Overmier And Seligman Learned Helplessness

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Learned Helplessness Madelein D. Andrade Florida Atlantic University Learned Helplessness Learned helplessness is the psychological phenomenon that occurs when an individual faces an aversive and uncontrollable situation and learns that they are unable to change the outcome of the situation no matter what action they take (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Overmier and Seligman first explored this phenomenon in 1967. Their experiment was performed on dogs that received inevitable shocks of electricity. The dogs that had been exposed to the inescapable shocks of electricity later failed to recognize an opportunity to escape (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Further exploration by Overmier and Seligman showed that these dogs were unable to find an escape …show more content…

One of the most powerful ideas presented by this experiment is the cognitive aspect of the learned helplessness phenomenon. The cognitive portion of this experiment explains that routine exposure to inevitable outcomes can hinder the subject’s ability to perceive a direct relationship between their action and its effect (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Lack of control over an outcome is defined by the subject’s inability to change a given outcome by modifying their behavior (Maier & Seligman, 1976). According to Maier & Seligman (1976), when an individual is placed in an uncontrollable situation, there are three types of impairments that occur: motivational, cognitive, and emotional. Once the subject is aware that no matter their action, the outcome will remain the same, their motivation to change a similar situation in the future diminishes. The cognitive hindrance is that after being in an uncontrollable situation, the subject will often have trouble learning which action produces the desired outcome. Finally, the emotional aspect deduces that there will be an increase in the anxiety and depression since the …show more content…

This study highlights that parental psychological control of adolescents is related to negative developmental results and poor school performance for the adolescent (Filippello, Sorrenti, Buzzai, & Costa, 2015). This study is based on the theory that a child who is constantly controlled by their parent, grows up to believe that they are not in control of their situations, is unable to work independently to formulate solutions to difficulties they face, and thus experience learned helplessness (Filippello et al., 2015). Self-efficacy, how much one believes one is able to succeed at a task, is considered an important determinant of whether an individual has personal control over a situation. The study found that paternal psychological control and learned helplessness were positively correlated and that learned helplessness and self-efficacy were negatively correlated (Filippello et al.,

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