Vicarious acquisition of learned helplessness.

In a study with 75 female undergraduates, the performance of Ss following either direct or vicarious experience with a noncontingent training task was compared with the performance of Ss who experienced contingent outcomes on the same task. Ss given no experience with the training task served as an additional control group. Relative to Ss experiencing either no prior training or contingent training, Ss exposed to noncontingency manifested performance deficits on a subsequent test task. Moreover, the magnitude of these deficits was comparable for Ss who had directly experienced noncontingency and those who had merely observed someone else experience noncontingency. These findings suggest that perceiving a low degree of contingency in a given situation may be a result of either direct or vicarious exposure to noncontingency. Thus, learned helplessness effects may be induced by a modeling procedure. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and learned helplessness in man.

Demonstrated similarity of impairment in naturally occurring depression and laboratory-induced learned helplessness in 48 undergraduates. 3 groups each of depressed and nondepressed Ss were exposed to escapable, inescapable, or no noise. Then they were tested on a series of 20 patterned anagrams. Depressed-no-noise Ss were much poorer at solving individual anagrams and seeing the pattern than nondepressed-no-noise Ss. Inescapable noise produced parallel deficits in nondepressed Ss relative to escapable or no noise, but inescapable noise did not increase impairment in depressed Ss. Findings support the learned helplessness model of depression, which claims that a belief in independence between responding and reinforcement is central to the etiology, symptoms, and cure of reactive depression. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction, control, and learned helplessness.

Examined the independent effects of perceived control over and perceived predictability of an aversive event on 100 undergraduates' performance on a memory task and depressive affect. All Ss completed the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List and the Desirability of Control Scale. Ss who received noise blasts that were both uncontrollable and unpredictable displayed performance decrements and depressive affect relative to a no-noise group, whereas Ss who were able either to control or to predict the aversive event did not. The perception of control or predictability concerning the aversive event was thus sufficient to mitigate learned helplessness, suggesting the functional equivalence of perceived control and predictability. Finally, results reveal that Ss high in the "desire for control over events" reacted to the aversive noise more than did Ss low in the desire for control. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental study of learned helplessness.

Examined susceptibility to learned helplessness among 20 children from each of kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, and Grade 5 classes by exposing groups of Ss to either repeated failure or repeated success on hidden figures problems. Helplessness was measured by Ss' persistence in looking for hidden figures and their capacity to find them following repeated success or failure. It was hypothesized that younger Ss would be less susceptible to helplessness than older ones, due to age-related differences in causal attributions for success and failure. Results confirm the hypothesis in that failure, relative to success, had significantly less influence on the level of helplessness in younger Ss' behavior. It is suggested that the development of attributional capabilities during the preschool and early elementary school years has important ramifications for cognitive theories of motivation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational specificity of laboratory-induced learned helplessness.

Investigated the effects of exposure to escapable or inescapable noise in either the original pretreatment setting or in a dissimilar experimental setting with 80 undergraduates. In the same setting, Ss receiving inescapable noise displayed more anagram debilitation than did Ss receiving escapable noise. However, when inescapable Ss were removed from the original noise-exposure setting under the guise of participating in a different experiment, equivalent anagram performance impairments were not found. In addition, there were no differences between the escapable and inescapable groups in pre- and postnoise change in depression, hostility, or anxiety as measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. Results do not support the learned helplessness theory, which suggests that exposure to an uncontrollable event is psychologically debilitating across diverse situations. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immunization against learned helplessness in man.

Immunization against learned helplessness has been found in dogs and rats; the present experiments tested for the same effect in humans. In Exp I, 38 college students were divided into 4 groups. A helplessness control group received no immunization training, whereas 3 other groups received either a 0, 50, or 100% schedule of success on a series of discrimination problems. All groups were then given insoluble problems and were subsequently tested on a human shuttle box. An immunization effect against helplessness was produced; the 50% immunization schedule produced performance significantly superior to the helplessness control and 0% groups. The 100% group failed to produce the immunization effect. Exp II with 45 Ss involved a partial replication of the 1st experiment, but anagram solutions were used as the test task. Also, control groups based on the triadic design were included in Exp II. Results for the 2nd experiment essentially paralleled the results from Exp I. Immunization effects were shown following a 50% schedule but not following either 0 or 100% immunization schedule. These findings lend substantial support to the stimulus–response explanation of helplessness phenomena over the expectancy-of-independence explanation. Implications of the study for the helplessness model of depression and for strategies in clinical therapy are also discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention of learned helplessness in humans.

Prevention of learned helplessness (LH) through the use of thermal biofeedback training and varied explanations of performance was explored. One group of Ss received biofeedback training directly prior to exposure to an experimentally produced LH situation. A 2nd group also received biofeedback training but were given false/negative feedback about their performance. A 3rd group received only the LH procedure, and a 4th group served as a no-treatment control. Only in the biofeedback group receiving accurate feedback was there any prevention of the subsequent development of LH behavior. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A two-process theory of learned helplessness.

160 college students solved button-pushing problems under feedback conditions designed to differ systematically in the amount of information they conveyed and the amount of motivation they produced. During a pretest series of trials, 1 group received response-contingent feedback designed to enhance both information and motivation. A 2nd group was yoked to the contingent group and thus received low information and low motivation. A 3rd group experienced noncontingent success (low information, high motivation), and a 4th group received noncontingent failure feedback (low information, low motivation). A 2-process model that gives equal weight to information and motivational cues correctly predicted that the performance of the noncontingent success group on a transfer task would fall in between that of the contingent group and the failure/yoked groups. As a more stringent test of the model, 4 interventions were factorially combined with the pretreatments. The intervention treatments involved giving either no information, information about the contingencies, praise, or derogation. As predicted by the model, simply giving Ss information about the contingencies removed the debilitating effects of learned helplessness. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physiological correlates of learned helplessness in man.

Assessed physiological correlates (heart rate, skin resistance, and GSR) of learned helplessness in 48 undergraduates. One group of Ss was pretreated with a series of inescapable aversive tones, and the degree of impairment was measured on a subsequent solvable anagram solution task. These Ss were compared with a group pretreated with escapable aversive tones and a control group which passively listened to the tones without attempting to escape them. Results replicate the learned helplessness effect: The group pretreated with inescapable tones demonstrated greatly impaired performance at solving anagrams relative to the other groups. Moreover, the learned-helplessness group demonstrated lower tonic skin conductance levels, smaller phasic skin conductance responses, and more spontaneous electrodermal activity relative to the group pretreated with escapable tones. These are symptoms which some researchers have claimed to be associated with clinical depression. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness.

According to the logic of the attribution reformulation of learned helplessness, the interaction of 2 factors influences whether helplessness experienced in one situation will transfer to a new situation. The model predicts that people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to global factors will show helplessness deficits in new situations that are either similar or dissimilar to the original situation in which they were helpless. In contrast, people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to only specific factors will show helplessness deficits in situations that are similar, but not dissimilar, to the original situation in which they were helpless. To test these predictions, 2 studies were conducted in which undergraduates with either a global or specific attributional style for negative outcomes (as measured by the Attributional Style Questionnaire) were given 1 of 3 pretreatments in the typical helplessness triadic design: controllable bursts of noise, uncontrollable bursts of noise, or no noise. Ss were also administered the Beck Depression Inventory. In Exp I, 108 Ss were tested for helplessness deficits in a test situation similar to the pretreatment setting, whereas in Exp II, 60 Ss were tested in a test situation dissimilar to the pretreatment setting. Findings are consistent with predictions of the reformulated helplessness theory. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inherited hypohedonia leads to learned helplessness: A conjecture updated.

The reformulated learned helplessness theory posits depressogenic explanatory style (DES) as a vulnerability factor in depression. Early-life adversity has been suggested as the source of DES, but this is contradicted by empirically established features of the learned helplessness phenomenon itself and by the evidence for human resilience in the face of adversity. This article extends a conjecture first advanced by P. E. Meehl (1975) and argues that an inherited defect in hedonic capacity would be sufficient to produce DES by causing intermittent schedules of reinforcement to be experienced as extinction schedules, resulting in a pervasive and unremitting sense of helplessness. This proposed hedonic defect also provides a means for integrating the original and reformulated versions of learned helplessness theory and for integrating learned helplessness with emerging research and theory on the biology of vulnerability to depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between an attributional dimension and learned helplessness.

An experiment using 64 undergraduates assessed the relation between performance deficits induced by uncontrollability and the global–specific attribution dimension proposed in the reformulation of learned helplessness by L. Y. Abramson et al (see record 1979-00305-001). Consistent with the reformulation, it was found that Ss exhibited deficits on subsequent performance after failing on a task described as a powerful predictor of performance on other tasks. Such deficits did not occur when Ss failed on a task described as a poor predictor of performance. Contrary to prediction, it was found that Ss' global–specific attributions did not predict their subsequent performance. These results provide partial support for the predictions of the reformulated model about the occurrence of performance deficits. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions modulate immunization against learned helplessness in humans.

Conducted 3 experiments to determine the effect of global and internal attributions on immunization against learned helplessness. Exp 1 replicated the helplessness effect and its immunization. This immunization effect was weakened in Ss with global internal attributions about negative events and strengthened in Ss with specific and external attributions. In Exp 2, previous attributional style did not produce any effect on either immunization or helplessness. However, instructions to induce global internal attributions produced an enhanced helplessness effect. In Exp 3, global internal attributions induced by instructions during uncontrollability, but not during controllability, produced significant differences in the immunization effect. Immunization against helplessness was a function of a previous controllable experience, and attributions represented a vulnerability factor that modulated the actual influence of previous experiences on new tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive influences on the development of learned helplessness.

120 college students participated in an experiment concerning the influence of self-statements following failure on subsequent symptoms of learned helplessness (LH). 40 Ss were given solvable concept-formation problems (nonhelpless condition), and 80 Ss were given unsolvable problems (helpless condition). MANOVA revealed a significant difference between helpless and nonhelpless Ss on cognitive/motivational and affective measures of LH and on self-statements regarding performance. However, when multiple regression and correlational analyses were performed within the group of Ss who failed the problems, no stable relationship was found between self-statements (cognitions) about concept-formation performance and the LH measures. Implications for A. T. Beck's (1967) cognitive model of depression and the reformulated LH model of depression (L. Y. Abramson et al, 1978) are discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Three tests of the learned helplessness model of depression.

Three studies, employing 132 undergraduates, tested predictions derived from M. E. Seligman's (1975) helplessness model of depression. The 1st attempted to replicate the finding that depressed individuals evidence a perception of noncontingency, manifest in a failure to adjust predictions of future success in a skill task on the basis of past success. The prediction was not supported: Depressed and nondepressed Ss did not differ on measures of perceived noncontingency. Exp II tested the prediction that Ss in whom helplessness had been induced would evidence a perception of noncontingency, measured as in Exp I; this prediction was not supported, though helplessness Ss did report greater depression than controls, as predicted by the model. Exp III successfully replicated the finding that in depressed individuals there is a diminution of learning and problem solving, as manifest in poorer ability to solve anagrams; however, this was not accompanied by differences in self-reported perceived noncontrol. The present studies cast doubt on the claim that the perception of noncontingency plays a role in depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of real and recalled success on learned helplessness and depression.

The effects of recalling past successes on the deficits in learned helplessness and depression were examined and, for learned helplessness, compared with those of real success. Ss were 84 female, English university students who had been rated on the Beck Depression Inventory. Depressed Ss and nondepressed Ss receiving unsolvable problems showed deficits in anagram performance and some evidence of lowered mood compared with nondepressed Ss receiving no unsolvable problems. Experience with solvable letter substitution problems reversed anagram deficits and low mood associated with learned helplessness, replicating previous findings. Recalling successes on letter substitution problems had no effect on the anagram deficits in learned helplessness and depression and had an effect in improving mood only in learned helplessness. Real and recalled success both significantly modified attributions for failure in the learned helplessness condition. Results suggest real success does not have its therapeutic effects by modifying attributions for failure toward external factors. Some evidence of a facilitatory effect of depression on initial anagram performance was obtained. It is concluded that recall of past successes, while easier to arrange than real success experiences, may not be a powerful clinical procedure. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive determinants of reaction to uncontrollable events: Development of reactance and learned helplessness.

Examined links between crowding, loss of control, and helplessness in university dormitory settings. Dormitories were selected in which the number of residents sharing common areas was varied. Past research has shown that when designs clustered residents around shared areas in smaller numbers (short-corridor design), residents reported less social withdrawal and stress relative to those designs in which residents were grouped in larger numbers (long-corridor design). 64 freshmen residents of long-corridor and short-corridor designs were studied. Assessment was made of an array of behaviors at regular intervals throughout their 1st 10 wks of residence. Results show that attributions to personal factors were closely associated with an initial reactance phase of response to loss of control in long-corridor Ss. Subsequently, attributions of loss of control to environmental conditions were associated with behavior indicative of helplessness. Implications for the study of cognitive and environmental mediation of reactance and helplessness phenomena, and their possible adaptive value, are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The opioid/nonopioid nature of stress-induced analgesia and learned helplessness.

Investigated whether the same factors that activate the processes that produce escape interference might also activate processes leading to opioid stress-induced analgesia (SIA). Exposure to a variety of stressors produces a subsequent analgesic reaction that is sometimes opioid in nature (reversed by opiate antagonists and cross-tolerant with morphine) and sometimes nonopioid. In Exp I, 40 male albino rats were subjected to 20 min of intermittent footshock, 3 min of continuous footshock, tailshock on a VI schedule, or confinement only. Ss were given escape/avoidance training 24 hrs later. In Exp II, 36 Ss received SIA with a tail-flick apparatus. In Exp III, 40 Ss received inescapable tailshocks or confinement only. In Exp IV, 24 Ss received 2 sessions of footshock before tail-flick was assessed. Both of the opioids SIA procedures produced a learned helplessness effect as assessed by shuttlebox escape acquisition and an analgesia that was reinstatable 24 hrs later. The nonopioid procedures produced neither a learned helplessness effect nor a reinstatable analgesia. These data implicate the learning of uncontrollability in the activation of opioid systems. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influences of sex roles on the development of learned helplessness.

160 college students participated in an experiment concerning the relationships among sex roles, sex, and learned helplessness. Included in each of the 4 following sex role types were 20 males and 20 females: androgynous, masculine sex typed, feminine sex typed, and undifferentiated. Half the Ss in each sex role type were given unsolvable concept formation problems (helpless condition); the other Ss were given solvable concept formation problems (nonhelpless condition). Sex of experimenter was counterbalanced across sex of S, sex role type, and experimental condition. As predicted, the 4 sex role types responded differently to the helpless condition. Feminine-sex-typed and masculine-sex-typed Ss showed cognitive and motivational deficits as well as dysphoric mood in the helpless condition; helpless androgynous Ss showed only dysphoric mood; and undifferentiated Ss were unaffected by the helpless condition. This pattern of results was found for both males and females and was unrelated to sex of experimenter. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness and learned effectiveness: Effects of explicit response cues on individuals differing in personal control expectancies.

62 female undergraduates who scored as extreme internals or externals on the Mirels Personal Fate Control Scale participated in a partial replication of D. S. Hiroto's (see record 1974-24488-001) learned helplessness experiment. Lights were added to the treatment apparatus, which made explicit to Ss the contingency or noncontingency between their responses and the termination of an aversive tone. As predicted, the performance of internals was significantly impaired by uncontrollability (learned helplessness), while that of externals was facilitated by controllability (learned effectiveness). Externals performed as well as internals in the "escapable" condition, but their performance was inferior to that of internals in the control condition. Following "inescapable" treatment, internals performed more poorly than externals. Results support H. M. Lefcourt's (1967) explication. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)