Draft:Brickman's Model of Helping

Brickman's model of helping, developed by Philip Brickman and colleagues, outlines four models of helping behaviour: moral model, compensatory model, medical model and the enlightenment model.

Brickman’s model uses the theory of attribution of responsibility to categorise different helping behaviours dependent on whether an individual is perceived or perceives themselves as responsible for the problems and/or solutions. Helping behaviours can include emotional support, material aid and social support etc. This model provides a link between theories such as the bystander effect and attribution theory to improve our understanding of helping and coping.

It provides a framework that assesses the critical determinants of the form of their behaviour and their attributions of responsibilities for problems and behaviour; identifying the psychological processes and motivations behind helping.

Despite many criticisms of the model, it has been applied across multiple contexts including education, therapeutic interventions and social work and is deemed to be effective.

Historical Background

Phillip Brickman (1943-1982) was an influential social psychologist who focused on matters of coping, helping, pain and inequality. Brickman was the primary creator of the Model of Helping. He collaborated with Vita Carulli Rabinowitz, Jurgis Karuza, Jr., Dan Coates, Ellen Cohn, and Louise Kidder, who helped develop and refine the model. Brickman’s model of helping was first published in 1982, "Models of helping and coping", in the journal the American Psychologist.

Brickman’s model has since been implemented into multiple interventions (see Applications and Uses) and continues to be relevant to current social psychological research, due to its framework providing vital insights into pro-social behaviour.

Theoretical Foundations

Brickman’s model is mainly based on the theory of attribution of responsibility, introduced by Fritz Heider. It encompasses both psychological and sociological theory, mentioned below.

Fritz Heider defines attribution theory: “Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment”. Fritz believed that the perceiver attributes behavioural causation to either dispositional or situational attributions.

Brickman’s theory builds on the theory of bystander effect- Darley & Lantane (1968) found that the number of bystanders , social influence: pluralistic ignorance and normative ignorance (Latane & Darley, 1970)can affect helping behaviour. This study highlighted the social impact on attributions of responsibility, which Brickman accepted in his model.

Studies of clinical of psychology highlighted the importance of appropriate attributions in helping and coping behaviour; a meta-analysis found the wrong choice of attribution can hinder treatment effectiveness (Smith & Glass,1977) This is incorporated in Brickman’s model.

The psychological basis of Brickman’s model is encompassed within the concept of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance theory says when there is a mismatch in beliefs and actions dissonance is created, this causes discomfort which can motivate the person to change their actions (help) or their beliefs ( change who they attribute the problem to). The type of helping behaviour a person presents can be affected by cognitive dissonance.

The concept of learned helplessness, is especially relevant to Brickman's medical model. It highlights the importance of appropriate attributions of responsibility. Attributions are important for effective interventions as when individuals become passive and feel helpless treatment may be required.

The sociological basis of Brickman's model: social influence and conformity – how group dynamics can affect people behaviour and attributions- more likely to press button on shock experiment when not responsible.. To reiterate, the bystander effect is integrates into the model of helping.

This model considers the role of social structure and inequalities affect attributions of responsibility. The medical model/ compensatory model is in align with wider sociological theories on how power and status can effect blame, consequences and punishments.

The Four Models of Helping

Moral Model

In the moral model, actor's are responsible for both their problems and solutions. When suffering they are often perceived as lazy. This model encompasses the belief that we have the fundamental capacity to solve our problems, with enough motivation. In educational settings, positive reinforcement is used to encourage students to work harder. Similarly, self help programmes might encourage the setting of goals and progress tracking to help people reach their target.

Brickman's Model of Helping: A diagram showing the relationship between direction of attribution for problems and solutions, in relation to the four models.

Skinner’s theory of positive reinforcement aligns with the moral model by increasing the desire to complete a certain behaviour with rewards. Improving self-efficacy: by encouraging behaviour that causes success, a person’s belief in themselves will increase. This positive cycle improves intrinsic motivation. The reinforcement can be used to develop intrinsic motivation in someone. These three psychological concepts are the rationale behind the moral model.

Compensatory Model

In the compensatory model, the actor is only seen as responsible for the solution not the problem. People in this model feel and are seen by others as needing compensation for the difficulties their situation has caused. Help they receive, is given under the pretence of compensation (for what their social environment failed to give them.) It is the actor’s responsibility to use the help to improve. For example, university grants are provided for those whose economic status would not allow them to attend university. If a person, then succeeds at university it is solely the persons responsibility.

The compensatory model emphasizes the importance of increasing self-efficacy and enhancing intrinsic motivation. With support and empowerment individuals are likely to exhibit positive behaviours such as self-improvement, job training etc that will result in self-sufficiency. This model aims to reduce feelings of guilt whilst empowering people to change.

Medical Model

The medical model is named so as the biggest example of the medical model is the modern medical system itself. Actors are not attributed responsibility for their health problems or solutions. Authority figures are seen to be the only solution. Actors are not attributed responsibility for their problem, only responsibility to seek and use help. This model allows people to seek help without viewing themselves as weak or at fault because of their problem. Therapeutic advantages of this have been established: if people believe that i.e. homosexuality is a biological determinant rather than psychological ones, any anxiety or blame can be released, reducing distress. The medical model is centred around biological determinism.

Enlightenment Model

In the enlightenment model, actors are attributed responsibility for both problems and solutions but are seen as unable to unwilling to make change, often because they don’t attribute the responsibility to themselves. Positive change requires actors to take responsibility for their problem and accept that they cannot control it themselves. This model requires people to take a negative view of themselves, it is their fault, inadequacy, impulses that cause the problems but to solve it they need the help of an external authority. The biggest example of this is the AA ( Alcoholic anonymous). Members must take responsibility for their past drinking habits but admit that they need the community to get better. This model increases the agent’s responsibility of their actions but can lead to the reconstruction of their lives around the external authority to help them. The model highlights the importance of structured support, authority figures and community to ‘find solutions. This model highlights the importance of understanding the balance between personal attribution and the need for support to allow personal improvement.

Applications and Uses

Brickman’s model is used in various fields such as psychology, social work and education. It provides a framework of which to understand how to help people based on how responsibility is being attributed as well as insight into why and what kind of help someone may give dependent on how responsibility is attributed.

Brickman's model is used in therapy to understand a clients attributions of responsibility and design the most appropriate intervention . Medical professions use the medical model to provide treatments whilst ensuring that patients do not feel guilty or shame when they are not responsible for their health deterioration . Education staff have applied Brickman's model to tailor their student support. Identification of who's responsible for the situation can allow the best help to be tailored. For example: students with problems beyond their means might use the compensatory model to empower clients by providing necessary resources. The moral model might be used to motivate students to work harder.

Critiques and Limitations

In recent years, Brickman's model has been criticised for its use of dichotomy. Multiple studies have emphasized the identification of partial or multiple attributions as opposed to either internal or external attributions. Psychologists questioned staff at an alcohology and drug dependence treatment facility and found that majority of staff member believed that the problem was not 100% cause of the person, or externally attributed but somewhere in the middle. Furthermore, Clary et al (2002-01) found that students of psychology rejected the use of dichotomies. It was not possible to always split attributions to internally or externally, rather partially was more popular. These studies suggest that orthological dimensions do not fully encompass the complexity of helping behaviour and could limit its construct validity.

Brickman's model does not take into account how societal expectations and norms can change how people respond to problems. The medical model suggests that a problem which is extrinsically attributed to i.e. genetics and/or traumatic childhood events, the person is not responsible for their problems. However, this does not apply to the criminal law system. ‘criminality has been correlated with demands for rigid sanctioning’ despite potential external causes. The severity of sanctioning itself has varied depending on the social environment. Often the risk of danger to society is valued more than what caused the person to act so. Contrary, Swedish prisons systems are reform not punishment based even in the most extreme cases of crime. The model oversimplifies ‘complex social issues’ such as rape. The models sole focus on attribution of responsibility can result in harmful victim blaming by ignoring stereotypes, biases and unfair judgments. The multifaceted nature of social problems means models of helping must consider both social and cultural factors that can influence perception of responsibility, otherwise a misguided attribution of responsibility may result in inadequate support for victims and/or victim blaming.

Empirical analysis supported Brickman's concept of diverse patterns of attributing responsibility; people who took more personal responsibility for their grades achieved better outcomes. This implied that self attributions specifically, can be more beneficial than others, contradicting the idea that each model of Brickman’s is equally valid in every context. This does not invalidate the models but suggests the models are context dependent.

Research and other models of helping

Different models have been developed in response to criticisms of Brickman's model, that aim to match intervention type to an individual’s belief. Prochaska and Diclimente’s transtheoretical model proposes a six stage model of stages that individuals may go through to reach behaviour change. The staged model allows health psychologists to tailor an intervention dependant on what stage an individual is in. The transtheoretical model has research support: matching interventions to individuals pre-existing beliefs is more beneficial than assigning responsibility of attributions for problems and solutions to decide an intervention. Other models include the social support model, empathy-altruism model and self-determination theory. Despite Brickman's model's empirical support , research has found interventions that identify and agree with a clients existing belief resulted in greater behavioural change satisfaction and optimism. This research favours the transtheoretical model over Brickman's odel of helping.

The mixed research suggests that the complexity of helping behaviour is not best understood with only one model of helping. Each model offers unique insight into behaviour and therefore the applicability of a model might be context dependent. Furthermore, Brickman's model may lack flexibility, while it improved our understanding of helping behaviour at the time, the development of more recent models of helping can provide more personalised support.

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