Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness is the expectation that one cannot control circumstances and often results in passive acceptance of conditions. This result may lead to decreased motivation and persistence and even depression if individuals sense that they have no control over their lives. Essentially, learned helplessness refers to perceived absence of a relationship between an action and its subsequent outcome, resulting in helpless behavior.

Experimental psychologists introduced the concept of learned helplessness while using classical conditioning to study animal behavior. Dogs were immobilized and exposed to inescapable electric shock. The dogs were again exposed to the electric shock with an escape available. Interestingly, they made no attempt to escape. The researchers proposed that the dogs had learned this helplessness because when initially exposed to the shock, nothing they did improved the aversive condition. Based on this principle, learned helplessness is a response that is learned and able to be modified.

The negative attributions that adults make toward children and academic failure seem to contribute to learned helplessness in the school setting. It is particularly evident in students who have been diagnosed with a learning disability. Students who receive special education services often have a history of poor academic performance. Valas (2001) suggested that academic failure may make these students more susceptible to increased levels of helplessness. In addition to the reduced expectations of themselves, students may feel stigmatized by their label and be held to different standards by peers as well as teachers. This self-defeating process tends to be cyclical and possibly even self-fulfilling. Affected students fail tasks, evaluate themselves negatively, and thus lack the persistence and motivation to engage in similar tasks in the future.

Children's attributions about their behavior also determine how they will act in future situations. Children who believe that academic failure is the result of an ability deficit are unlikely to exert much effort to change this seemingly unavoidable condition. They are more likely to view failure as a permanent, internal, and global condition. Students on the other end of this spectrum attribute academic failure to exerted effort. These students are more likely to try to change this behavior to facilitate academic success.

Many techniques may be useful to counteract learned helplessness. Schools should place students in situations where academic success will be experienced. This may include alternative academic settings until skill levels are commensurate with the expected level. Appropriate and realistic goals must be set—in addition to outlining an explicit plan by which to achieve these goals—to help students realize the distorted thinking that is occurring and recognize that control lies within each individual. Success and failure are based upon individual decisions.