Accepting Advice: A Modifier of Social Support's Effect on Well-Being

Abstract

Advice is not always wanted or correct. Nevertheless, it is sometimes difficult for the provider of advice to judge the quality of advice. Giving recipients the freedom to reject advice (and reducing their feeling of being obliged to accept it) may increase the chances that other forms of intended aid, such as social support, will continue to be accepted and to have beneficial effects on well-being. This may be particularly the case in obligatory relationships, such as between parent and child or between supervisor and subordinate compared to voluntary relationships, such as among friends. These hypotheses were tested with a cross-sectional survey design which gathered self-report questionnaire data from 207 university students facing the stress of annual examinations in India. The findings support the hypotheses. Evidence is presented which suggests that the freedom to reject advice is particularly important in obligatory relationships because the donor and recipient of advice are likely to differ in their diagnosis of the cause of problems. Attention is given to the costs and benefits which the advice-giver may incur by encouraging the recipient to feel free to reject advice.