Research findings imply that individuals who experience noncontingent outcomes may become increasingly likely to display the helpless pattern. An early question in the human learned helplessness literature was whether or not helplessness actually generalized from one situation to another, as it did in animals.
This was crucial to the advancement of the theory. These findings continue to support the idea of helplessness as a coherent set of deficits, rather than simply a task-specific problem. Individuals who demonstrate helpless patterns make statements suggesting that they believe themselves to be personally responsible for failure, to attribute their failures to stable circumstances, and to state that these characteristics encompass their whole selves.
In other words, they seem to believe that they have failed because they are stupid, they are going to remain stupid, and everything they do is stupid—controllability, cognitions, and behavior.
Critics suggested that perhaps it is adaptive for an individual to stop responding in the face of failure and that failure to solve the problem, not uncontrollability, underlies the helplessness phenomenon. To test this idea, Kofta and Sedek set up an experiment that separated uncontrollability from failure.
They demonstrated that, whereas failure resulted in decreased mood, it was the condition of uncontrollability that resulted in task performance deficits. Their data support the idea that participants can distinguish uncontrollability and failure and that passivity as a behavior is a deficit, rather than an appropriate response. In , Villanova and Peterson conducted a meta-analysis of the literature on learned helplessness in humans.
Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines data from many different studies. Findings suggest not only that humans tend to reliably demonstrate deficits in subsequent performance after failures, but also that the magnitude of this tendency is relatively robust. Furthermore, these findings appear to be consistent across age, gender, and type of task.
Evidence of generality is surprising, considering that many researchers believed that certain types of people e. Carol Dweck and colleagues have studied the presence of helplessness deficits in children, finding evidence that children as young as 4 and 5 are susceptible. They demonstrate many of the same characteristics as older children and adults. Children exhibiting this pattern have difficulty acquiring and demonstrating cognitive skills in the face of adversity.
They demonstrate dramatically poorer outcomes in a wide variety of domains, including social relationships, sports, moral development, and academics. Attribution or explanatory styles may also play a role in determining how people are impacted by learned helplessness.
This view suggests that an individual's characteristic style of explaining events helps determine whether or not they will develop learned helplessness. A pessimistic explanatory style is associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing learned helplessness.
People with this explanatory style tend to view negative events as being inescapable and unavoidable and tend to take personal responsibility for such negative events. So what can people do to overcome learned helplessness? Research suggests that learned helplessness can be successfully decreased, particularly if intervention occurs during early onset. Long-term learned helplessness can also be reduced, although it may require longer-term effort. Therapy can be effective in reducing symptoms of learned helplessness.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a form of psychotherapy that can be beneficial in overcoming the thinking and behavioral patterns that contribute to learned helplessness. The goal of CBT is to help patients identify negative thought patterns that contribute to feelings of learned helplessness and then replace these thoughts with more optimistic and rational thoughts. This process often involves carefully analyzing what you are thinking, actively challenging these ideas, and disputing negative thought patterns.
One animal study suggested that exercise may be helpful in reducing symptoms of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness can have a profound impact on mental health and well-being. People who experience learned helplessness are also likely to experience symptoms of depression , elevated stress levels, and less motivation to take care of their physical health. Not everyone responds to experiences the same way.
Some people are more likely to experience learned helplessness in the face of uncontrollable events, often due to biological and psychological factors. Children raised by helpless parents, for example, are also more likely to experience learned helplessness.
If you feel that learned helplessness might be having a negative impact on your life and health, consider talking to your doctor about steps you can take to address this type of thinking. Further evaluation can lead to an accurate diagnosis and treatment that can help you replace your negative thought patterns with more positive ones. Such treatment may allow you to replace feelings of learned helplessness with a sense of learned optimism instead.
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Child Dev. Peterson C, Park C. Learned helplessness and explanatory style. Advanced Personality. Springer US; Greenwood BN, Fleshner M. Children with a history of prolonged abuse and neglect, for example, can develop learned helplessness and feelings of powerlessness. Some characteristics of learned helplessness in children include:. In childhood, learned helplessness often presents at school.
If a child studies hard in order to do well in their schoolwork, but ultimately does poorly, they may feel helpless and hopeless.
A 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.
It typically begins after experiencing repeated traumatic events, such as childhood abuse or domestic violence. Explanatory styles also play a role in its development. 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. Learned helplessness is linked with depression, PTSD, and other health problems.
Research indicates that it increases feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression in both humans and animals. One study , for example, suggests that learned helplessness may increase the risk of PTSD and major depressive disorder in women who have lived with domestic violence for a long time.
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. Some research suggests that exercise can prevent learned helplessness in animals. Though there is no research into this particular effect of exercise in humans, physical activity usually benefits mental health and can reduce or prevent anxiety, depression, stress, and other health problems.
Certain factors, such as a history of abuse and a pessimistic outlook, can make a person more prone to learned helplessness. Anyone who believes that they are experiencing learned helplessness should consider speaking with a mental health professional who can help them take control of their circumstances. Cutting is a type of self-harm. Although it can be a challenging habit to break, there are many ways to prevent yourself or others from cutting.
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