Learned Helplessness: Seligman's Theory Of Depression

Learned helplessness is something that a lot of people go through without knowing all of the factors that may trigger it. Learned helplessness is when someone suffers from powerlessness about repeated failing attempts to succeed. This paper will focus on some of things that are related to learned helplessness and a way to help reduce it, such as mental disorders, health problems, gender, job status, and race. One way to reduce it among women is counseling with another female. Learned helplessness can cause and/or is related to mental disorders such as depression and PTSD, health problems such as asthma & weight and it is also related to job status. There are studies that show that women can reduce learned helplessness if they are counseled by another female rather than a male.

Classical conditioning would suggest that depression is cultured through the connotation of certain stimuli’s’ with undesirable emotional states. Operant conditioning believes that depression is instigated by

"Men pray to the gods for health and they ignore that it is in their power to have it."

In the video titled Learned helplessness (PsychYogi, 2014), Martin Seligman conducted a study in which he took three groups of dogs and put them in harnesses. He gave each group a lever that would either stop a charge that electrocuted the dogs, or do nothing. Group one was the control group and did not get electrocuted. The dogs in groups two and three were the experimental groups. Group two had control over the electric shocks and could stop them with the lever. Group three also received the shocks every time group two did, except group three had no control over their own lever. Every time group two pushed their lever to stop the shocks, group three’s shocks also stopped. Group three never knew when their shocks would stop. The dogs in group two learned that the lever would stop the shocks, so the more times they were shocked, the less time it took them to push the lever. Group three was the only group to have symptoms of depression due to learned helplessness (Psychyogi, 2014).

When most people hear the phrase “The Great Depression” they only associate it the crash of the stock market and the hard times that followed. Here in the Midwest, when we think of the Great Depression we also think of the Dust Bowl and the Dirty Thirties. The Great Depression was a very climactic end to a series of poor choices that greatly affected the entire United States.

Seligman and Maier’s discovery is derived from the results of an experiment based on Pavlov’s classical conditioning theory. The experiment being performed involved dogs and mild electrical shocks. Initially, the dogs were restrained in a hammock and they would receive a mild electric shock every time a specific sound was heard. After a conditioning period, the dogs were removed from the restrictive hammocks and placed into boxes. The boxes did not restrain the dogs in any manner, and they could easily jump out of the boxes in order to avoid the electrical shock at any time. The dogs involved in this experiment never tried to escape from the boxes. The dogs had learned in the previous conditioning that the shock was not based upon their behavior and it was unavoidable. The dogs had developed a feeling of helplessness that had overwhelmed their beings, that they quit trying to avoid the electrical shocks and just accepted it as fate

Prompted by this phenomenon, Stanley Milgram investigates this “potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct.” (Milgram 314) Milgram set up an experiment in which he intended “to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist.” (Milgram 314) Thereby, observations could be made of how long a person would continue to inflict pain. “To extricate himself from this plight, the subject must make a clear break with authority.” (Milgram 315) The basic premise of the study being to learn how an ordinary person reacts when put under pressure to cause great physical harm to a stranger through a series of simulated electrical shocks. However, the subjects are under the impression that they were participating in a study of memory and learning. This is where Diana Baumrind takes issue with Milgram’s study. She feels that “by volunteering, the subject agrees implicitly to assume a posture of trust and obedience.” (Baumrind 326) Basically, Baumrind feels that the setting of a fairly innocuous sounding experiment in a safe, controlled environment of a lab causes the subject to have a false sense of safety in the experimenter’s experience. Therefore, the experiments are prone to produce skewed results, as well as potential psychological injury to the subject. Later analysis of

A test done by Robert Sapolsky form Stanford University shows how anxiety can escalate to depression through subjecting rats to electric shock. The shocks occurred periodically and the rats soon learned that to stop the shocks, they had to press a lever. Once that was learned, the rats were seen to be constantly alert, waiting for the shocks to occur. However, the next time they occurred, the levers were disable and the rats repeatedly pressed it, hoping the shocks would stop. After a while, they realize that their efforts are futile and went into despair, which is measured through the levels of dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) in their brains. (SCI. AMERICAN)

despite of the fact they have learned the conditioned response. On the other hand, in operant

In the past social worker focused on the use of psychodynamic theory in social work practice, but now it is said that this theory is no longer relevant to social work practice. Sigmund Freud psychodynamic theory looks at how human behavior and relationships are shaped by conscious and unconscious influences. For Freud, psychodynamic theory included psychoanalysis that was used a treatment to reveal the unconscious activity of an individual by making them consciously aware of it. Further, he believed that he could help people release bottled up emotions and negative experiences that could be the cause of anxiety and depression. Social construction that occurs because of a revolt effectively alters society as a whole is social worker relevancy

When thinking about the American Dream and the connection of a rapidly spreading illness known as depression, it can be said that high money making jobs are depleting the lives of the ones who are working attempting or have already achieved, what was thought of to be their dream. This “dream” may have many perspectives, but the true definition comes along the lines of a life of personal happiness and material comfort that is traditionally sought by individuals in the United States. Happiness to many Americans means being successful and accomplishing personal goals that one has worked toward for a great deal of time. Looking at celebrities, their lifestyles can seem to look like the perfect paradise, but little do fans and others know, what

The Star.com. (November 3, 2014). Student help line finds 50 callers a month considering suicide. Retrieved March 7, 2015, from http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2014/11/03/student_help_line_finds_50_callers_a_month_considering_suicide.html

In my autobiography, I went into detail about being biracial, open-minded, and depressed. I did mention other traits, for instance being Buddhist, low-middle class, and being nineteen years of age. I just focused more on the first three because I think they all went hand in hand. Being biracial means I am combination of two different races. I used to hate being mixed and sometimes I still do, but having this physical trait has helped me be more compassionate towards others who are different. I always feel out of place when I’m with certain groups of people. Sometimes they’ll make sure to mention that I’m different than the rest of them. I think being biracial has helped me become open-minded but is also a cause of my depression.

Learned helplessness occurs when a person is repeatedly exposed to an aversive stimuli and feels that no matter how much they try to escape; they are not successful. Therefore, they tend to cave in since a sense of being helpless has been developed to escape the situation. Early studies on the idea of learned helplessness occurred accidently since psychologists were initially studying avoidance learning in dogs. These dogs were subject to a few foot shocks and at first would attempt to escape the shock however, these dogs later on stop attempting to escape and would submissively accept the foot shocks. Then these psychologists tried numerous situations to examine this sensation by placing the dogs in different cages where it would be easier

feelings can linger for years. Depression is a social disorder characterized by a depressed mood