This paper deals with the use of social knowledge by an autonomous agent which is planning its behavior and in particular discovering it is in need of help. What we aim at showing is the possible insertion of knowledge about dependence relations in an agent architecture so that it may achieve a cognitively plausible behavior. A number of basic criteria are designed to eendow our agent architecture with the ability to generate choices about social interactions and requests. Particular attention is paid to the criteria for assessing others' willingness to give help, and to the interaction of these criteria with the agent's general attitudes and skills.