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Learned Helplessness
The belief that one has no control over a particular situation, resulting in failure to try to exert control over the environment. The concept of learned helplessness originated as a result of a seminal study conducted in two phases by Seligman and Maier (1967). In Phase 1, dogs were exposed to either escapable or inescapable shocks. In Phase 2, all dogs were exposed to escapable shocks. The dogs that had been exposed to escapable shocks in Phase 1 learned to escape the shocks in Phase 2, but the dogs that had been exposed to inescapable shocks in Phase 1 did not attempt to escape the shocks in Phase 2, even though they now had the agency to do so. A number of subsequent experiments have ...