New Directions In Helping Help Seeking

New Directions in Helping: Recipient Reactions to Aid, Volume 1, reviews the state of knowledge in the reactions of recipients in helping interactions. It provides an overview of the entire field, in-depth coverage in major areas, and a preview of important future research directions. The book is organized into five parts. Part I discusses the types of recipient reactions; some consistent relationships between the conditions associated recipient reactions; and approaches that have been used to conceptualize the effects of aid on those who receive it. Part II focuses on theoretical perspectives for conceptualizing reactions to help. Part III examines individual differences in responses to aid. Part IV takes up various determinants of reactions to help. Part V presents some final thoughts about research on reactions to help. This book will be of interest to social psychologists as well as to members of a number of other disciplines, e.g., clinical psychologists, social workers, counseling psychologists, educational psychologists, political scientists, and sociologists.

There is considerable agreement that more successful learners are active, engaged, and self-regulating learners who understand and are motivated to apply learning strategies under appropriate conditions. One important strategic activity is seeking help when necessary, rather than giving up or engaging in fruitless persistence. Research on strategic help seeking has matured significantly in recent years. This volume captures the current state of knowledge, research, and theory on help seeking as a strategic learning resource. It is international in scope, with contributors from the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, and Israel. As a whole, the book suggests that strategic (adaptive) help seeking is a critical school readiness skill that is facilitated by mastery-oriented classroom achievement and social goals, by teachers who invite questions rather than those who ask them, and by cultural characteristics that support student inquiry. A conceptual overview is followed by three chapters that examine help seeking from complementary theoretical perspectives and make important distinctions between forms of help seeking; two chapters that focus on how learners' achievement and social goals affect classroom help seeking; one chapter specifically devoted to cross-cultural comparisons of help seeking in Western cultures and in Japan; two chapters that examine the most frequent manifestation of help seeking--that of question asking; and one chapter that explores help-seeking in the information age (the library reference process, information technology, and computer-mediated communication). All chapters include attention to the implications of research and theory for help seeking in instructional settings. Strategic Help Seeking is an excellent resource for educational researchers and practitioners including teachers, school administrators, instructional designers, reference librarians.

Building on Karabenick’s earlier volume on this topic and maintaining its high standards of scholarship and intellectual rigor, Help Seeking in Academic Settings: Goals, Groups, and Contexts brings together contemporary work that is theoretically as well as practically important. It highlights current trends in the area and gives expanded attention to applications to teaching and learning. The contributors represent an internationally recognized group of scholars and researchers who provide depth of analysis and breadth of coverage. Help seeking is currently considered an important learning strategy that is linked to students’ achievement goals and academic performance. This volume not only provides answers to who, why, and when learners seek help, but raises questions for readers to consider for future research. Chapters examine: *help seeking as a self-regulated learning strategy and its relationship to achievement goal theory; *help seeking in collaborative groups; *culture and help seeking in K-12 and college contexts; *help seeking and academic support services (such as academic advising centers); *help seeking in computer-based interactive learning environments; *help seeking in response to peer harassment at school; and *help seeking in non-academic settings such as the workplace. This book is intended for researchers, academic support personnel,and graduate students across the field of educational psychology, particularly those interested in student motivation and self-regulation.

What do we know about behavioral analysis and intervention in educational settings? Given that educational institutions were among the first to embrace the new technology of behavior change in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it is apparent that we have had the opportunity to learn a great deal. The evolution of the field of behavior therapy has witnessed a change in the behavior therapist from an adolescent fascination with repeatedly demonstrating the effectiveness of the new technology to a mature recognition of the complex implications of the behav ioral paradigm for individuals, systems, and society. Many "facts" now taken for granted were considered impossibilities a mere two decades ago. In her 1986 presidential address to Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, Beth Sulzer-Azaroff reviewed a number of changes in attitude in education that were strongly influenced by behavior therapy. Most educators now agree that (a) everyone can learn, (b) complex skills can be taught, (c) precise, general, and durable performance can be taught, and (d) barriers to learning can be overcome. In addition, we would add that behavior therapy is being applied to increasingly more complex human problems, such as social skill deficits, internalizing disorders, and dysfunctional systems and organizations.

This book's two primary objectives are to present theory and research on the role of learners' achievement-related perceptions in educational contexts and to discuss the implications of this research for educational practices. Although contributors share the view that students' perceptions exert important effects in achievement settings, they differ in diverse ways including their theoretical orientation, their choice of research methodology, the perceptions they believe are of primary importance, and the antecedents and consequences of these perceptions. They discuss the current status of their ideas and provide a forward look at research and practice.