Dispositional differences in seeking autonomy- or dependency-oriented help: Conceptual development and scale validation

•Dependency/autonomy-orientations in help-seeking can be assessed on a scale.•These help-seeking styles are different between cultures.•Autonomy (vs dependency)-oriented style is rated higher in job settings.•Dependent help is associated with avoidant performance goals and temperament.•Autonomous help is associated with approach temperament and mastery approach goals.

This paper presents integrated sets of studies testing whether stable personal tendencies in help-seeking behavior: autonomy-oriented (asking for help to learn how to fix a problem) versus dependency-oriented (asking someone else to fix it) could be established and reliably assessed. We report on the reliability and validation of a new self-report, Likert-scaled measurement of autonomous and dependent help-seeking styles. The five studies in three different cultural populations include exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, cross-cultural comparisons, analysis of ecological and predictive validity in both academic and job settings, and an examination of the questionnaire's convergent validity(total n = 1047). Self-reported preference for autonomy-oriented help predicted higher ratings of performance by supervisors in job settings. Dependency-oriented help seeking was found to be associated with an avoidance temperament and a performance avoidance goal orientation, and autonomy-oriented help seeking with an approach temperament and a mastery approach goal orientation. Suggestions for further theoretical research and practical applications of the new scale are discussed.