Learned helplessness

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Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation, or situations(Seligman, 1975). Examples can be found in schools, mental institutions, orphanages, or long-term care facilities where the patients have failed or been stripped of agency for long enough to cause their feelings of inadequacy to persist.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] The Attributional Reformulation

The original theory has been proved to be too simple for human behaviors, as not all people become depressed and react the same way after being in a situation they had no control over (Peterson & Park, 1998). Learned helplessness sometimes remains specific to one situation (Cole & Coyne, 1977) but sometimes generalizes across situations (Hiroto & Seligman, 1975).

Thereafter, Abraham, Seligman and Teasdale (1978) incorporated the elements of attribution theory to reformulate the theory of helplessness. The attribution theory by Weiner (1979, 1985, 1986) concerns the way people attribute causality to events. Whenever people encounter aversive events, people try to make causal explanation which includes the dimensions of globality, stability and internality (Weiner, 1986).

A global attribution occurs when the individual believes that the cause of negative events is consistent across different contexts, whereas a specific attribution occurs when the individual believes that the cause is unique to the particular situation. In addition, stable attribution occurs when the individual thinks that the cause is consistent across time, whereas unstable attribution occurs when the individual thinks that the cause is specific to one point in time. Furthermore, external attribution assigns causality to situation factors, while an internal attribution assigns causality to factors within the person (Abraham et. al., 1978).

Reformulated theory of learned helplessness proposes that explanatory style is the other determinant of causal explanation (Peterson & Seligman, 1984). Explanatory style refers to an individual’s habitual way of assigning causes to negative events. Particular style, for example, a pessimistic explanatory style of causal attribution may lead to the loss of self-esteem, uncontrollability and then generality of helplessness (Peterson, Maier, & Seligman 1993).

[edit] Foundation of research and theory

Martin Seligman's foundational experiments and theory of learned helplessness began at the Cornell University in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression, when, at first quite by accident, Seligman and colleagues discovered a result of conditioning of dogs that was opposite to what was predicted by B.F. Skinner's behaviorism, then a leading psychological theory.[1][2]

A seminal experiment by Martin Seligman and Steve Maier was done in two parts. In part one, there were three groups of dogs in harnesses. The Group One dogs were simply put in the harnesses for a period of time and later released. Groups two and three consisted of "yoked pairs." A dog in Group 2 would be intentionally subjected to pain by being given electric shocks, which the dog could end by pressing a lever. A Group 3 dog was wired in parallel with a Group 2 dog, receiving shocks of identical intensity and duration, but his lever didn't do anything. To a dog in Group 3, it seemed that the shock ended at random, because it was his paired dog in Group 2 that was causing it to stop. For Group 3 dogs the shock was apparently "inescapable." The Group 1 and Group 2 dogs quickly recovered from the experience, but the Group 3 dogs learned to be helpless, and exhibited symptoms similar to chronic clinical depression.

In part two of the Seligman and Maier experiment, these three groups of dogs were tested in a shuttle-box apparatus, in which the dogs could escape shocks by jumping over a low partition. For the most part, the Group 3 dogs, who had previously "learned" that nothing they did mattered, just lay down passively and whined. Even though they could have escaped the shocks, they didn't try.

In a second experiment later that year, Overmier and Seligman ruled out the possibility that the Group 3 dogs learned some behavior in part one of the experiment, while they were struggling in the harnesses against the "inescapable shocks," that somehow interfered with what would have been their normal, successful behavior of escaping from the shocks in part two. The Group 3 dogs were immobilized with a paralyzing drug (curare), and underwent a procedure similar to that in part one of the Seligman and Maier experiment. A similar part two in the shuttle-box was also undertaken in this experiment, and the Group 3 dogs exhibited the same "helpless" response.

Other experiments were performed with different animals with similar results. In all cases, the strongest predictor of a depressive response was lack of control over the negative stimulus. One such later experiment presented by Finkelstein and Ramey (1977) consisted of two groups of babies. One group was placed into a crib with a sensory pillow, designed so that the movement of the baby’s head could control the rotation of the mobile. The other group had no control over the movement of the mobile and was only able to enjoy looking at it. After a period of time, both groups of babies were exposed to the crib with the power for them to control the movement of the mobile. It was discovered that the babies who had not learned that they had the power to change the movement of the mobile did not try or learn that they now had the agency to do so. The babies without the previous power had learned to be helpless in their previous situation, which now led to aftereffects of that lack of control.[3]

A similar experiment was done with people performing mental tasks in the presence of distracting noise. If the person had a switch that would turn off the noise, his performance improved, even though he rarely bothered to turn off the noise. Simply being aware of the ability to do so was enough to substantially counteract its distracting effect.[citation needed]

Not all of the dogs in Seligman's experiments, however, became helpless. Of the roughly 150 dogs in experiments in the latter half of the sixties, about one-third did not become helpless, but instead somehow managed to find a way out of the unpleasant situation in spite of their past experience with it. The corresponding characteristic in humans has been found to correlate highly with optimism; however, not a naïve Polyannaish optimism, but an explanatory style that views the situation as other than personal, pervasive, or permanent. This distinction between people who adapt and those who break down, under long term psychological pressure, was also studied in the 1950s in the realm of brainwashing.

[edit] Differences between Human and Other Animals

There are several aspects of human helplessness that have no counterpart among other animals. One of the most intriguing aspects is that people can learn to be helpless through the observation of another person encountering uncontrollable events, which is the vicarious learning or modeling (Bandura, 1986). Apart from the shared depression symptoms between human and other animals such as passivity, introjected hostility, weight loss, appetite loss, social and sexual deficits, some of the diagnostic symptoms including depressed mood, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal ideation can be found and observed in human beings only (Peterson, Maier & Seligman, 1993).

[edit] Helplessness in People and their Health

Uncontrollable events, operationalized in a variety of ways, reliably lead to disruption at subsequent problem-solving tasks, people’s emotions, aggressions, and physiology (Roth, 1980; Wortman, & Brehm, 1975). These helpless experiences can associate with passivity, uncontrollability and poor cognition in people, which ultimately threaten their physical well-being. The passivity of a person may affect their adherence to diets and other health-promoting activities that results in a lifestyle with insufficient exercise, poor nutrition, drinking and smoking habits. Their experience with uncontrollable aversive events may undermine their confidence in preventability of health problems that induce stress and stress-related disorders(Henry, 2005). The more they perceive events as uncontrollable and unpredictable, the more stressful they are and the more powerless and hopeless they feel with respect to making changes in their life.

Regarding cognition, there is research evidence about the correlation between pessimistic explanatory style and poor health. Pessimistic explanatory style predicted the depressive symptoms and life satisfaction among young adults and middle-aged parents(Chan & Sanna, 2007). People holding this explanatory style tend to be poor at problem-solving and cognitive restructuring that associated with poor job satisfaction and interpersonal relationship in the workplace(Welbourne, Eggerth, Hartley, Andrew & Sanchez, 2007;Henry, 2005). They may suffer emotional difficulty of depression and other anxiety-proneness. That negative psychological states affected their immune system make them vulnerable to ailments(e.g. cold, fever) and major illness(e.g. heart attack, cancers) and influence their recovery accordingly(Bennett & Elliott, 2005).

Besides, learned helplessness could be a motivational problem. Individuals might have failed in one or more tasks in the past which have made them believe that they are incapable to do anything to improve their performance in the tasks (Stipek, 1988). This might set children behind in academic subjects and damper social skills. The learned helpless children are not so much motivated intrinsically because of their failures on different academic tasks. They try to use learned helplessness as an excuse or a shield to provide self-justification for school failure. Indeed, describing someone as having learned to be helpless can serve as a reason to avoid blaming him or her for the misfortunes experienced. In turn, they will give up gaining respect through academic performance (Ramirez, Maldonado, & Martos, 1992).

[edit] Social Problem and Immunization

The applications of learned helplessness to social problems are numerous and diverse, from the display of inappropriate passivity in mental or behavioral action in coping with situations, the response to uncontrollable events such as trauma, to the mediation of particular cognitions acquired during the course of uncontrollable or new events.

An example is child abuse, in which parents find themselves incapable of controlling their child’s crying. Learned helplessness becomes an excuse to release the tightened psychological pressure within oneself by neglecting their child (Donovan, Leavitt, & Walsh, 1990).

Another example involves loneliness and shyness, when a human being is marked by passivity and associated with depression, anxiety and negative self-image, learning to be helpless may offer that individual with internal, stable explanations for bad encounters. Nevertheless, Gotlib and Beatty (1985) found that other people may react to those people who bear such helpless excuse more negatively, resulting in a worse situation.

A third example is aging, with the elderly learning to be helpless, knowing that they have no control over losing their friends and family members, losing their jobs and incomes, getting old, weak and so on (Rodin, 1986).

Negative effects and social problems resulting from learned helplessness seem unavoidable; however, the effect goes away with the passage of time (Young, & Allin, 1986). It can be minimized by immunization and potentially reversed by therapy. People can be immunized against the perception of uncontrollable events by providing them with previous experiences with controllability (Altmaier, & Happ, 1985). Therapy can be done by instructing people in the fact of contingency (Thornton, & Powell, 1974) and bolstering peoples’ self esteem (Orbach, & Hadas, 1982).

[edit] Extensions

The sociologist Harrison White has suggested in his book Identity and Control that the notion of learned helplessness could be extended beyond the realm of psychology to the realm of social action. Any social actor, for example an organization or a nation, could experience situations in which it would fail to act because it has experienced in the past recurrent stochastic failures.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Seligman, M.E.P. and Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1-9.
  2. ^ Overmier, J. B. and Seligman, M.E.P. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 63, 28-33.
  3. ^ Finkelstein, N., & Ramey, C. Learning to control the environment. Child Development, 1977, 48, 806-819.

[edit] References

  • Abrahamson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.
  • Altmaier, E. M., and Happ, D. A. (1985). Coping skills training’s immunization effects against learned helplessness. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 3, 181-189.
  • Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
  • Bennett, K.K., & Elliott, M. (2005). Pessimistic explanatory style and Cardiac Health: What is the relation and the mechanism that links them? Basic and applied social psychology, 27, 239-248.
  • Chang, E.C., & Sanna, J. L. (2007). Affectivity and psychological adjustment across tow adult generations: Does pessimistic explanatory style still matter? Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1149-1159.
  • Cole, C. S., & Coyne, J. C. (1977). Situatkmal specificity of laboratory-induced learned helplessness in humans, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86, 615-623.
  • Donovan, W. L., Leavitt, L. A., and Walsh, R. O. (1990). Maternal self-efficacy: Illusory control and its effect on susceptibility to learned helplessness. Child Development, 61, 1638-1647.
  • Finkelstein, N., & Ramey, C. Learning to control the environment. Child Development, 1977, 48, 806-819.
  • Gotlib, I. H., and Beatty, M. E. (1985). Negative responses to depression: The role of attributional style. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 9, 91-103.
  • Henry, P.C. (2005). Life stress, explanatory style, hopelessness, and occupational stress. International Journal of Stress Management, 12, 241-256.
  • Hiroto, D. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Generality of learned helplessness in man. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 311-327.
  • Orbach, E., and Hadas, Z. (1982). The elimination of learned helplessness deficits as a function of induced self-esteem. Journal of Research in Personality, 16, 511-523.
  • Overmier, J. B. and Seligman, M.E.P. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 63, 28-33.
  • Peterson, C., & Park, C. (1998) Learned helplessness and explanatory style. In D. F. Barone, M. Hersen, and V. B. VanHasselt (Eds.), Advanced Personality. New York: Plenum Press pp.287-308.
  • Petersen, C., Maier, S.F., Seligman, M.E.P. (1995). Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504467-3
  • Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1984). Causal explanations as a risk factor for depression: Theory and evidence. Psychological Review, 91, 347-374.
  • Ramirez, E., Maldonado, A., & Martos, R. (1992). Attribution modulate immunization against learned helplessness in humans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 139-146.
  • Roth, S. (1980). A revised model of learned helplessness in humans . Journal of Personality, 48, 103-133.
  • Rodin, J. (1986). Aging and health: Effects of the sense of control. Science, 233, 1271-1276.
  • Seligman, M.E.P. (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-2328-X
  • Seligman, M.E.P. (1990). Learned Optimism. New York: Knopf. (Reissue edition, 1998, Free Press, ISBN 0-671-01911-2).
  • Seligman, M.E.P. and Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1-9.
  • Stipek, D. E. P. (1988). Motivation to learning. Allyn & Bacon: Boston.
  • Thornton, J. W., and Powell, G. D. (1974). Immunization to and alleviation of learned helplessness in man. American Journal of Psychology, 87, 351-367.
  • Weiner, B. (1979). A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 3-25.
  • Weiner, B. (1985).. ‘Spontaneous’ causal thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 74-84.
  • Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Welbourne, J.L., Eggerth, D., Hartley, T.A., Andrew, M.E., & Sanchez, F. (2007). Coping strategies in the workplace: Relationships with attributional style and job satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 312-325.
  • Wortman, C. B., and Brehm, J. W. (1975). Response to uncontrollable outcomes: An integration of reactance theory and the learned helplessness model. In Advances in experimental social psychology, L. Berkowitz, (ed.). Vol. 8. New York: Academic Press.
  • Young, L. D., and Allin, J. M. (1986). Persistence of learned helplessness in humans. Journal of General Psychology, 113, 81-88.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links