Learned Helplessness: Response and Outcome

Running head: LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: RESPONSE AND OUTCOME
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Learned Helplessness: Response and Outcome
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LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: RESPONSE AND OUTCOME
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Table of Content
Learned Helplessness: Response and Outcome...............................................................................3
Abstract........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Factors Influencing Learned Helplessness..................................................................................4
Controllability..............................................................................................................................4
Work efficiency...........................................................................................................................5
Parental Attitude..........................................................................................................................6
Hypotheses...................................................................................................................................7
References....................................................................................................................................8

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: RESPONSE AND OUTCOME
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Learned Helplessness: Response and Outcome
Abstract
According to a psychological report by Elliott, Kratochwill, Littlefield, Cook and Travers
(2000), learned helplessness is viewed a response/reaction by some individuals that causes them
to become frustrated with a task and eventually given up after several unfruitful attempts.
Seligman and Maier (1967) are the first two individuals to ever be documented in the
investigation of learned helplessness. The theory they devised centered on the notion that
organisms develop helplessness after being subjected to uncontrollable situations or stimuli. The
study subjects exposed to unavoidable events learnt that responses and outcomes were totally
independent (Overmier & Molet, 2017).
Introduction
Seligman and Maier (1967) examined learned helplessness as a condition influenced by
emotional, cognitive, and motivational deficiencies. Moreover, they stressed that it occurs when
a living organism is subjected to a series of circumstances that are beyond its control, or
independent of its normal behavior. In the experiments performed by Maier and Seligman dogs
were employed as the test subjects (Landgraf, Long, Der-Avakian, Streets, & Welsh, 2015). The
animals were randomly assigned to three groups where one group was subjected to unavoidable
electrical shock, while another group was given controlled electrical shock, and the last group
was not exposed to any electrical shock. The research findings established that dogs that were
subjected to unavoidable shocking demonstrated angers, anxiety, lack of initiative, and
inactivity. The behavioral changes persisted for an additional day even long after the dog had
been taken to a cage where they could control the electrical shock administered (Maier &
Seligman, 2016).