Recently, interest has increased in self-help groups, lay referral networks, social support networks, natural helpers, and others which may be placed under a single conceptual umbrella--socially indigenous help--because they all deal with the issue of how people use other people, social groups, and lay institutions to alleviate problems in living, in the absence of professional intervention. Seven types of socially indigenous helpers exist along a continuum of role-demand-for-help; professional helpers; non-professional, role-accredited helpers; non-professional, role-accredited helping group members; role-appropriate helpers; socially indigenous therapists; ordinary helpers; and situational helpers. Such traditional models of helping as psychoanalysis and behaviorism are unsuitable as theoretical frameworks for studying socially indigenous help. Albert Bandura's recent formulation of a social learning view of reciprocal determinism provides a more appropriate conceptual framework and is applied to various aspects of socially indigenous help. Several other studies serve as illustrations of reciprocal determinism with implications for socially indigenous help. (Author)