Reactance, Attribution, Equity, and the Help Recipient1

The relevance of social psychological theory for understanding the helping relationship from the recipient's perspective and for designing efficient and humane helping systems is examined. Negative feelings associated with seeking or receiving help may occur when recipients feel threatened with loss of freedom (reactance), interpret their help‐seeking as a sign of inadequacy (attribution), or feel uncomfortably indebted (equity). Studies supporting each of these theories, and a program of research which contrasts helper vs. recipient‐initiated assistance, are reviewed. Findings suggest that helper‐initiated aid leads to higher utilization of services and better recipient feelings. These results are interpreted as supporting attribution in contrast to reactance theory concepts. A field study in a welfare setting extends laboratory findings, and shows that current practice which requires welfare recipients to initiate requests for service may effect savings via lowered requests for service at the expense of recipients who really need help but are inhibited from requesting it.