Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness refers to a psychological approach to the Declaration of depression. It assumes that individuals constrict as a result of experiences of helplessness or powerlessness their behavioral repertoire in that they no longer leave unpleasant experienced states, although they could (as viewed from the outside). The term was coined by American psychologist Martin EP Seligman and Steven F. Maier in 1967, carried out the experiments with dogs and other animals. Seligman was of the view that people who suffer from depression may be in a state of learned helplessness. Learned ( and learned ) helplessness refers to the expectation of an individual, not able to control and influence certain situations or circumstances. The individual experiences a loss of control by an executed action and the resulting consequences are perceived as independent. This expectation affects the more experience and behavior of the individual and can manifest itself in motivational, cognitive, and emotional deficits ( Seligman, 1975). The results of animal studies have also been confirmed in humans (see Hiroto, 1974).

Learned helplessness in humans

Learned helplessness is a model to explain human depression, which may be a consequence when life circumstances induce a person to exercise personal choices as irrelevant. Not all individuals react with depression to a situation of helplessness. According to Seligman identifies a specific attributional people in a state of learned helplessness. You look at problems as:

  • Personal: you see yourself in the problem and not in the external circumstances.
  • General: You see the problem as pervasive and not limited to specific situations.
  • Permanent: You see the problem as immutable and not temporary.

Learned helplessness experiment in dogs

The experimental setup is also called triadic design, because the animals are divided into three groups. The experiment Learned helplessness in dogs occurs in two phases.

  • Phase 1: During this phase,
  • Phase 2: During this phase, all three groups will be trained in a shuttle box. A shuttle box consisting of two identical boxes ( compartments ) which are connected to each other via a passage. The test animal is placed in one of the two boxes and subjected to a shock. It can now easily escape the shock by changes in the other box. In one-way shuttle experiments, the animal is placed in each passage in a certain box. In two-way shuttle experiments, the animal always moves from one to the other box and the shocks are administered on alternate sides.
  • Result: The first group, which could finish in Phase 1 to shock with her behavior, quickly learns to avoid the shock in the shuttle -box training. Over time, the animals learn not only to terminate the shock by a change in the other box, but this by a premature move to entirely avoid ( avoidance learning ).
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