What is Learned Helplessness?

Learned Helplessness is a type of behavior that appears when a person is unable to react to painful situations.

This person begins to believe that they have no control over a situation that is causing them physical or psychological harm, and is inhibited by showing passivity to change things.

Contents

• Martin Seligman and learned helplessness
• Reframing the theory of Learned Helplessness
• Is it possible to overcome learned helplessness?
• Some tips to overcome Learned Helplessness

Martin Seligman and learned helplessness

Learned Helplessness was discovered in 1965 by psychologist Martin Seligman while studying the behavior of dogs. In the experiment, it was designed to be a variation on Pavlov's famous "classical conditioning" experiment. Seligman, using two dogs in a cage, gave them electric shocks for no apparent reason. One of them had the possibility of cutting the current with a blow of the snout, but the other did not. The first dog, remained alert and cut off the power, while the second lived scared, nervous and fell into a depression. His attitude was one of complete helplessness, even when conditions changed and he already had the possibility of cutting off the current, he did not.

What Seligman found was that the dogs had "learned" during the first part of the experiment that collisions happened randomly, were unavoidable, and did not depend on their own behavior..

This type of behavior pattern has already been shown in humans if they have been exposed to punishments or annoyances that seem random and unavoidable. A feeling of helplessness and powerlessness to improve one's circumstances is one of the key factors in depression..

Learned Helplessness can lead a person to falsely believe that they are more powerless than they really are. This can lead to poor decisions, resulting in a worse situation and a vicious cycle of depression..

This fact has been verified in numerous cases of women affected by domestic violence. As a consequence of the psychological wear and tear caused by continuous exposure to mistreatment and contempt, victims feel helpless and unable to achieve their vital goals, going into a state of total lack of motivation. The result of a systematic process of violence is a victim who learns to believe that she is defenseless, that she has no control over the situation in which she finds herself and that whatever she does is going to be useless..

Reframing the theory of Learned Helplessness

Later came the reformulation of this theory due to its limitations. This reformulation is called Attributional Theory and it explains helplessness as a consequence of the way in which people argue or explain to themselves the events that happen to them in life, both favorable and adverse. The explanations reflect the optimistic or pessimistic character of an individual, since they can be of an optimistic explanatory style or of a pessimistic explanatory style.

Seligman analyzed these explanations and specified that our optimistic or pessimistic character will depend on the interpretation that we give to the events that happen to us in life, in the sense of the duration that we give to the impact of the event, the extent of its effects and the degree of responsibility we place on ourselves.

So, if our optimistic or pessimistic character determines how we interpret life, can we change our character and thus modify our perspective on life??

Apparently yes. And in addition, many studies speak of the benefits of an optimistic, positive perspective on life: better health, well-being, healthier relationships ... It is worth investing time and desire to modify the interpretation that we give to the facts to bring a better quality of life and live fully.

Is it possible to overcome learned helplessness?

Luckily this helplessness is learned, hence its name. It is a behavior that we do not show innately. And any learned behavior can be modified. But to achieve change we must manage to "erase" from our mind that feeling of helplessness. To do this, we must learn new forms of alternative behaviors that help us, little by little, to resolve conflicts and to feel capable of ourselves to change the aversive situations that arise in our lives. This learning or unlearning, whatever you want to call it, should necessarily be accompanied by a strong work of self-esteem, to re-believe that one is capable. It will be necessary to acquire new tools or skills to help us achieve our goals.

To get out of defenselessness, it is very important to be able to generate positive expectations about the result that our behavior will have in your future, understanding that we are the ones who will achieve these changes with our effort and, above all, that control is in us. themselves and not in the environment.

Some tips to overcome Learned Helplessness

It is not easy to analyze oneself with total sincerity and without excuses, and much less it is to change our thoughts and habitual behaviors, because we are very used to them, surely for years. We even confuse behaviors with ourselves, with our identity ("It's that I've always been like this", "It's my character", "I can't change my way of being" ... etc). but this is a serious mistake: we are always much more than what we do and think. And fortunately, we are constantly evolving and changing. So keep the following in mind:

• Change your speech and your thoughts. It is easy to fall into the routine of negative and catastrophic thoughts, but you must start to become aware of them, and when something like “I can't do that”, “I shouldn't”, “I don't know”, “I'm scared” … In order to! and question it rationally: ask yourself "Why am I not going to be able to?" "What am I really afraid of?" "What is the most that, in the worst case, you could lose?" You will see how those negatives do not make much sense, and they only serve to keep you paralyzed.

• Break your routines. If you usually think "my boyfriend left me and it's unbearable, that's why I don't want to see anyone" and then you start playing the computer, for example, when you detect that thought, change it to "I'm sad because they left me, but I have friends to go out with, vent and distract myself to stop thinking about it ”and then call someone, go out, walk, talk, go to the movies: you may be surprised by your own feelings. If every time you feel sad you tend to lie down on the sofa or bed to rest ... break with that! Beat your daily routine and do something in the opposite direction: go for a run or with your bike, call a friend and invite him to a coffee ... whatever. But don't repeat what you know you normally do! The change will already be acting in you.

• There are always alternatives. Indeed, whatever your situation, on whatever topic (work, love, decisions ...), do not hesitate, there are ALWAYS other options and alternatives to our current attitude and thoughts, even if they do not occur to us or we are momentarily blind to them. , locked in the darkness of our self pity. We can always face the facts with dozens of different options than we usually make (although, curiously, we tend to always act the same, even when the results are negative). It is time to try new paths, if others have achieved it, you can too, you just have to get down to work, no excuses!.

The force of all change comes from within, no one will do it for us, it is that simple. Try to put these tips into practice and make them a habit of mind. Practice them, keep them always present ... and soon you will begin to notice the change in your life.

Ana Maria Ruiz