How do we end up feeling helpless and how do we avoid it?
Psychologists say that learned helplessness is the state of believing that you have no choices in a situation because in that situation you have repeatedly experienced a sense of powerlessness and painful feelings – or just plain pain (Hunziker & Dos Santos, 2007). When an animal is placed in a situation where it has no control over events, and the experience itself is very aversive, the animal will gradually – consciously or unconsciously – conclude that the painful experience is inevitable and can’t be avoided. It will decide that it is helpless and will generally just submit to whatever is happening in the situation.
What makes learned helplessness such an important psychological phenomenon is that, since most animals can understand the world through what is called associative learning, we often generalize helplessness from the situation in which we first experienced it to other, similar situations. For example, in the first studies that established learned helplessness as a phenomenon, dogs were placed in a situation in which they could not avoid electric shocks. When placed in a similar situation where they could in fact escape the shocks, the dogs did not try to do so (Maier & Seligman, 1976). They seemed to have generalized their learning – “if I am in a cage like this, or in a harness like this, there is nothing I can do to avoid getting shocked.”
This is the important implication of learned helplessness: it limits our behavioral responses to the situations we encounter, especially when those situations appear similar to previous situations but are actually quite different (Miller, 1998). We have come to believe that our actions will not make a difference, so we are less likely to try to change our circumstances.
“Breaking, in modern psychology, ‘learned helplessness.’ This is where you crush an animal’s desire to fight. Why is it that we believe broken things are tamed possessions?”
― Rebecca K. O’Connor
Causes of Learned Helplessness
The common thread through the explanations of learned helplessness has been a focus on cognition, or the thinking that occurs in situations of learned helplessness (Maier & Seligman, 2016). At first, it was suggested that in situations of learned helplessness, people and other animals have their experience of contingency interrupted (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Contingent relationships are those in which one thing happening is dependent on another thing happening.
In situations such as getting shocked and having no way to avoid it, we experience non-contingency: nothing seems to change this outcome; it is unavoidable. At this point, we make an interpretation of the situation, and that is where learned helplessness can develop (Abramson et al., 1978).
While thinking seems to be the driver of learned helplessness, emotions and behaviors are involved too (Maier & Seligman, 1976). Experiences of being ineffective in influencing our environments are generally emotionally unpleasant, which can discourage us from continuing our change efforts. We may avoid trying again, just to avoid feeling that sense of disappointment or, fittingly, helplessness.
How We Experience Learned Helplessness
When we experience learned helplessness, we manifest it through many symptoms (McKean, 1994). The behavioral symptoms may include taking a passive attitude or avoiding or giving up on a task. We may struggle to solve problems and begin to think negative thoughts about ourselves. Finally, the emotional flavor of learned helplessness is usually that of sadness or frustration.
Undo Learned Helplessness
The simplest way to undo learned helplessness is to have experiences of being effective in changing one’s environment (Klein & Seligman, 1976). Having experiences of effectiveness may also be an effective way to guard against learned helplessness developing in the first place (Buchwald et al., 1978). It appears that elevating people’s moods can also help them overcome some of the stuckness that comes with learned helplessness (Cemalcilar et al., 2003).
In Sum
These experiences of thinking we are unable to change a situation, and then feeling bad about ourselves because of it, are actually quite common, even if most do not turn to a state of learned helplessness. If you’re feeling helpless about a situation, hopefully you can recognize that it likely comes from many experiences of trying to make things better, and importantly, those experiences do not necessarily mean that future attempts won’t work. Sometimes, we have just tricked ourselves into believing we are powerless.
References
● Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.
● Buchwald, A. M., Coyne, J. C., & Cole, C. S. (1978). A critical evaluation of the learned helplessness model of depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87(I), 180-193.
● Cemalcilar, Z., Canbeyli, R., & Sunar, D. (2003). Learned helplessness, therapy, and personality traits: An experimental study. The Journal of Social Psychology, 143(1), 65-81.
● Hunziker, M. H. L., & Dos Santos, C. V. (2007). Learned helplessness: Effects of response requirement and interval between treatment and testing. Behavioural Processes, 76(3), 183-191.
● Klein, D. C., & Seligman, M. E. (1976). Reversal of performance deficits and perceptual deficits in learned helplessness and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85(1), 11–26.
● Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 105, 3-46.
● Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(4), 349-367.
● McKean, K. J. (1994). Using multiple risk factors to assess the behavioral, cognitive and affective effects of learned helplessness. The Journal of Psychology, 128(2), 177-183.