Learned Helplessness

Misconception:
If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it.

Truth:
If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in.

Learned Helplessness Experiment

  • Martin Seligman (1965): Conducted experiments to test the concept of learned helplessness using dogs. Initially, dogs were conditioned with electric shocks after hearing a bell, restrained to prevent movement. When transferred to a box where they could escape, the previously conditioned dogs did not attempt to escape, unlike unconditioned dogs or those previously allowed to escape.

Human Application of Learned Helplessness

  • Explanatory Style:

    • Personal: Individuals blame themselves or uncontrollable forces.
    • Permanent: Belief that the situation will never change.
    • Pervasive: Belief that problems affect every aspect of life.

    These attitudes increase susceptibility to learned helplessness, particularly in the clinically depressed who often internalize failures.

Real-Life Examples and Studies

  • Voting: People may not vote because they believe their vote doesn't matter—an example of learned helplessness.
  • Victims in Abusive Situations: Battered women, hostages, abused children, and prisoners may refuse to escape because they have accepted the futility of trying.
  • Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin (1976): Found that giving nursing home residents responsibilities and choices improved their health and well-being.
  • Homeless Shelters: Residents are less likely to improve their situation when they have no control over simple choices.
  • Charisse Nixon's Classroom Experiment: Demonstrated how students with difficult initial tasks succumb to learned helplessness when compared to peers with easier tasks.

Psychological Insights

  • High-Stress Environments: Continuous exposure to stress without escape leads to resignation and passivity.
  • Cancer Study in Rats (Seligman): Demonstrated that rats with no escape from shocks showed higher mortality rates from cancer compared to those that could escape or were not shocked.

Impact of Choice and Control

  • Importance of Small Choices: Even trivial choices can combat feelings of helplessness.
  • Encouraging Failure: Emphasis on the value of failing and learning from it helps counteract the tendency to succumb to despair.

Conclusion

  • Human Resilience: Although humans can fall into patterns of learned helplessness, awareness and active engagement in making choices can help overcome it.