Discussion of the Phenomenon of Learned Helplessness

Question: Explain what learned helplessness is and describe how it develops. Also, discuss the effects it has on people and animals once it is established.

The phenomenon of learned helplessness is associated with passive, non-adaptive behavior of an animal or human. Learned helplessness is a violation of motivation as a result of the subject’s uncontrolled situation, i.e. the absence of dependence of the result on the efforts made. The syndrome of learned helplessness was first described by American psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven Mayer on the basis of experiments on dogs, when animals were stimulated by an electric current, and ignore an attempt to escape from the painful situation being sure that they could not escape as it was in previous cases. According to Ciccarelli and White (2016), it means “the dogs still did nothing because they had learned to be helpless.”

The key factor that causes this state is the inability to influence the situation, the lack of a connection between actions and result. Previous negative experience forces people to believe that “whatever I do, I can never change anything.” What is more, this situation is repeated many times, and so there is a feeling that not only now everything is bad, but also it will not be better or even worse in the nearest future.

Observing the effects of learned helplessness on people, it can be said that learned helplessness is characterized by the manifestation of a deficit in three areas – motivational, cognitive and emotional. The motivation deficit manifests itself in the inability to act, actively interfering in the situation; cognitive – in the inability to learn subsequently that in similar situations the action can be quite effective; and emotional – in a depressed state, arising from the futility of one’s own actions.

Thus, in situations of learned helplessness, people and animals make disappointing conclusions from the negative experience that happens to them (and this is logical). The problem is that at this point, there is an excessive generalization of the problem: if this is happening now and for some time, then this will continue to occur in the future. In continuation, this conclusion leads to the fact that animals and people stop trying, hoping and looking for opportunities to overcome the situation. It often happens that one problem supports the other; while in this case, helplessness pulls hopelessness behind itself. In such situations, animals and people often “fold their paws,” in the literal and figurative sense, and fall into depression and apathy.

Reference

Ciccarelli, S. K. & White, N. J. (2016). Psychology, 5th Ed. Pearson.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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