The Induction of Self‐Reliance: An Experimental Study of Independence in the Face of Failure*

Abstract

The development of dependency, rather than autonomy, in professional and paraprofessional helping relationships represents a practical and theoretical problem. In the present research an attempt is made experimentally to examine this issue from the viewpoint of the self‐perception hypothesis. From this perspective, immersion in the successful helping dyad was expected to foster an increased belief in self as other‐reliant, and, through cognitive balance, a lessened belief in self as self‐reliant. The fiidings indicate that such different dimensions of help as intensity, duration, and choice variously affect these attributions to self, and that these attributions in turn affect the strength of behavioral independence when failure is encountered outside the helping dyad. Some practical and theoretical implications are discussed concerning the role of induction from self‐performance in mapping self‐related beliefs.