Friday, May 15, 2020

Learning & Motivation Term Project

Learned Helplessness: Controlled by the Uncontrollable 

These Uncertain Times
    In this time of uncertainty, people may find themselves overwhelmed by the state of the world. Illness, economic well-being, and job stability are all suddenly out of our control. Even small day-to-day choices, like watching a movie in theater or spending time with a close friend, are snatched away from us. People who struggle with mental illness find themselves sequestered in their homes, confronted with their emotions. People who have never experienced mental illness before are seeking help as the stress and concern overtakes them. Terms like "depression" and "anxiety" are commonplace. However, there is another relevant term that isn't as well known: learned helplessness. 

Shocking Discoveries
    In 1967, Seligman and Maier conducted a study on dogs using an electric shock (Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G., 2015). The dogs were given four different conditions. Some dogs were not shocked. Some dogs received shocks and could not do anything to stop them. Some dogs received shocks, but they could stop the shock by performing a task. In this case, the dogs stopped the shock by pressing a lever. In the final condition, the dogs were paired up. One dog had the power to turn off the shock for both, the other dog was at the mercy of the first, completely unable to control the shock. 


    The next step was to put each dog to the test individually. Each dog was put on a grid which produced an electric shock. If the dog jumped over a divider, it could escape the shock. The results were fascinating. Each condition influenced the way the dogs learned to jump the divider. First, dogs from the condition where they were able to stop shocks by pressing a lever and the dogs who were not shocked at all learned quickly to jump over the divider and escape the discomfort. The dogs who had no control over the shock in the first part of the experiment did not learn. Even if they accidentally completed the task of jumping the divider, they did not realize it was a means of escape. This behavior is referred to as learned helplessness. 

The Theory
    Learned helplessness is "a decrement in learning ability that results from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events"(Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G., 2015). When an individual is exposed to unpleasant stimuli, whether it be an electric shock, an abusive relationship, or financial hardship; the natural response is to try to rectify the situation. When all attempts to escape or confront the painful experience fail, the individual learns that their actions do not influence their circumstances (Smallheer, B. A., Vollman, M., & Dietrich, M. S., 2018). In the experiment Seligman and Maier performed, the dogs who could not control the electric shock learned that they were helpless. Then, when they were given the opportunity to avoid the shock, they could not learn to escape, because they had learned that they were helpless (Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G., 2015). 


Learned Helplessness And Clinical Psychology
       A study was conducted on a group of men and women who had experienced a heart attack (Smallheer, B. A., Vollman, M., & Dietrich, M. S., 2018). The goal was to determine if there was a correlation between learned helplessness and depressive symptoms in heart attack survivors. By comparing data gathered from medical records, the Learned Helplessness Scale, and the Beck Depressive Inventory-Second Edition, the researchers determined that there is a relationship between learned helplessness and symptoms of depression. This is a relationship demonstrated in patients suffering from several chronic illnesses, such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain. Understanding the implications of learned helplessness may help treat patients with physical and mental illness. 

Everyday Implications
    How does learned helplessness influence the day-to-day life of the average person? It might not. An individual must experience circumstances out of their control in order to learn helplessness. However, there might be areas of average life where the theory becomes relevant. Researchers in Turkey set out to determine if there was a relationship between learned helplessness and test anxiety in students taking placement exams (Akca, Figen., 2011). No statistically significant relationship was found, but the study serves as an example of how learned helplessness could influence everyday life. The theory calls for further study. How could learned helplessness be impacting scores in school, choices in the workplace, or health decisions? How many people have learned to stop trying to change their circumstances? Will COVID-19 cause people all around the world to learn helplessness?

References

Akca, Figen. (2011). The Relationship Between Test Anxiety and Learned Helplessness. Social Behavior & Personality: an international journal 2011, 39(1), 101-110. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=49af1e53-712b-4933-9303-29b6d47b3466%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=58034293&db=s3h

Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G. (2015). Introduction of learning and behavior. Cengage Learning.

Smallheer, B. A., Vollman, M., & Dietrich, M. S. (2018). Clinical Nursing Research, 27(5), 597-616. https://doi.org/10.1177/1054773816689752

4 comments:

  1. Interesting point about learned helplessness in the time of COVID. So much is out of our control at this point.

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    1. Thank you! I wish I had done more research on what to do about learned helplessness when it occurs. Sounds like a good project for future Jenna!

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  2. Very interesting. I am definitely one of the dogs who learned to control my circumstances. I am the opposite of helpless. My response through this, from the beginning, was to fight back. I developed a plan at the very beginning--as we were just entering the 2 week flattening the curve, and I sent it to my representatives. As time has gone on, and we succeeded in flattening the curve, especially in my county of 500,000 people and only 30 fatalities, we didn't get rewarded, we got punished. Personally, I'm not affected at all by the shutdowns. We are one of the priveleged few who work from home in an industry that is currently booming--mental health. We switched our practice to tele-health over a year ago. We live on 14 acres, and are almost completely self-contained. But I love my community, and I'm seeing it gutted. When we drive downtown, it's completely taken over by the homeless. They're everywhere, and they're not social distancing. There's more garbage and grafitti and all the stores are locked tight. 500,000 people and 30 deaths in 4 months. Can you believe it? We are destroying our city. Actually, our city has been begging our governor to allow us to open up. We have some days with zero infections, some days with 1 or 2--trickling in. But he absolutey refuses. I think this has become a political thing now because it sure as hell isn't grounded in "science" anymore. I'm turning my frustration towards political activisim.

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    1. I'm glad that you've been able to thrive in this strange time. The restrictions and social distancing measures are certainly flawed and frustrating. That said, I don't think I have the resources or education to come up with a better solution. Wisconsin is no longer under a safer at home order, but I'm about to move to Oregon, which is still closed down until July. I think you have a good point that even with all of this going on, we do still have control over our circumstances. We can still jump over that barrier if we choose.

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