Learned helplessness is a mindset that usually emerges after the negative results of successive attempts to change the result.
Individuals' belief that the result will be unsuccessful in other attempts they will make after unsuccessful attempts in their life, learned helplessness psychology explains the underlying intellectual attitudes. Since people with this mindset have negative expectations about the outcome of a job, they do not make any effort to turn the result into a positive one, such as overcoming obstacles, producing solutions to problems, creating opportunities, taking advantage of opportunities, and entering the process of change and development.
The state of inaction, which comes with the belief that nothing will change and everything will progress negatively, creates a vicious circle in the inability to solve the problem in people who experience learned helplessness. In other words, believing that the problem cannot be solved no matter what is done reduces the person's desire to strive, while the decrease in effort causes the result to remain unchanged. For this reason, people cannot get out of this vicious circle that they have created without realizing it. Staying in this negative vicious circle with problems that cannot be solved for a long time is mostly; It results in chronic feelings of stress, sadness, and helplessness.
In short, learned helplessness may cause psychological problems such as depression or anxiety disorders in the future, as well as physical complaints. However, it is a very clear fact that people are negatively affected by learned helplessness, regardless of the outcome.
Can People Realize They Have Experienced Learned Helplessness?
Learned helplessness often manifests itself once it affects people's thinking. it turns into a way of thinking that sneaks up on you unnoticed. For this reason, it is recommended that people who think that they are inactive, unwilling and unresolved should seek psychotherapy support as soon as possible. Because, if these problems are examined by a psychotherapist, it can be determined whether the situation is learned helplessness.
If you also believe that you cannot solve your problems; helplessness, hopelessness, reluctance If you feel emotions intensely and generally prefer to remain inactive in the face of events, you should first seek the opinion of a specialist psychologist. In this way, you can make the healthiest evaluations about yourself and the situations you live in and find permanent solutions to your problems. If you want to understand and analyze the situation you are going through clearly and analyze it in the healthiest way, you can get online or face-to-face psychotherapy support from our institution.
Is the Concept of Learned Helplessness Scientific?
The concept of learned helplessness has been proven by research. It expresses a psychological state that has scientific reality and is very valid not only for humans but also for animals. For this reason, in order to understand how severely learned helplessness has a structure that affects thoughts, feelings and behaviors, it is very important to consider this mentality with its scientific foundations.
Learned Helplessness Experiment
1960 The concept of learned helplessness was defined for the first time as a result of the experiments and researches conducted by Martin Seligman and his friends on dogs at the University of Pennsylvania in the 's. It was observed that they did not make any effort on their behalf. The reason for this unresponsiveness of dogs and their acceptance of pain is actually hidden in the realization process of the experiment. Dogs that regularly face shock at the beginning of the experiment are not in a position to stop the shocks, no matter how hard they try, due to the structure of the mechanism. In the face of this situation, the dogs tried and tried to produce a solution in order to stop the shock. However, as a result of all these efforts, they could not stop the shock. In the face of this situation, after a certain period of time, the dogs began to passively only wait and accept the pain. This time exposure, although the dogs have the opportunity to change the outcome. It was seen that they did not make any effort to eliminate it in the face of the electric shock they received. The dogs simply waited, acknowledging that the shock would keep coming and they would never be able to prevent the pain. This situation was called “learned helplessness” by Seligman et al. According to Seligman's statement; When animals and humans believe that their behavior does not have an effect that can change an event or situation they experience, they feel helpless and accept the consequences and do not take any action to change the outcome after this belief.
What is Learned Helplessness?
Learned helplessness is the belief that despite the attempts made to achieve success in any situation, if these attempts are negative several times, the result cannot be changed no matter what. This state of belief persists even when people have the conditions and time to change the situation in their favor.
What are the Types of Learned Helplessness?
The topics and examples mentioned so far are mostly subjective. It includes (individual) learned helplessness. However, there are two different types of learned helplessness. One of them is called subjective learned helplessness, while the other is called objective learned helplessness.
1. Subjective Learned Helplessness
Although people have the opportunity and ability to change the negative result they face in their lives, they believe that they will never be able to change this negativity.
For example, someone who has failed to show the expected success in the mathematics exam several times, in fact, by applying the right study techniques. While he will be successful if he continues to study with determination, he may start to think that he will never be successful in the math exam no matter how hard he works in the face of the negative math exam experiences he has experienced. These thoughts reinforce that the person cannot do the math lesson in his mind, and pass the math exam. It causes him to believe that there is nothing he can do for him. This belief indicates that the person has learned that he or she is helpless in the face of a math test. Thus, the person believes that he cannot learn mathematics and gives up trying to get a high grade in the mathematics exam.
2. Objective Learned Helplessness
It is a state of learned acceptance and inaction as a result of generally accepted judgments that are independent of people's individual feelings and thoughts. In this case, people realize that the outcome they want to change by intervening is not under their control. Thus, the person learns to stop striving for the result he wants to change because he has no power of influence.
For example; Many countries in the world are on fault lines that cause earthquakes. In this case, when a person thinks about preventing an earthquake in the world, he realizes that his efforts are insufficient against the formation of the earth's crust, and learns that earthquakes can occur in many parts of the world and that this situation cannot be changed by him or anyone else. As a result of this learning, the person stops making efforts to prevent earthquakes from happening and accepts the situation. This acceptance reveals objective learned helplessness.
However, this should not be confused with abandoning the effort to build strong buildings in the face of earthquakes and moving away from the deep possibilities provided by science. Because even if a person accepts the destructive effect of earthquakes and builds well-founded structures, he still experiences both objective learned helplessness and subjective learned helplessness. For this reason, when a person believes that he or she can avoid being damaged by an earthquake by living in durable and solid structures against the shaky power of the earthquake, even though there are earthquakes in the world, this situation includes an effective action in tolerating objective learned helplessness by preventing subjective learned helplessness.
In brief. The difference between objective and subjective thoughts of learned helplessness depends on whether the situation can be changed by personal effort or whether the situation can be controlled by the person.
How Learned Helplessness Occurs in One's Mind?
Two conscious mechanisms come into play for learned helplessness to occur. These are the "perception" and "expectation" mechanisms. If these results are not satisfactory or at the desired level, then they take action to change the result. However, while these actions can sometimes change the result at the desired level, sometimes they do not have an effect on the result. For example, a student who wants to get a medical faculty by getting a high score from the university exam may not be able to gain the desired faculty in the first exam. Then, by choosing to prepare for the university exam again, the person can take the university exam for the second time and if the score is high this time, he can be placed in the medical faculty. Thus, the person learns that medical school can be won by struggling and does not experience learned helplessness. However, if the person cannot win the medical school because he/she gets a low score in the university exam he/she enters for the second time, he/she may choose another department, thinking that he/she will not be able to enter the medical school no matter what he does. In this case, the person feels helpless towards gaining medical school and learns this helplessness.
As can be seen from this example, people have various attempts to achieve the results they want to achieve, and these people make a comment in their minds by looking at the result they have reached at the end of these attempts. they are found. These comments allow more people to develop a perception of whether the results they want are under their control. If a person develops the perception that the situation he wants to achieve is beyond his control, this situation constitutes the first stage of learned helplessness. However, people who think that the negative situations experienced are beyond their control, mostly remain in the expectation that the result will not change.
In short, the person
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