Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness is an important theory of psychology discovered by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman. He set up an experiment with dogs who had been trained to expect a shock after hearing a tone (see Classical conditioning). Those dogs were placed in room where part of the floor was electrified and part was not. The dogs which had been conditioned to expect the shock made no effort to escape the shock even if it meant little effort. When subjected to adverse conditions for long enough an animal, or a human, stops fighting the conditions and just learns to live with them and will not try to overcome them because of the appearance of futility.[1]

People who suffer from domestic violence, bullying, depression, drug abuse, and alcoholism often experience some level of learned helplessness. This may manifest in a feeling of worthlessness, guilt, embarrassment, powerlessness, and shame.

• "This theory, backed up by years of research, is that a great deal of depression grows out of a feeling of helplessness: the feeling that you cannot control your environment." [2]

Journal article

• Learned Helplessness at Fifty: Insights from Neuroscience, Psychological Review, Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 Jul 1. Published in final edited form as: Psychol Rev. 2016 Jul; 123(4): 349–367. doi: 10.1037/rev0000033

Book

• Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman. Free Press; Reissue edition (March 1, 1998)

See also

• Learned optimism

External links

• What Causes Learned Helplessness?
• Learned Helplessness
• What is learned helplessness, and how do you 'unlearn' it?
• What is learned helplessness?, Medical News Today
• Learned helplessness, Britannica
• Learned Helplessness in Organizations, Harvard Business Review