Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence

Abstract

Reviews the literature which examined the effects of exposing organisms to aversive events which they cannot control. Motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability are examined. It is hypothesized that when events are uncontrollable the organism learns that its behavior and outcomes are independent, and this learning produces the motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability. Research which supports this learned helplessness hypothesis is described along with alternative hypotheses which have been offered as explanations of the learned helplessness effect. The application of this hypothesis to rats and man is examined. (114 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Full text

\,
Journal
ol
Experimental
Psychology: General
1976, Vol.
105,
No. 1,
3-46
Learned
Helplessness:
Theory
and
Evidence
Steven
F.
Maier
Martin
E. P.
Seligman
University
of
Colorado
University
of
Pennsylvania
SUMMARY
In
1967, Overmier
and
Seligman
found
that
dogs exposed
to
inescapable
and
unavoidable electric shocks
in one
situation later
failed
to
learn
to
escape shock
in
a
different
situation where escape
was
possible. Shortly thereafter Seligman
and
Maier
(1967)
demonstrated that this
effect
was
caused
by the
uncontrollability
of
the
original shocks.
In
this article
we
review
the
effects
of
exposing organisms
to
aversive events which they cannot control,
and we
review
the
explanations
which have been
offered.
There
seem
to be
motivational, cognitive,
and
emotional
effects
of
uncontrol-
lability.
(a)
Motivation. Dogs that have been exposed
to
inescapable shocks
do
not
subsequently initiate escape response
in the
presence
of
shock.
We
review
parallel
phenomena
in
cats,
fish,
rats,
and
man.
Of
particular
interest
is the
discussion
of
learned helplessness
in
rats
and
man. Rats
are of
interest because
learned helplessness
has
been
difficult
to
demonstrate
in
rats.
However,
we
show
that
inescapably shocked rats
do
fail
to
learn
to
escape
if the
escape task
is
rea-
sonably
difficult.
With regard
to
man,
we
review
a
variety
of
studies using
in-
escapable noise
and
unsolvable problems
as
agents which produce learned helpless-
ness
effects
on
both instrumental
and
cognitive
tasks,
(b)
Cognition.
We
argue
that
exposure
to
uncontrollable events
interferes
with
the
organism's tendency
to
perceive
contingent relationships between
its
behavior
and
outcomes.
Here
we
review
a
variety
of
studies showing such
a
cognitive set.
(c)
Emotion.
We re-
view
a
variety
of
experiments which show that uncontrollable aversive events pro-
duce greater emotional disruption than
do
controllable aversive events.
We
have proposed
an
explanation
for
these
effects,
which
we
call
the
learned
helplessness
hypothesis.
It
argues
that
when events
are
uncontrollable
the
organism
learns that
its
behavior
and
outcomes
are
independent,
and
that this learning pro-
duces
the
motivational, cognitive,
and
emotional
effects
of
uncontrollability.
We
describe
the
learned helplessness hypothesis
and
research which supports
it.
Finally,
we
describe
and
discuss
in
detail alternative hypotheses which have been
offered
as
accounts
of the
learned helplessness
effect.
One set of
hypotheses argues
that organisms learn motor responses during
exposure
to
uncontrollable shock
that compete with
the
response required
in the
test task. Another explanation
holds
that uncontrollable shock
is a
severe
stressor
and
depletes
a
neurochemical
necessary
for the
mediation
of
movement.
We
examine
the
logical structure
of
these explanations
and
present
a
variety
of
evidence which bears
on
them directly.