A recent study that included measures of help seeking involved 852 college students
enrolled in one of 13 sections of Introductory Psychology at a large Midwestern university. The
majority (60%) were females and most (77%) were first-term freshmen and Caucasian (74%) or
African-American (20%). Their average standardized composite test scores were 1057 (SAT)
and 21 (ACT). Measures of help seeking, motivation, achievement goals, and learning strategies
were part of a 107-item instrument, which included a modified version of the Motivated
Strategies for Learning Questionnaire that was discussed previously (Pintrich et al., 1993), with
a 5-point (1 to 5) response scale that was anchored with the statements “not at all true” and
“completely true.” Multiple achievement goal orientation scales were included in the motivation
portion of the survey: mastery approach, mastery avoid, performance approach and performance
avoid (Elliot & McGregor, 2001; Pintrich, 2000a, 2000b).