Week 3: Learned helplessness and learned optimism Flashcards
Main contributor to 1960s Learned Helplessness in dogs experiments
Martin Seligman
1967 ― Triadic experiments with dogs
1969 ― Theory of learned helplessness
1975 ― First human ‘helplessness’ experiment
published
1978 ― Attributional reformulation
1989 ― Hopelessness depression theory
1991 ― ‘Learned Optimism’ published
1993 ― ‘Learned Helplessness’ published
Design of yoked ‘triadic’ dog experiments
GROUP 1 ― escapable shock (dog can turn off shock
with nose)
GROUP 2 ― inescapable shock (yoked to Group 1)
GROUP 3 ― no treatment (Control)
Phases of Learned Helplessness in dogs experiments
Pavlovian harness
Shuttle box
Results of yoked ‘triadic’ dog experiments
GROUP 1 ― escapable shock ― Normal Learning
GROUP 2 ― inescapable shock ― Interference,
two-thirds failed to learn
GROUP 3 ― no treatment ― Normal Learning
Original theory of learned helplessness:
Exposing organisms to UNCONTROLLABLE OUTCOMES
produces 3 DEFICITS
1. ________deficit: belief that outcomes are
uncontrollable;
2. __________deficit: lack of response initiation;
and, if the outcomes are aversive
3. _________ deficit: fear & eventually depression
Cognitive
Motivational
Emotional
Original theory of learned helplessness:
applies to all organisms (not just dogs);
1. assumes even non-aversive uncontrollable outcomes
can produce learned helplessness deficits;
2. claims to explain depression, but experimenters did
not check for signs (symptoms) of depression in the
dogs
Criticism of the theory of learned helplessness:
Goes beyond the experimental findings
(effect in dogs exposed to electric shocks)
2. Fails to explain why a third of subjects show
no effect (do not become helpless)
3. As a theory of depression:
(a) paradox of self-blame
(b) fails to explain why not everyone is
depressed
Criticism of yoked ‘triadic’ dog experiment:
Does not rule out possibility of instrumental
response
2. Possible neurochemical explanation
3. Application of Church’s (1964) critique of yoked
control designs:
* Subjects may differ in sensitivity to shock
* Sensitivity to shock may fluctuate over time
4. Results could be due to unpredictability (NOT
uncontrollability)
Revised theory of learned helplessness (1978): When organisms experience uncontrollable outcomes,
they explain it in terms of 3 attributional dimensions:
(a) _______- ________DIMENSION:
Determines personal or universal helplessness
(& accordingly self-blame)
(b) _______- _______DIMENSION:
Determines ‘chronicity’ (persistence)
(c) ________- _______DIMENSION:
Determines generalisability to new situations
(a) INTERNAL - EXTERNAL DIMENSION
(b) STABLE - UNSTABLE DIMENSION
(c) GLOBAL - SPECIFIC DIMENSION
Revised theory: (a) _______- ________DIMENSION:
Determines personal or universal helplessness
(& accordingly self-blame)
(a) INTERNAL - EXTERNAL DIMENSION
Revised theory: (b) _______- _______DIMENSION:
Determines ‘chronicity’ (persistence)
(b) STABLE - UNSTABLE DIMENSION
Revised theory: (c) ________- _______DIMENSION:
Determines generalisability to new situations
(c) GLOBAL - SPECIFIC DIMENSION
EXAMPLE 1: You fail exam (negative outcome)
Two possible explanations:
a) I’m stupid (internal, stable, global)
b) Exam was unfair (external, unstable, specific)
EXAMPLE 2: You come top in exam (positive outcome)
Two possible explanations:
a) I’m brilliant (internal, stable, global)
b) I was lucky (external, unstable, specific)
The revised theory assumes some people have a
depressive (pessimistic) attributional style:
1) a tendency to give ‘internal, stable, global’
attributions for bad outcomes and
2) a tendency to give ‘external, unstable, specific’
attributions for good outcomes
Beck’s cognitive theory of depression proposes three types of distortion:
1. negative distortions about the _______
2. negative distortions about the _______
3. negative distortions about ________
Self
World
Others
Depressed people have _________ (sets of
cognitions, beliefs, attitudes etc
Negative schemas
Depressed people have negative schemas (sets of
cognitions, beliefs, attitudes etc) about:
* SELF (I’m unlikeable)
* WORLD (nothing ever goes right), and
* OTHERS (nobody cares whether I live or die)
Beck suggests _________ _________is a major factor in
maintaining depression
distorted thinking
FOR EXAMPLE:
* if therapist is LATE (they don’t want to see me,
I’m too hopeless)
* if therapist is EARLY (I’m so sick they have to
rush to the office)
‘Hopelessness’ theory of depression:
* based on learned helplessness theory
* assumes depressed people generalise
inappropriately from situations with
uncontrollable outcomes to situations with
controllable outcomes
* assumes depressed patients have an unrealistic
attributional style
Martin Seligman is a strong advocate of _________
retraining
to be both successful & happy:
* develop a healthy (‘optimistic’) ________ style
attributional
Depressive ________ hypothesis:
* depressed college students were more
accurate (realistic) in making judgments
about their performance in an experimental
task
* non-depressed college students tended to
over-rate their performance
realism
_________ theory of depression:
* based on learned helplessness theory
* assumes depressed people generalise
inappropriately from situations with
uncontrollable outcomes to situations with
controllable outcomes
* assumes depressed patients have an unrealistic
attributional style
‘Hopelessness’
Positive illusions:
Cognitive theories of depression incorrectly assume
that depressed patients distort reality whereas
mentally healthy people are realistic
It is the opposite:
* mentally healthy people distort reality
(see world through ‘rose-tinted glasses’)
* depressed patients are more realistic
