Theory
Reactance theory assumes there are "free behaviors" individuals perceive and can take part in at any given moment. For a behavior to be free, the individual must have the relevant physical and psychological abilities to partake in it, and must know they can engage in it at the moment, or in the near future.
"Behavior" includes any imaginable act. More specifically, behaviors may be explained as "what one does (or doesn't do)", "how one does something", or "when one does something". It is not always clear, to an observer, or the individuals themselves, if they hold a particular freedom to engage in a given behavior. When a person has such a free behavior they are likely to experience reactance whenever that behavior is restricted, eliminated, or threatened with elimination.
There are several rules associated with free behaviors and reactance:
- When certain free behaviors are threatened or removed, the more important a free behavior is to a certain individual the greater the magnitude of the reactance.
- The level of reactance has a direct relationship to the importance of the eliminated or threatened behavioral freedom, in relationship to the importance of other freedoms at the time.
- With a given set of free behaviors, the greater the proportion threatened or eliminated, the greater will be the total level of reactance.
- When an important free behavior has been threatened with elimination, the greater will be the threat, and the greater will be the level of reactance.
- When there is a loss of a single free behavior, there may be by implication a related threat of removal of other free behaviors now or in the future.
- A free behavior may be threatened or eliminated by virtue of the elimination (or threat of elimination) of another free behavior; therefore a free behavior may be threatened by the relation of the elimination of (or threat to) another person's free behavior.
Other core concepts of the theory are justification and legitimacy. A possible effect of justification is a limitation of the threat to a specific behavior or set of behaviors. For example, if Mr Doe states that he is interfering with Mrs. Smith's expectations because of an emergency, this keeps Mrs Smith from imagining that Mr Doe will interfere on future occasions as well. Likewise, legitimacy may point to a set of behaviors threatened since there will be a general assumption that an illegitimate interference with a person's freedom is less likely to occur. With legitimacy there is an additional implication that a person's freedom is equivocal.
Read more about this topic: Reactance (psychology)
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