Learned helplessness, learned optimism
A cartoon by Leigh Rubin depicts a psychotherapist saying to his patient, “You seem to have trouble accepting responsibility.” The patient on the couch replies, “It’s my parents’ fault.”
When things go wrong in your life, do you accept the lion’s share of responsibility, or do you tend to pin the blame on other people or events? Do you view the world as being run by rich and powerful people behind the scenes, or can the “little people” like you and me make a real difference? Does getting ahead in life depend upon what you do or don’t do, or is it simply a matter of luck, of being in the right place at the right time? To what degree do you feel capable of bringing about important changes in your life? To what degree is your life controlled by chance or by outside factors?
Our answers to questions like these reflect something about our sense of personal control. According to research by social psychologists like Martin Seligman, our sense of personal control, in turn is related to other important aspects of how we relate to the people and situations in our lives.
Seligman views events “as successes or failures of personal control.” He uses the term, “learned helplessness” to describe the mentality of a person who gives up, quitting some project or task out of a conviction that his efforts will likely be ineffective. A related idea is that of “explanatory style.” This refers to the strategy one habitually uses to understand the causes of various events. An optimistic explanatory style tends to view events as under one’s own control, and appears to protect one from feelings of helplessness. A pessimistic explanatory style promotes helplessness. Explanatory style, in Seligman’s view, is “a habit of thought learned in childhood and adolescence.”
The concept of learned helplessness is nicely illustrated by Seligman’s classical experiment using dogs as subjects. One dog was exposed to mild but uncomfortable shocks, but provided a means of escape. A second dog was given identical shocks, but not allowed to escape. A third dog was not shocked. The following day the dogs were placed in a shuttle box which consisted of two compartments, divided by a low barrier over which the animal could easily jump.
It didn’t take long for the dog that had previously learned to control shocks to discover that he could escape the shock by jumping over the barrier. The dog that had not been shocked likewise, quickly learned the escape procedure. The dog that had been exposed to uncontrollable shocks, however, never even tried to escape, despite being able to see over the barrier to the shock-free zone. In Seligman’s view, the dog that had the prior experience of being unable to control the shock had learned the lesson that its actions are futile. This lesson later affected its ability to initiate effective action when it became possible to escape the shocks.
Similar results have been produced in experiments designed for human subjects. Learning theorists have suggested that learned helplessness is the cognitive or “thought” component of the emotional disorder we know as clinical depression. Learned helplessness has been used to explain why some people seem to give up when faced with difficult, yet surmountable challenges. For example, it may shed light on the behavior of victims of domestic abuse who typically appear unwilling or unable to take available actions to remove themselves from daily contact with their abusers. The issue of domestic abuse is obviously a complex one, and learned helplessness is but one factor among several that may work against an individual in breaking free of this dangerous cycle of violence.
The good news is that helplessness, as a learned habit of thought, can also be unlearned, and optimism can be learned. This is done by developing an explanatory style more consistent with feelings of personal control and self-efficacy. So the next time you are tempted to hold your parents, family members, spouse, coworkers, boss, political leaders, fate, or God himself responsible for life’s adversities, think again. You may find that you are better able to cope with and resolve difficulties by first determining that a source of control resides within yourself.
When things go wrong in your life, do you accept the lion’s share of responsibility, or do you tend to pin the blame on other people or events? Do you view the world as being run by rich and powerful people behind the scenes, or can the “little people” like you and me make a real difference? Does getting ahead in life depend upon what you do or don’t do, or is it simply a matter of luck, of being in the right place at the right time? To what degree do you feel capable of bringing about important changes in your life? To what degree is your life controlled by chance or by outside factors?
Our answers to questions like these reflect something about our sense of personal control. According to research by social psychologists like Martin Seligman, our sense of personal control, in turn is related to other important aspects of how we relate to the people and situations in our lives.
Seligman views events “as successes or failures of personal control.” He uses the term, “learned helplessness” to describe the mentality of a person who gives up, quitting some project or task out of a conviction that his efforts will likely be ineffective. A related idea is that of “explanatory style.” This refers to the strategy one habitually uses to understand the causes of various events. An optimistic explanatory style tends to view events as under one’s own control, and appears to protect one from feelings of helplessness. A pessimistic explanatory style promotes helplessness. Explanatory style, in Seligman’s view, is “a habit of thought learned in childhood and adolescence.”
The concept of learned helplessness is nicely illustrated by Seligman’s classical experiment using dogs as subjects. One dog was exposed to mild but uncomfortable shocks, but provided a means of escape. A second dog was given identical shocks, but not allowed to escape. A third dog was not shocked. The following day the dogs were placed in a shuttle box which consisted of two compartments, divided by a low barrier over which the animal could easily jump.
It didn’t take long for the dog that had previously learned to control shocks to discover that he could escape the shock by jumping over the barrier. The dog that had not been shocked likewise, quickly learned the escape procedure. The dog that had been exposed to uncontrollable shocks, however, never even tried to escape, despite being able to see over the barrier to the shock-free zone. In Seligman’s view, the dog that had the prior experience of being unable to control the shock had learned the lesson that its actions are futile. This lesson later affected its ability to initiate effective action when it became possible to escape the shocks.
Similar results have been produced in experiments designed for human subjects. Learning theorists have suggested that learned helplessness is the cognitive or “thought” component of the emotional disorder we know as clinical depression. Learned helplessness has been used to explain why some people seem to give up when faced with difficult, yet surmountable challenges. For example, it may shed light on the behavior of victims of domestic abuse who typically appear unwilling or unable to take available actions to remove themselves from daily contact with their abusers. The issue of domestic abuse is obviously a complex one, and learned helplessness is but one factor among several that may work against an individual in breaking free of this dangerous cycle of violence.
The good news is that helplessness, as a learned habit of thought, can also be unlearned, and optimism can be learned. This is done by developing an explanatory style more consistent with feelings of personal control and self-efficacy. So the next time you are tempted to hold your parents, family members, spouse, coworkers, boss, political leaders, fate, or God himself responsible for life’s adversities, think again. You may find that you are better able to cope with and resolve difficulties by first determining that a source of control resides within yourself.
posted by Michael | Thursday, March 17, 2005
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