BEHL 2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Learned Helplessness, Cognitive Deficit, Classical Conditioning
BEHL 2012 Week 3a Workshop
Learned helplessness and learned optimism
Original dog experiments
Dogs that received electric shocks in a classical conditioning experiment were unable to
escape from shocks in a shuttle box (which dogs can do easily)
Why?
Question: did just being given electric shocks make dogs helpless in the shuttle box OR did
being given uncontrollable electric shocks stop them
Original theory of learned helplessness
Exposing organisms to uncontrollable outcomes will produce 3 deficits:
1. Cognitive deficit
2. Motivational deficit
3. Emotional deficit
The theory goes well beyond original experimental findings in three important respects
1. Applies to all organisms
2. Assumes non-aversive controllable outcomes can produce learned helplessness
deficits
3. Claims to explain depression but experimenters did not check for signs of depression
in dogs
Criticisms of original theory of learned helplessness
1.Goes beyond the experimental finding
2.Fails to explain why a third of subjects show no effect
3.As a theory of depression
Paradox of self-blame
Subsequent research questions
Can learned helplessness be shown in people?
Problems with experiments using human participants
Amount and pattern of reinforcement (not all have used yoking)
Yoking may produce "illusion of control"
Instructional set: some experiments used different instructions
Perceived success/ failure: most experiments have confounded uncontrollability and failure
Predictability/ unpredictable: difficult to separate experimentally
People don’t just give up altogether like most of the dogs did
Revised theory of learned helplessness
When organisms experience uncontrollable outcomes, they explain the fact in terms of
three attributional dimensions
oInternal- external:
oStable- unstable:
oGlobal- specific:
Cognitive theories of depression
Usually assume that depressed patients cognitions of reality are distorted
Beck's cognitive theory of depression
Depressives have negative schemas
Other applications of helplessness theory
Martin Seligman has been a strong advocate of attributional retraining
Learned optimism
Develop a positive attributional style to successfully combat life's challenges
Pioneering the positive psychology movement
Traditional psychology has over emphasised the negative emotions and experiences and
neglected the positive such as happiness and fulfilment
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Dogs that received electric shocks in a classical conditioning experiment were unable to escape from shocks in a shuttle box (which dogs can do easily) Question: did just being given electric shocks make dogs helpless in the shuttle box or did being given uncontrollable electric shocks stop them. Exposing organisms to uncontrollable outcomes will produce 3 deficits: cognitive deficit, motivational deficit, emotional deficit. 2. fails to explain why a third of subjects show no effect. Amount and pattern of reinforcement (not all have used yoking) Instructional set: some experiments used different instructions. Perceived success/ failure: most experiments have confounded uncontrollability and failure. People don"t just give up altogether like most of the dogs did. When organisms experience uncontrollable outcomes, they explain the fact in terms of three attributional dimensions o. Usually assume that depressed patients cognitions of reality are distorted. Martin seligman has been a strong advocate of attributional retraining. Develop a positive attributional style to successfully combat life"s challenges.
