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