Learned Helplessness Research Paper

920 Words2 Pages

Learned helplessness is the feeling of not being able to affect your environment for a positive outcome because of your many past adversities, struggles and failures. It’s the feeling that you cannot change your circumstances no matter what you do causing you to want to just give up. This results in the belief that you have no control over the situation so you believe you are absolutely helpless in changing the situation. Learned helplessness produces passivity and negatively impacts future problem solving skills. This passive behavior will cause someone to repeatedly not take action or control even when a better alternative or better solution arises. Adults and children can exhibit signs of learned helplessness such as complacency, apathy, discouragement, anxiety, shyness, and even depression (Beaumont, n.d.). This quote from Henry Ford sums up learned helplessness perfectly, “Whether you …show more content…

That ebb and flow is bi-directional and can lead to positive or negative cognitive development (Boundless, 2016). One negative cognitive outcome is learned helplessness which can exist within the educational classrooms. This is a result of repeated failed attempts to produce a positive outcome. The student will feel a loss of control on their environment causing them to essentially give up even trying. There are ways to combat learned helplessness in the classroom. The most effective way is to allow for all students to participate in the classroom decision making along with teacher guidance. Of course, there are boundaries or limits that students must adhere to with the primary concern being the safety of all involved. This can even be considered as democracy in education. “Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably

Open Document