Talk:Helper theory

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This article was the subject of an educational assignment in Spring 2015. Further details are available on the course page.

Flinnre (talk) 02:53, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled

UPDATED DRAFT OF NEW LEAD SECTION REFLECTING PROPOSED CHANGES (6/10/15): Helper Theory, or the "Helper" Therapy Principle, was first described by Frank Riessman (1965) in an article published in the journal Social Work. Riessman's article synthesized the findings of other researchers in the areas of social work, education, and social psychology to infer the existence of the Helper Therapy Principle. As set forth by Riessman, this principle suggests that individuals who provide help to others personally benefit from doing so in a variety of ways. That is to say, by helping others, the helper is helped! This principle is used to explain the therapeutic effect for both individuals in a "helper" and "helpee" dyad within self-help/mutual-aid support groups.[1] According to the model, in the process of helping another member, the helper gains an increased sense of self-efficacy, and the helping endeavor results in a mutually beneficial outcome.[2] Maton (1988) reports that occupying both "helper" and "helpee" roles in a self-help/mutual-aid group was positively correlated with psychological well-being and positive perceptions regarding the benefits of group membership, and that these members with dual-roles had a greater sense of well-being and a more favorable opinion of the group than members who were helpees (i.e., recipients of assistance) only.[3] Riessman's model has inspired subsequent research and practice by scholars belonging to many different disciplines around the world, including community psychology and clinical oncology, and interventions either based on or reminiscent of Riessman's model have been employed to, for example, empower community members to intervene with suicidal peers or address issues facing young adults aging out of the foster care system.

As always, I welcome any input or suggestions toward good sources. I'm having trouble finding secondary and tertiary sources which address Helper Theory. However, I do have several primary sources which directly address the content of this stub and seem invaluable to include (e.g., Lepore et al.'s [2014] Comparing Standard Versus Prosocial Internet Support Groups for Patients With Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Helper Therapy Principle) but I'm not sure of its appropriateness. Are the "rules" different when there's a real dearth of secondary and/or tertiary sources?

I had the idea of using the layout/headings of the original Riessman article to organize findings. I need to continue reading to see what else might work.

Thanks,

Flinnre (talk) 04:09, 11 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Draft:Helper theory

Archibald, M. (2008). The evolution of self-help: How a health movement became an institution Palgrave Macmillan.

Arnold, D., Calhoun, L. G., Tedeschi, R., & Cann, A. (2005). Vicarious posttraumatic growth in psychotherapy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 45(2), 239-263.

Davidson, L., Chinman, M., Sells, D., & Rowe, M. (2006). Peer support among adults with serious mental illness: A report from the field. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32(3), 443-450. doi:sbj043 [pii]

Kasahara-Kiritani, M., Masuda, F., & Ishii, A. (2015). Qualitative process evaluation of a social support educational program for youths. Health, 7(03), 390.

KATZ, A. H. (1967). Self-help and rehabilitation, an annotated bibliography.

Lammer, L., Huber, A., Zagler, W., & Vincze, M. (2011). Mutual-care: Users will love their imperfect social assistive robots. Paper presented at the Work-in-Progress Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Robotics, 24-25.

Pagano, M. E., Post, S. G., & Johnson, S. M. (2011). Alcoholics anonymous-related helping and the helper therapy principle. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 29(1), 23-34.

Repper, J., & Carter, T. (2010). Using personal experience to support others with similar difficulties. Together and the University of Nottingham,

Riessman, F. (1965). The" helper" therapy principle. Social Work, , 27-32.

Roberts, L. J., Salem, D., Rappaport, J., Toro, P. A., Luke, D. A., & Seidman, E. (1999). Giving and receiving help: Interpersonal transactions in mutual-help meetings and psychosocial adjustment of members. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(6), 841-868.

Shutz, A. (2014). Peer support: The peer support movement and the future of mental health care.

Voland, E. (2014). The biological evolution of conscience–from parent-offspring conflict to morality. Anthropological Review, 77(3), 251-271.

I realize that some of these sources do not meet Wikipedia's criteria for acceptability, but I am leaving them on my working list temporarily in hopes that I can mine them more carefully for appropriate secondary and/or tertiary sources. If anyone has any advice of good places to look for sources which meet criteria, I would be most grateful. Also, many of my references deal more specifically with formalized supportive roles -- including Peer Support Specialists, Twelve Step Fellowship sponsors, etc. Even though these are main research interests of mine, Wikipedia pages already exist for these topics, and thus my ultimate goal for this information is to serve an ancillary to the main thrust of the article: how is providing aid to others mutually beneficial (in many different ways)? Thanks,

Flinnre (talk) 04:09, 4 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Please consider incorporating material from Draft:Helper theory into this article before said page is deleted. ~KvnG 21:44, 11 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

copy-edit suggestions

Hi Ryan, nice work so far! I love this topic, so I am very interested to see how the final product turns out. Thus far, you have covered all questions that I had while reading. Concepts are explained well, and appear to be easily understood. Grammar, syntax, and semantics all appear to be in good shape. As for content edits that I feel may be beneficial, I think if you expanded the paragraph about the importance of engaging people in helping suicidal individuals and young adults aging out of the foster care system, it may give the article less of a scientific feel and more of reason for people to care about the implications of the Helper Theory. Excited to see the rest! LaurStuart (talk) 19:55, 2 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much! Flinnre (talk) 23:04, 2 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

You're doing a great job expanding this article, Ryan. I think that the use of primary sources may help expand your article even further. I would use the sources that give you the best information even if they are primary. I am sure there is a way to word the information to make it easily assessable to others regardless of the type of source. Otherwise, keep up the great work. I can't wait to see the finished product. Essercc (talk) 06:27, 6 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much for the affirmation! I really appreciate your comments and think they make good sense. See you later in class. Thanks, Flinnre (talk) 18:51, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Peer review

Awesome job so far, Ryan! Lots of information, and the sections make sense. One thing that I think would help out the flow of the article is perhaps breaking out some of the information in the leader section into separate sections. I think that limiting the leader section to just one to two sentences defining the topic provides a really efficient experience to the typical Wikipedia reader: get in, get definition and gain brief understanding, get out. DPetruseski (talk) 04:12, 19 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Another thought

Almost every paragraph in this article begins with the mention of some names of leading researchers in the field. Most Wikipedia articles don't start their paragraphs like this because readers find it off-putting. It is often much better to begin by discussing the TOPIC of the paragraph, and to include those who are its proponents either at the end or, even better, only in the citations. KDS4444 (talk) 02:25, 14 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]