Abstract
Research has been made, or in progress, into the factors that promote or restrain the actual occurrence of helping behavior, and some models of its process have been proposed. However, most of these studies focused on the side of help-giving behavior, even though helping takes place always in an interpersonal situation. In this study, helping behavior is regarded as a series of interpersonal behavior. To analyze helping behavior in its total context, the mechanism of "help-seeking" behavior is examined through three sets of factors: 1) the situational cognition of help-seekers that restrain help-seeking (15 motives of avoiding help-seeking); 2) personal characteristics such as social skill, selfesteem and empathy; and 3) help-seeking intentions. Further, distinction is made between labor-seeking situations and information-seeking situations.
