Learned helplessness
What is Learned Helplessness? A Psychological Definition
Learned helplessness is a phenomenon observed in both humans and other animals when they have been conditioned to expect pain, suffering, or discomfort without a way to escape it (Cherry, 2017). Eventually, after enough conditioning, the animal will stop trying to avoid the pain at all—even if there is an opportunity to truly escape it!
When human or other animals come to understand (or believe) that they have no control over what happens to them, they begin to think, feel, and act as if they are helpless. This phenomenon is called learned helplessness because it is not an innate trait; no one is born believing that they have absolutely no control over what happens to them and that it is fruitless to even try to gain control. It is a learned behavior, conditioned through experiences in which the subject either truly has no control over his circumstances or believes that he has no control over his circumstances.
To understand the proposed connection between learned helplessness and depression, we need to understand the two types of learned helplessness, as outlined by Seligman and colleagues.
Universal helplessness is a sense of helplessness in which the subject believes nothing can be done about the situation she is in. She believes no one can alleviate the pain or discomfort.
On the other hand, personal helplessness is a much more personal sense of helplessness; the subject may believe others could find a solution or avoid the pain or discomfort, but he believes that he, personally, is not capable of finding a solution (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978).
Both types of helplessness can lead to a state of depression, but the quality of that depression may differ. Those who feel universally helpless will tend to find external reasons for their problems and their lack of ability to solve them, while those who feel personally helpless will tend to find internal reasons.
It’s hard to explain the impact of abuse on the victim’s behavior. After all, it makes no sense that a victim would seemingly choose to stay with someone who is hurting them when there are many easy ways for them to escape the situation.
However, in cases of domestic violence and abuse, the abuser is often administering a series of “electrical shocks” (i.e., the form of abuse they subject their victim to) to acclimatize the victim to the abuse and teach them that they do not have control over the situation. The abuser maintains complete control of the situation, and the victim learns that they are helpless to do anything about their circumstances.
Based on learned helplessness, a specific theory was developed for battered spouses/significant others called the theory of cyclic abuse, a cycle which is also known as the Battered Women Syndrome. In this theory, a relationship in which domestic violence has occurred is likely to continue including violence in a predictable and repetitious pattern.
This pattern generally follows this structure:
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.
Stage Two: the acting out period, in which the abuse occurs.
Stage Three: the honeymoon period, in which the abuser may apologize, show remorse, and/or try to make up for the abuse; the abuser may also promise never to abuse the victim again or, alternatively, blame the victim for provoking the abuse.
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 is over and the abuser will change (Rakovec-Felser, 2014)
Seligman’s research led him to the model of learned optimism. He found that, through resilience training, people can learn to develop a more optimistic perspective. This ability has been observed in children, teachers, members of the military, and more (Seligman, 2011).
Positive Psychology Program March 24 2018
