approach, actualizing tendency, psychological maturity, tendency toward self-actualization, men’s attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help