PSY101 Week 9 learned helplessness
1 like2,792 views
Martin Seligman and Steven Maier conducted experiments on dogs in the 1960s that helped establish the concept of learned helplessness. In their experiments, some dogs received electrical shocks they could not escape, while others received shocks they could terminate by pressing a panel. The dogs that could not escape the shocks stopped trying to avoid them, even when later given the opportunity. This led Seligman to propose that repeated exposure to situations perceived as uncontrollable can cause individuals to stop trying to change their circumstances, even when possible. Learned helplessness can be treated using cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps change negative thought and behavior patterns by exploring their origins, setting achievable goals, and replacing thoughts and actions that reinforce help
PSY101 Week 9 learned helplessness
- 1. PSY101 Learned Helplessness Week 9 Dr. Russell Rodrigo
- 3. Learned Helplessness • Learned helplessness occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they have the ability to do so.
- 4. The Research on Learned Helplessness • The term was coined in 1967 by the American psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven Maier. The pair were conducting research on animal behavior that involved delivering electric shocks to dogs.
- 5. Martin Seligman’s Experiments That Led to the Theory Seligman and Maier were working with dogs at the time and testing their responses to electrical shocks. Some of the dogs received electrical shocks that they could not predict or control. For this experiment, the dogs were placed in a box with two chambers divided by a low barrier. One chamber had an electrified floor and the other was not (Cherry, 2017). When the researchers placed dogs in the box and turned on the electrified floor, they noticed a strange thing: Some dogs didn’t even attempt to jump over the low barrier to the other side. Further, the dogs who didn’t attempt to jump the barrier were generally the dogs who had previously been given shocks with no way to escape them, and the dogs who jumped the barrier tended to be those who had not received such treatment.
- 6. Martin Seligman’s Experiments That Led to the Theory To further investigate this phenomenon, Seligman and Maier gathered a new batch of dogs and divided them into three groups: 1. Dogs in Group One were strapped into harnesses for a period of time and were not administered any shocks; 2. Dogs in Group Two were strapped into the same harnesses but were administered electrical shocks that they could avoid by pressing a panel with their noses; 3. Dogs in Group Three were placed in the same harnesses and also administered electrical shocks, but were given no way to avoid them.
- 7. Result Dogs from Group One and Group Two were quick to figure out that they only needed to jump over the barrier to avoid the shocks, but most of the dogs from Group Three didn’t even attempt to avoid them.
- 8. Prof. Martin Seligman, has detailed three key features: becoming passive in the face of trauma 1 difficulty learning that responses can control trauma 2 can increase in stress levels 3
- 9. How do we learn to be helpless? Seligman subjected study participants to loud, unpleasant noises, using a lever that would or would not stop the sounds. The group whose lever wouldn’t stop the sound in the first round stopped trying to silence the noise subsequently. Not trying leads to apathy and powerlessness, and this can lead to all-or- nothing thinking. Nothing I do matters. I always lose. This phenomenon exists in many animal species as well as in humans.
- 10. Learned helplessness in adults In adults, learned helplessness presents as a person not using or learning adaptive responses to difficult situations. People in this state typically accept that bad things will happen and that they have little control over them. They are unsuccessful in resolving issues even when there is a potential solution.
- 11. Below are some examples of situations that can lead to learned helplessness in adults: 1. Continuing to smoke despite several attempts to quit may cause a person to believe that they will always be a smoker. 2. Being unable to lose weight after making various dietary or lifestyle changes may cause a person to believe that it will never happen and give up trying. 3. Leaving a situation of domestic abuse can be very difficult. Women having this experience tend to leave several times before doing so for good. A person may believe that they can never escape the abuser, even when help and support are available.
- 12. Learned helplessness in children • Often, learned helplessness begins in childhood. • When caregivers do not respond appropriately to a child’s need for help, the child may learn that they cannot change their situation. If this occurs regularly, the state of learned helplessness may persist into adulthood. • Children with a history of prolonged abuse and neglect, for example, can develop learned helplessness and feelings of powerlessness.
- 13. Some characteristics of learned helplessness in children include: low self-esteem low motivation low expectations of success less persistence not asking for help ascribing a lack of success to a lack of ability ascribing success to factors beyond their control, such as luck
- 14. A 2004 study examined the effects of learned helplessness on test taking in students. Each child involved took one of two tests. The first began with very difficult questions and the other with easier questions. Students who took the first test seemed to become frustrated, doubted their academic ability, and missed the easy questions. The authors suggest that learned helplessness affected their test scores. Those who took the second test did not experience these effects. Children may avoid learned helplessness by building resilience. Among the many factors that can contribute to resilience are a positive attachment to caregivers, humor, and independence.
- 15. Learned Helplessness in Relationships and Domestic Violence • Based on learned helplessness, a specific theory was developed for victims of domestic violence called the theory of cyclic abuse, a cycle that is sometimes known as battered women syndrome. • In this theory, a relationship in which domestic violence has occurred is likely to continually involve violence that’s doled out in a predictable and repetitious pattern.
- 16. Learned Helplessness in Relationships and Domestic Violence Cont. This pattern generally follows this structure: 1. Stage One: a period of tension-building in which the abuser starts to get angry, communication breaks down, and the victim feels the need to concede and submit to the abuser; 2. Stage Two: the acting-out period, in which the abuse occurs; 3. Stage Three: the honeymoon period, in which the abuser may apologize, show remorse, and/or try to make up for the abuse. The abuser might also promise never to abuse the victim again or, alternatively, blame the victim for provoking the abuse; 4. Stage Four: the calm period, in which the abuse stops, the abuser acts like it never happened, and the victim may start to believe the abuse has ended and the abuser will change (Rakovec-Felser, 2014).
- 17. The theory of cyclic abuse posits that not only will abuse victims feel helpless, they will also: Re-experience the battering as if it were recurring even when it is not; Re- experience Attempt to avoid the psychological impact of battering by avoiding activities, people, and emotions; Attempt Experience hyperarousal or hypervigilance; Experience Have disrupted interpersonal relationships; Have Experience body image distortion or other somatic concerns; Experience Develop sexuality and intimacy issues (Rakovec-Felser, 2014). Develop
- 18. It’s Likely to Be Associated With . . . Learned helplessness is, unsurprisingly, associated with many negative symptoms, traits, and tendencies, including: • Age: The older one’s age, the more likely they are to experience change or loss of roles and physical decline. Residing in an institution is also linked to learned helplessness (Foy & Mitchell, 1990); • Stress, especially poverty-related stress (Brown, Seyler, Knorr, Garnett, & Laurenceau, 2016); • Anxiety and worry, specifically about tests for students (Raufelder, Regner, & Wood, 2018); • Greater negative response to anticipated pain (Strigo, Simmons, Matthews, Craig, & Paulus, 2008).
- 19. It’s Most Likely to Promote… Not only is learned helplessness often associated with other negative conditions, but it also seems to contribute to or cause many negative outcomes, including: Negative health symptoms as well as negative emotions about one’s disease (Nowicka-Sauer, Hajduk, Kujawska-Danecka, Banaszkiewicz, Czuszyńska, Smoleńska, & Siebert, 2017); Maladaptive perfectionism (Filippello, Larcan, Sorrenti, Buzzai, Orecchio, & Costa, 2017); Turnover intentions (Tayfur, Karapinar, & Camgoz, 2013); Burnout, or emotional exhaustion and cynicism (Tayfur et al., 2013); Aggravated depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and loneliness in those already suffering (Cherry, 2017).
- 20. Why does learned helplessness affect some people and not others? A person’s experiences can increase their risk of developing learned helplessness. It typically begins after experiencing repeated traumatic events, such as childhood abuse or domestic violence. However, not everyone who goes through these things will develop learned helplessness. People with a pessimistic explanatory style — causing them to view negative events as being unavoidable and resulting from their own shortcomings — are more likely to experience learned helplessness. People with an optimistic explanatory style are less likely to do so.
- 21. Attributional Theory • Proposed by Fritz Heider (1958). • A theory that attempts to explain the interpretive process by which people make judgments about the causes of their own behavior and the behavior of others After studying how people explain others' behavior, • Attribution theories typically focus on the process of determining whether a behavior is situationally-caused (caused by external factors) or dispositionally-caused (caused by internal characteristics
- 22. Attributional Theory Behavior is a product of capacity and motivation. Capacity refers to whether we are able to enact a particular behavior— that is, whether our innate characteristics and our present environment make that behavior possible. Motivation refers to our intentions as well as how much effort we apply. Heider contended that both capacity and motivation are necessary for a particular behavior to occur. For example, your ability to run a marathon depends on both your physical fitness and the weather that day (your capacity) as well as your desire and drive to push through the race (your motivation).
- 23. Correspondent Inference Theory • Edward Jones and Keith Davis developed the correspondent inference theory. • This theory suggests that if someone behaves in a socially desirable way, we do not tend to infer much about them as a person. • For example, if you ask your friend for a pencil and she gives one to you, you are not likely to infer much about your friend's character from the behavior, because most people would do the same thing in a given situation—it is the socially desirable response. • However, if your friend refuses to allow you to borrow a pencil, you are likely to infer something about her innate characteristics due to this socially undesirable response.
- 24. Kelley’s Covariation Model According to psychologist Harold Kelley’s covariation model, we tend to use three types of information when we’re deciding whether someone’s behavior was internally or externally motivated. 1. Consensus, or whether others would act similarly in a given situation. If other people would typically display the same behavior, we tend to interpret the behavior as being less indicative of an individual's innate characteristics. 2. Distinctiveness, or whether the person acts similarly across other situations. If a person only acts a certain way in one situation, the behavior can probably be attributed to the situation rather than the person. 3. Consistency, or whether someone acts the same way in a given situation each time it occurs. If someone’s behavior in a given situation is inconsistent from one time to the next, their behavior becomes more difficult to attribute.
- 25. Kelley’s Covariation Model Cont. When there are high levels of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency, we tend to attribute the behavior to the situation. For example, let's imagine that you've never eaten cheese pizza before, and are trying to figure out why your friend Sally likes cheese pizza so much: ØAll of your other friends also like pizza (high consensus) ØSally doesn't like many other foods with cheese (high distinctiveness) ØSally likes every pizza she's ever tried (high consistency)
- 26. Kelley’s Covariation Model Cont. When there are low levels of consensus and distinctiveness, but high consistency, we’re more likely to decide the behavior is due to something about the person. For example, let's imagine that you’re trying to figure out why your friend Carly likes to go sky-diving: ØNone of your other friends likes to go sky-diving (low consensus) ØCarly likes many other high-adrenaline activities (low distinctiveness) ØCarly has been sky-diving many times and she's always had a great time (high consistency)
- 27. Weiner’s Three- Dimensional Model Bernard Weiner’s model suggests that people examine three dimensions when attempting to understand the causes of a behavior: locus, stability, and controllability. Locus refers to whether the behavior was caused by internal or external factors. Stability refers to whether the behavior will happen again in the future. Controllability refers to whether someone is able to change the outcome of an event by expending more effort.
- 28. Attribution Errors When we try to determine the cause of someone’s behavior, we are not always accurate. In fact, psychologists have identified two key errors that we commonly make when attempting to attribute behavior. Fundamental Attribution Error, which refers to the tendency to over-emphasize the role of personal traits in shaping behaviors. For example, if someone is rude to you, you may assume that they’re generally a rude person, rather than assuming that they were under stress that day. Self-Serving Bias, which refers to the tendency to give ourselves credit (i.e. make an internal attribution when things go well, but blame the situation or bad luck (i.e. make an external attribution) when things go poorly. According to recent research, people who are experiencing depression may not show the self- serving bias, and may even experience a reverse bias.
- 29. Factors of Learned Helplessness lack of self-esteem motivation childhood domestic violence helpless
- 30. Seligman’s Learned Optimism Model ØSeligman also identified another component of the equation — learned optimism. ØIt’s essentially the polar opposite of learned helplessness, where you internalize a sense of hopelessness about your circumstances. ØWith learned optimism, you begin to challenge your thought processes — and as a result, change your behaviors and outcomes.
- 31. How can I learn to be less helpless? Resilience • People can push back against learned helplessness by practicing independence from a young age and by cultivating resilience, self-worth, and self-compassion. • Engaging in activities that restore self-control can also be valuable. For example, an elderly person who feels helpless in the aging process can engage in small exercises that they know will restore a sense of control.
- 32. Can therapy help the helpless? • Your brain wants to deal with failure by giving up. Yet therapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy, can be helpful for exploring the origins of perceived helplessness and addressing related behaviors. • Working with a therapist may help you unlearn and "decondition" yourself. A clinician may help you to change your thinking style from pessimism to optimism, and you can do this perhaps by reframing situations and outcomes in a more positive light.
- 33. People with learned helplessness can overcome it. The most common treatment is therapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT helps people overcome these types of challenges by changing how they think and act. In therapy, people can: receive support and encouragement explore the origins of learned helplessness develop ways to decrease feelings of helplessness identify negative thoughts that contribute to learned helplessness identify behaviors that reinforce learned helplessness replace thoughts and behaviors with more positive and beneficial ones improve self-esteem work through challenging emotions address instances of abuse, neglect, and trauma set goals and tasks for themselves
- 34. Four strategies for treating helplessness-related depression (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978): 1. Change the likelihood of the outcome. Alter the environment by increasing the likelihood of desired events and decreasing the likelihood of negative events; 2. Reduce the desire for preferred outcomes. This can be done by either reducing the negativity of events that are outside the individual’s control or by reducing the desirability of events that are extremely unlikely to happen; 3. Change the individual’s expectation from uncontrollability to controllability when the desired outcomes are attainable. In other words, help the depressed person realize when outcomes they desire are actually within their control; 4. Change unrealistic explanations for failure toward those that are external (not due to some inherent flaw in the depressed person himself), transient (not chronic), and specific (due to one specific problem rather than a larger pattern of problems). Likewise, change unrealistic explanations for success to those that are internal (due to some inherent strength in the depressed person), stable (chronic), and global (due to an overall competence rather than a specific area of competence).
- 35. Strategies that can help prevent students from learning to be habitually helpless, including: 1. Teachers providing praise and encouragement based on the student’s abilities (e.g., “You’re good at math” or “You have a knack for this subject, I can tell”) to help them believe they are good at these tasks or subjects; 2. Teachers providing praise and encouragement based on the student’s efforts (e.g., “Your hours of hard work paid off on this test!”) to help them believe their effort will make a difference; 3. Working on smart, individual goal-setting with students to help them learn that goals can be achieved and that outcomes are often within their realm of influence (Catapano, n.d.).
- 36. Edutopia’s Andrew Miller (2015) suggests a few very important strategies for teachers and parents: 1. Curate and create learning resources (which include people, books, websites, and community organizations, among other resources) to help students become comfortable with not knowing the answer and with looking for the answer in the right places; 2. Use questions for learning rather than about learning (e.g., use questions that encourage the student to think about his own learning and thought patterns instead of just thinking about what he knows); 3. Stop giving students the answers. Instead, help them learn it at their own pace and through their own methods—they’ll be more likely to remember it this way! 4. Allow them to fail. Failing and trying again is vital for children— as long as you are there to support them when they fail.
- 37. Most Interesting Research In 2016, researchers in Brazil found some evidence that even zebrafish experience learned helplessness (do Nascimento, Walsh-Monteiro, & Gouveia). Not even the simple tree shrew is safe from the effects of learned helplessness—research from 2016 confirmed the presence of such behavior in tree shrews who received uncontrollable shocks to the foot (Meng, Shen, Li, Li, & Wang, 2016). in 2017 researchers discovered that, although learned helplessness has been observed in honey bees, they don’t display the “freezing” behavior that other species do (Dinges, Varnon, Cota, Slykerman, & Abramson). n terms of more broadly applicable research on learned helplessness, many recent experiments are probing the link between learned helplessness and the brain. An oft-cited study from researchers Kim and colleagues (2016) showed that brain activity in mice displaying non-helpless behavior was generally much higher than that of the helpless mice. However, this pattern was reversed in the part of the brain known as the locus coeruleus, which is involved in physiological responses to stress and panic. This finding is interesting, as it suggests that individuals experiencing learned helplessness are directing their energy toward responding to their own distress, while more resilient individuals keep their energy more normally distributed.
- 38. • Research on the cellular basis of learned helplessness-related depression has shown that increased activity of the lateral habenula neurons (an area of the brain involved in communications between the forebrain and midbrain structures) in rats is associated with increased learned helplessness behavior (Li, Piriz, Mirrione, Chung, Proulx, Schulz, Henn, & Malinow, 2011). • The implications of connecting learned helplessness to activity in specific parts of the brain are potentially huge; these findings could contribute to new and more effective methods of treating and preventing depression. • This is the kind of exciting research that is happening right now—research that could have huge impacts on treating disorders and healing those who have suffered. Keep an eye out for the fascinating findings that continue to result from this line of research.
- 39. Discussion Questions Does overparenting lead to helplessness in children? What is adult entitled dependence? Are self-absorbed people more helpless? Is learned helplessness related to feeling like a victim? How does helplessness relate to addiction? Is learned helplessness linked to depression and anxiety?
- 40. Bottom line… Learned helplessness can affect your life in all sorts of ways — none of which are particularly encouraging. The good news is that it is possible to “unlearn” learned helplessness. Working with someone who can help you recognize these patterns can be a huge step forward in learning something new.
- 41. References • Myers, D., G. (2013). Psychology, 10th Edition. New York: Worth Publishers. • https://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/part/chapter-8-remembering-and-judging/ • Boyes, Alice. “The Self-Serving Bias - Definition, Research, and Antidotes.” Psychology Today Blog (2013, Jan 9). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in- practice/201301/the-self-serving-bias-definition-research-and-antidotes • Fiske, Susan T., and Shelley E. Taylor. Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture. McGraw- Hill, 2008. https://books.google.com/books?id=7qPUDAAAQBAJ&dq=fiske+taylor+social+co gnition&lr • Gilovich, Thomas, Dacher Keltner, and Richard E. Nisbett. Social Psychology. 1st edition, W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. • Sherman, Mark. “Why We Don't Give Each Other a Break.” Psychology Today Blog (2014, Jun 20). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-men-dont-write- blogs/201406/why-we-dont-give-each-other-break