Recipient reactions to aid.

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive review of research and theory on reactions to help, organized in terms of four conceptual orientations (i.e., equity, attribution, reactance, and threat to self-esteem). For each orientation, the basic assumptions and predictions are discussed, supportive and nonsupportive data are reviewed, and an overall appraisal is offered. Threat to self-esteem is proposed as an organizing construct for research on reactions to help, and a model based on this construct is presented. It is argued that a formalized threat-to-self-esteem model is more comprehensive and parsimonious for predicting reactions to help than are equity, attribution, or reactance models.Over the last 15 years, there has been a great deal of psychological research on prosocial behavior. Most of this work has investigated the conditions that elicit help-giving (e.g., Berkowitz, 1972;Krebs, 1970;Staub, 1978). The other side of the paradigm, the recipient's reactions to help, has received much less attention. From both a conceptual and an applied perspective, however, the experience of receiving help is an important area for investigation. The importance of this topic is highlighted by research indicating that help is often experienced as a mixed blessing (e.g., Fisher & This article represents an elaboration and extension of ideas presented in August 1974 in a technical report by J. D. Fisher and A. Nadler titled "Recipient Reactions to Aid: Literature Review and a Conceptual Framework.

Effects of social support visibility on adjustment to stress: Experimental evidence.

“…We viewed this communication of inefficacy as an unavoidable feature of visible support interactions. This hypothesis rested on prior theoretical work that emphasized how the self is formed and maintained by the reflected appraisals of others (Cooley, 1902(Cooley, /1983Stryker & Statham, 1985), by prior experimental work showing that help in ego-relevant domains could have self-esteem costs (e.g., Fisher et al, 1982), and more generally, by prior work showing that the negative effects of support are mediated by self-relevant judgments such as competence and efficacy (Newsom, 1999). We investigated this idea by creating a modified visible support condition, one that did not involve the communication of inefficacy.…”

Macrosocial determinants of social integration: Social class and area effect

“…A possible interpretation for this lies in the fact that support given by formal and organized services of help usually lacks the dimension of reciprocity (with the exception of self-help groups), and tends to be based on the use of authority. Also, having to request help from formal systems of support may constitute a threat to the self-esteem in the sense that it involves a public admission of failure and inferiority (Fisher et al, 1982). As Tiejten (1980) has pointed out, when people need support and assistance, they look to sources that will increase their feelings of competence and control over their own lives.…”

“…Social class differences in social relationships and social support have been found in a number of surveys (Laumann, 1973;Young and Willmott, 1973;Veroff, Douvan, and Kulka, 1981;Fisher, 1982;MORI, 1982;Willmott, 1987); in studies including class measures (Bell, Leroy, and Stephenson, 1982;Thoits, 1982;Belle, 1983;Eckenrode, 1983;Hanson and Ostergren, 1987;Oakley and Rajan, 1991); and cross-cultural research (Cochran, Gunnarson, Grabe, and Lewis, 1990). In general, the picture that emerges from these studies indicates that subjects with lower levels of education and income have smaller networks, lower availability and quality of both material and emotional support, and lower social participation and involvement in organizations.…”

“…For example, Fisher (1982), reported differences in composition and structure of social networks between urban and rural communities, with more dense and kin-based networks in rural areas, and less dense networks, including more non-relatives, in urban areas. Within urban areas, for example, in a survey with a probabilistic sample of all residential areas of Baltimore, Crenson (1983) found that the neighbourhood environment in which a person lives can be as important for the sense of neighbourhood identity as the individual resident's own characteristics, such as social class or race.…”

Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families

“…Building upon the discussions about societal stigma toward mental illness, public stigma toward mental health treatment has been understood as "label avoidance" (Corrigan 2004, p. 616): that individuals may avoid seeking professional services due to the fear of being labeled as the stigma-attached "mentally ill" (Clement et al 2015). Self-stigma on the other hand addresses the beliefs that seeking professional help would lead to the acknowledgement of one's weakness, inferiority, or failure, and thus threaten one's selfesteem (Corrigan 2004;Fisher et al 1982;Vogel et al 2006). Courtesy stigma signifies the beliefs that individuals or communities would be downgraded by geographically or socially closely associating with those seeking mental health treatment or mental health facilities.…”