Learned Helplessness Wynn, F. (2019). Learned helplessness. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health.
Reading this article will help you understand the concept of learned helplessness and its many diverse applications. In their seminal research on learned helplessness, Martin Seligman (1942- ) and colleagues demonstrated that when animals were exposed to unavoidable electric shocks, they subsequently were incapable of learning a simple behavior that would have allowed them to avoid or escape electric shock. In other words, they learned that they had no control over negative outcomes, and later when they, in fact, had control, their sense of helplessness prevented them from avoiding or escaping these outcomes. Subsequent research on human beings has revealed the importance of learned helplessness in understanding depression, academic struggles, shyness, and the inability to leave abusive situations, etc.
