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)     

Sex role identity and the decision to regain control among women: A learned helplessness investigation.

280 female undergraduates from 4 sex-role identity groups underwent either an initial loss of control (helpless) or control (nonhelpless) experience. Ss were then allowed to choose their role in a team problem-solving task. They could either (a) have total control over the team's decisions, (b) have no control over the team's decisions, or (c) not participate in the task. Compared to Ss low on masculinity, Ss high on masculinity chose to be in control of team problem solving in both the helpless and nonhelpless conditions. None of the 14 feminine-sex-typed Ss chose to control the team's decisions in the helpless condition, whereas 10 of the 14 masculine-sex-typed Ss made this choice. Results are discussed relative to the high rates of depression among women. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions as moderators of affective and behavioral responses to social failure.

Undergraduate women with a helpless or nonhelpless attributional style as measured by the Attributional Style Questionnaire were subjected to social failure or success (interaction with unresponsive or responsive confederates). Subsequently, each interacted with a second naive subject. As predicted, individuals with a helpless attributional style became depressed and hostile (as measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List) after interacting with an unresponsive confederate. Furthermore, in comparison with nonhelpless subjects, helpless subjects who interacted with the unresponsive confederate evidenced more tension in their voices during both interactions and less pleasantness in their nonverbal behavior during the second interaction. Overall, the second group of subjects did not respond differently to the first group of subjects as an interactive function of attributions and experimental condition of the initial subjects. However, helpless subjects in the second group spoke less, were less nonverbally pleasant, and became more hostile than did nonhelpless subjects after interacting with individuals who had previously interacted with an unresponsive confederate. A consistent but unexpected pattern was found for nonhelpless subjects: They responded more adaptively to stressful than to nonstressful interactions. Results are interpreted as providing support for a vulnerability model of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An attempt to reverse performance deficits associated with depression and experimentally induced helplessness.

The learned helplessness model of depression predicts that any effective treatment for reactive depression should also reverse performance deficits associated with experimentally induced helplessness, and vice versa. A study was conducted to test this prediction. Ss were 62 college students who were exposed to experimental manipulations designed to induce helplessness or who scored above a group mean on the Beck Depression Inventory. Depressed and helpless Ss were randomly assigned to 4 groups. The 2 treatment groups received either E. Velten's (1968) mood statements for the induction of elation or a set of simple anagrams to solve. The 2 remaining groups were exposed to no-treatment conditions. All Ss were tested for helplessness on a series of concept formation problems. Results fail to confirm the predictions of the learned helplessness model of depression. Although treatment was effective with helpless Ss, the performance of treated depressed Ss was not enhanced. Also, depressed Ss given anagrams performed more poorly than depressed Ss given mood statements. Several possible explanations for the findings are considered. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of cognitive assessment methods with heterosocially anxious college women.

Investigated the comparability of self-statements generated by different cognitive assessment methods (structured questionnaire and thought listing) and the effect of an assessment delay on cognitive phenomena (self-statements; rational and irrational beliefs, evaluative, potency, and activity semantic schema; self-attributions; and self-ratings of discomfort and performance). The interrelationships among different cognitive variables were also studied. Ss were 64 high and low heterosocially anxious (as measured by the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale and a survey of heterosocial interactions) undergraduate females, who engaged in a conversation with a male confederate. One-half of the Ss completed the measures after the conversation, and the other half completed them 1 wk later. Findings show that although the 2 self-statement methods were counterbalanced, order effects were nonsignificant. Correlations indicated that self-statements (positive and negative thoughts) generated by the 2 methods were unrelated. Multivariate and univariate analyses failed to reveal significant effects for time of assessment. Significant effects were found on almost all variables for anxiety, constituting additional construct validity for these measures. A correlational matrix provided information about interrelationships among the cognitive variables. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of amount of helplessness training and internal–external locus of control on mood and performance.

Based on C. B. Wortman and J. W. Brehm's (1975) integration of reactance theory with M. E. Seligman's (1972, 1975) model of learned helplessness, the present study examined the effects of amount of helplessness training and internal–external locus of control on subsequent task performance and on self-ratings of mood. 90 undergraduates were divided into internal and external groups on the basis of their scores on Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale and were then given either high, low, or no helplessness training on a series of concept-formation problems. After completing the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, all Ss worked on an anagram task presented as a 2nd experiment by a 2nd experimenter. Internals exhibited greater performance decrements and reported greater depression under high helplessness than did externals. In the low helplessness conditions, internals tended to perform better than control Ss, while externals tended to perform worse than control Ss; low helplessness Ss also reported the highest levels of hostility. The results are discussed within the context of Wortman and Brehm's integration of reactance and learned helplessness theories. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial muscle patterning and lateralization during elation and depression imagery.

26 18–30 yr old female Ss read a standard set of self-referent statements and imagined scenes with elated, depressed, and neutral content. The dependent measures were subjective mood ratings (Self-Rating Depression Scale) and left and right zygomatic- and corrugator-muscle activity. The self-statements elicited feelings of elation and depression in approximately 70% of Ss. Among these Ss, elation was accompanied by immediate increases in zygomatic activity, especially on the right side of the face in pure right-handed Ss. Depression was accompanied by bilateral increases in corrugator activity that grew over time. In the remaining 30% of Ss who reported experiencing little or no subjective differences between the elation and depression self-statements, similar though smaller facial patterns of zygomatic and corrugator activity were found that reliably differentiated the affective conditions. Data support the hypothesis that facial EMG patterning is a sensitive psychophysiological indicator of mood. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manipulation of self-esteem as a determinant of mood of elated and depressed women.

Tested the theory that self-esteem is a determinant of elation-depression. Changes in self-esteem were induced by having Ss read positive or negative self-evaluative statements. 140 female college students were selected on the basis of extreme scores of characteristic elation and depression and on the basis of suggestibility and were assigned to 1 of 5 treatment or control groups. The induction of positive vs negative cognitions produced significant differences in elation-depression on multiple measures. Characteristically elated and depressed Ss were able to take on opposite mood states. This study suggests that a determinant of depression is evaluative self-statements, supports the utility of cognitive therapy for depressives, and demonstrates a potentially useful technique for inducing more appropriate self-evaluations. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal of cognitive and affective deficits associated with depression and learned helplessness by mood elevation in patients

Therapeutic implications of the learned helplessness model of depression were tested in a clinical population (48 male medical and psychiatric patients of a VA hospital). In pretreatment, 2 groups of nondepressed medical patients waited, 2 groups of nondepressed medical patients received helplessness training, and 2 groups of psychiatric patients (diagnosed as primary affective disorder) waited. In treatment, Ss received either E. Velten's (1968) mood-elation procedure as "therapy" or Velten's (1968) mood-neutral procedure as placebo. Performance on cognitive and mood tasks was assessed. Three separate administrations of the Depression Adjective Check List indicated that helplessness training induced depressive affect, and the mood elation procedure decreased depressive affect for both helpless and depressed Ss. The mood neutral procedure and the waiting periods were associated with no affective changes. On the cognitive (anagrams) task, performance deficits were associated with helplessness and depression but were reversed by mood elation. Results are interpreted as consistent with the learned helplessness model of depression. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Boys with peer adjustment problems: Social cognitive processes.

30 4th-grade and 30 6th-grade males with positive (P) or negative (N) peer status were asked to generate alternative solutions to hypothetical problems, evaluate possible solutions, describe self-statements, and rate the likelihood of possible self-statements to investigate the hypothesis that maladjusted Ss (N peer status) would lack specific social cognitive skills. Hypothetical problems were presented in interviews that emphasized situations involving acts of aggression. Interviews were conducted in 2 parts, involving knowledge of interpersonal problem-solving strategies and attributional style assessment. Results indicate that N Ss generated fewer alternative solutions, proposed fewer assertive and mature solutions, generated more intense aggressive solutions, showed less adaptive planning, and evaluated physically aggressive responses more positively and positive responses more negatively than did P Ss. Data support the notion that boys with social adjustment problems are deficient in the cognitive problem-solving skill of generating multiple alternative solutions. Findings suggest that differences in knowledge and/or attitudes concerning normative social behavior may contribute to the more negative behavior patterns observed in socially maladjusted boys. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of another person's response style on interpersonal behavior in depression.

30 depressed and 30 nondepressed undergraduate women, assigned to categories on the basis of their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a short form of the MMPI, interacted with experimental accomplices who played various interpersonal roles during a laboratory procedure involving "cooperative problem-solving." The roles enacted were critical–competitive, supportive–cooperative, and helpless–dependent. Ss' conversational behaviors, written communications, and postencounter evaluations were analyzed as a function of the personal style portrayed by the accomplice. Results indicate that depressed Ss communicated relatively high levels of self-devaluation, sadness, helplessness, and general negative content to all accomplice roles. The critical–competitive role elicited greater extrapunitiveness among depressives than normal Ss and the helpless–dependent role elicited a greater number of negative self-statements among depressives than normal Ss. Findings are discussed in relation to interactional concepts of depressives' social functioning. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood changes, physiological responses, and self-statements during social rejection imagery.

Exp I, partially replicating M. Goldfried and D. Sobocinski's (see record 1975-26824-001) methodology, evaluated the cognitive behavioral assumption that one's images and correct verbalizations mediate emotional and physiological arousal. Ss were 32 female university students who scored at the extremes on the importance of social approval scale from the Irrational Beliefs Test. It was hypothesized that relative to the low-irrational Ss, high-irrational ones would emit more negative and fewer positive tasks- and self-referent self-statements, report greater emotional arousal, and exhibit greater increases in physiological arousal while visualizing social rejection scenes. The major finding was that the groups differed significantly in the frequency of negative self-referent self-statements; virtually no support was obtained for the other hypotheses. Exp II, which used 24 females and which did not employ self-statements or physiological measures but was otherwise similar to Exp I, was a more exact replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. Exp III, with 36 Ss, was a complete replication of the Goldfried and Sobocinski study. The data from the latter 2 studies indicate no differences in the reported moods of high- and low-irrational Ss following visualizations of social rejection scenes. Conceptual and clinical implications are discussed. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of attributions for success on the alleviation of learned helplessness and depression.

Investigated the effects of attributions for success on the alleviation of mood and performance deficits of 104 19–60 yr old clinically depressed inpatients. Ss were assigned to either an acutely depressed group or an improved depressed group that was exposed to a learned helplessness induction procedure. Ss received 80% positive feedback on a task allegedly measuring social intelligence. Concurrently, Ss were exposed to experimental manipulations designed to induce attributions of this experience to 1 of 4 types of causes (internal–general, internal–specific, external–general, external–specific). Following this task, Ss' mood, expectancies, and anagram performance were assessed. Results indicate that helpless and depressed Ss who received the internal attribution manipulations reported less depressed mood than Ss in the external attribution conditions. Similarly, Ss in the general attribution conditions performed better and reported higher expectancies for success on the anagrams than Ss in the specific attribution conditions. Results are supportive of an attribution theory model of learned helplessness and depression. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-evaluation and assessments of performance by self and others.

Explored the relationship between self-esteem, the perception of competence, and actual competence when performance is attributed to oneself or to someone else. 44 male and 43 female undergraduates with high and low self-esteem performed a concept-formation task and evaluated their performance; 1 wk later they either rerated their own performance after watching a videotape of their previous session or rated the videotaped performance of "another S," actually a model who mimicked their previous performance. High-self-esteem Ss perceived themselves as doing better on the task than low-self-esteem Ss, although their performance was actually comparable. The 2 groups' evaluations differed only when they thought they were assessing themselves and not when they felt they were evaluating someone else. Potential mechanisms accounting for the differences in self-evaluations are explored. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and adult self-regulation.

100 female undergraduates reviewed 1 of 5 sets of 45 self-statements representing manipulations of affect (positive somatic, positive self-evaluation, negative somatic, negative self-evaluation, or neutral) and then completed an ostensibly separate task involving self-regulation of difficult or easy mathematics problems to examine the influence of induced affect on Ss' self-regulated performance and related subjective responses. Before and after the affect induction, Ss completed several measures of affect and self-perception, including the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist and the Subjective Probability Questionnaire. Following the performance phase, Ss observed their problem-solving activities, evaluated them, and made attributional and other responses. It was hypothesized that (1) somatic affect inductions would prove most potent, (2) affect would have greater impact in the low-task-mastery context, and (3) positive vs negative affect inductions would produce differential effects, dependent on task-mastery condition. The somatic inductions more substantially influenced subjective reports and performance, in accord with Hypothesis 1, and the positive somatic induction significantly improved self-regulation only in the low-mastery condition, in partial support of Hypotheses 2 and 3. Discussion focuses on the importance of the arousal dimensions of affect and concomitant shifts in attentional foci as determinants of adult self-regulation. (93 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of cognitive style in a cognitive task: A case favoring the impulsive approach to problem solving.

A task that favored the impulsive approach to problem solving was given to impulsive, reflective, fast/accurate, and slow/inaccurate male 3rd and 4th graders. Ss learned to choose 1 of a pair of multidimensional stimuli based upon a single cue. In 1 condition, the stimuli were composed of many dimensions; in the 2nd condition, the stimuli were composed of few dimensions. Reflective Ss solved the task with few dimensions more quickly than impulsive Ss, whereas impulsive Ss solved the task with many dimensions in fewer trials. Fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate Ss solved problems in an intermediate number of trials but also reversed positions as a function of the number of dimensions. Both speed and accuracy components of cognitive style contributed to performance in the cognitive task. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a task analysis of assertive behavior

Conceptualized assertiveness problems in terms of a task analysis of the topography of competent responding. 47 male and 54 female undergraduates who ranged from extremely nonassertive to highly assertive (according to their scores on the Conflict Resolution Inventory) responded to 3 sets of situations requiring refusal of an unreasonable request. Content knowledge of an assertive response, delivery of the response under 2 conditions, heart rate, self-perceived tension, and the incidence of positive and negative self-statements were assessed. Differences on these variables between low-assertive (LA), moderate-assertive (MA), and high-assertive (HA) groups were analyzed to determine the nature of the response deficit in nonassertive Ss. LA Ss differed from MA and HA Ss on role-playing assessments requiring them to deliver an assertive response, but they did not differ from MA and HA Ss on their knowledge of a competent response or on hypothetical delivery situations. No significant differences in heart rate were observed between LA, MA, and HA Ss; however, higher self-perceived tension was found in LA compared to MA and HA Ss. A greater number of negative and fewer positive self-statements were reported by LA compared to MA and HA Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of conceptual complexity on assertive behavior.

Postulated that information-processing style is an important cognitive skill for effective assertive behavior and identified conceptual complexity (CC) as the variable that defined Ss' information-processing approach. In 2 studies, 146 undergraduates differing in CC were compared in their performance on various measures relevant to competent assertive behavior (e.g., Assertiveness Knowledge Inventory, the Hypothetical Behavior Role-Playing Assertion Test, and the Assertiveness Self-Statement Test). In Exp I, high CC Ss (e.g., those who possessed abstract schema for processing social information) demonstrated greater content knowledge, direct delivery skill, and fewer negative self-statements that inhibit assertiveness. Exp II involved the testing of various hypotheses about the specific role of CC in assertive encounters. High vs low CC females were more assertive in difficult situations (e.g., interaction with close friends) but did not differ in simple situations. High CC Ss were more assertive in extended interaction tests, expressed consideration of the needs of others, and were more flexible in sex-role orientation. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal and impersonal problem-solving skills in mildly and clinically depressed university students.

Administered the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to 20 nondepressed and 20 depressed university students and 8 nondepressed and 10 depressed university students being treated at a university counseling service. Ss were then tested on the Means–Ends Problem-Solving Procedure (a measure of interpersonal problem-solving ability) and the anagram task used in the investigations of learned helplessness (a measure of impersonal problem-solving ability). All Ss were administered the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry version of the Vocabulary subscale of the WAIS. A significant negative correlation was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability, while only anxiety was correlated with anagram performance. Differences between groups were found only in interpersonal problem-solving performance. Nondepressed Ss performed significantly better than the other 3 groups, while depressed counselees obtained the lowest scores on the interpersonal measures. No relationship was found between performance on the anagram task and performance on the Means–Ends Problem-Solving Procedure. Results are consistent with predictions generated by interpersonal theories of depression, but they raise questions about the validity of the learned helplessness model as an analog of clinical depression. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)