| Abstract: | Three groups of Ss—depressed, nondepressed, and nondepressed pretreated with an inescapable-noise/insoluble-problems manipulation—were compared on anagram performance and on stated expectations of success on trials of a perceptual task. Ss were 48 undergraduates who had been rated on the Beck Depression Inventory, the MMPI Depression scale, and the Self-Consciousness Scale. The design, frequently used in learned helplessness research, was used in both a public (experimenter present) and a private (experimenter absent) condition. Expectancy-of-success results revealed differences among the group's behaviors across the public–private conditions, suggesting that interpersonal mechanisms between S and experimenter rather than a learned helplessness conceptualization may account for these data. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
