Psychology 2035A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Learned Helplessness, Explanatory Style, American Psychological Association

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: Matthew Maxwell-Smith

Document Summary

The concept of coping: coping refers to efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress, general points for consideration: It is most adaptive to use a variety of coping strategies. Common coping pattern of limited value: giving up. People may develop learned helplessness: passive behavior produced by exposure to unavoidable aversive events. Sometimes, it is then transferred to situations in which the person is not helpless. This then creates a passive reaction to stressful events, rather than active problem- solving: cognitive interpretation of aversive events may determine whether we feel helpless or not. People with a pessimistic explanatory style view aversive events as out of their control, feel helpless, and give up. This coping strategy is called behavioral disengagement and is associated with increased distress. Giving up can be adaptive in some instances, such as when goals are unrealistic.