Learned Helplessness

Sometimes we find ourselves in a mental state in which we feel unable to change a negative situation. If that happens for a prolonged period of time this can result in learned helplessness — we no longer even attempt to alter our circumstances. The concept was first introduced by Martin Seligman who noticed it in dogs that were repeatedly exposed to electric shocks and stopped trying to avoid them even when given the chance.

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COLLABORATORS
Script: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Matt Abbott
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Production: Selina Bador
Fact-checking: Ludovico Saint Amour Di Chanaz
Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda

SOUNDTRACKS
Badly Behaved - Shaun Frearson
Magical Keys - Studio Le Bus
Alone in Montmartre - Studio Le Bus

DIG DEEPER with these top videos, games and resources:
Learned Optimism - Wikipedia
Learned Helplessness: The Effect of Failure on Test-Taking - Cedarville University
Pavlov's Classical Conditioning – Sprouts

SOURCES
Learned Helplessness - Wikipedia
What is Learned Helplessness – Medical News Today
What is Learned Helplessness? - Verywell Mind

Classroom Activity
Visit our website to access suggested exercise for this topic.

CHAPTER
00:00 Introduction
00:22 Martin Seligman & Steven F. Maier
00:38 The experiment
01:16 Conclusion
01:45 The story of Joe
02:42 What do you think?
03:03 Patron credits
03:12 Ending

#sproutslearning #psychology #learnedhelplessness

[sprouts]

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[briannamorrison]

Another thing that can cause "learned helplessness" is teasing or making fun of your children when they make mistakes or don't get something right the first time they do it. That's what happened to me. My dad would make fun of me for not understanding my homework or failing at something. It made me feel like I was defective and couldn't learn. As an adult, I've realized I don't like to try new things for fear of being a failure. I came to this realization in my early 30s and am now trying to correct this mindset, but it's really difficult because it is ingrained in me.

[lordfuzi]

Learned helplessness can also be taught when children are unable to effect their parents. For example when a child tries to comfort a sad parent or soothe an angry one to no vain.
The child learns that they have to affect on others and the world.

[xcool]

Growing up, whenever I make a mistake, my parents would scold me so much and sometimes with abuse even if my mistakes can be fixed, all they do is say means things about me and never taught me how to solve my mistake or is there a way to solve it. I just now realized that made me feel everything bad happening to me is unfixable, this lead me to be stagnant for 2 years and caused me severe depression where I just wanted to end it all. I had developed a fear of the unknown. I am now trying to fix my life slowly.

I wish everyone of you to have a good life~

[missterious]

Now I understand why I do nothing to get myself out of a bad situation. I just accept everything and let myself suffer not knowing that I could actually do something to change the situation.

[sayalipatil]

my parents never helped me with any kind of petty problems, they would only get involved if it was way to serious for me to handle it. But earlier I thought it was not a good practice because many of my friends were over pampered, I thought that it was always better to be taken care of all the time. But I have experienced exactly what the video speaks about. I am independent, I can take my own decisions, I can travel alone, I can even take care of the house and cook as a 17 year old. I can still almost all the problems that I face in my life. I love it. I just felt like appreciating my parents after watching this video !!!!

[TigersandBearsOhMy]

I saw a story told by a kindergarten teacher once who illustrated that there were two types of kids; those who had been allowed to fall, and those who hadn't. The first group would take a tumble, spring back up, and keep playing. The second group would straight up fall on their faces without even putting their arms up to brace themselves and would often be hurt far worse than the situation called for because they had never been allowed the opportunity to learn to catch themselves.

I have an 8 month old, so I think about that story a lot.

[DahnsHeart]

The dogs of the experience were put together, and when the helpless dogs saw other dogs leave, they followed. You can unlearn helplessness

[DMRoper]

This topic sends chills through my whole body. Learned helplessness is the tool of monsters.

[drodlaren]

What I needed/need:
- move out
- therapy!
- a healthy relationship that 1. doesn’t enable me 2. still is compassionate.
- I tend to take on leadership roles due to my extensive need for control, but once in it I am faced with actual responsibility.This has been very important to me. It motivates me to keep a pace with my peers and makes me feel accomplished.
- stop saying «I can’t do this because i’m lazy, depressed, bad» etc If I can’t change those things right now, but I need a solution right now, those statements absolves me of agency. Instead asking «What makes this difficult for me and how can I change it?» A positive «you can do this, go girl!» attitude never did anything for me, but an inquisitive and compassionate one helps at least a bit. «Ok, i’m depressed, but I can still do x, y, z, or in this moment let’s pretend i’m not, what would I do?» etc etc.
- Asking (not relying on) someone else for tips/advice for inspiration. No matter how wrong they are, at least I get steadier in my own opinion and it encourages problem solving!
- specifically EMDR therapy

[kylinhuang]

As a professor, I usually help my students experiencing learned helplessness by using the following approaches:
1. Encourage students: Provide positive encouragement and support, making them believe they have the ability to overcome challenges. Emphasize the importance of effort and perseverance, demonstrating that success takes time.

2. Enhance self-efficacy: Help students build confidence by setting small, achievable goals. Let them see their progress and successes, gradually increasing their belief in their abilities.

3. Offer strategic guidance: Teach students strategies for tackling challenges, such as time management and effective study methods. Help them understand how to overcome difficulties to achieve their learning objectives.

4. Foster student interest: Understand your students' interests and integrate learning content with their passions to make learning more enjoyable and motivating.

5. Establish strong teacher-student relationships: Make students feel cared for and supported by creating a safe and friendly learning environment, encouraging them to take on challenges and face difficulties.

6. Promote collaborative learning: Encourage students to work together with peers to solve problems. Through collaborative learning, students can learn from and support each other, boosting their self-confidence.

7. Provide resources: Offer learning resources such as tutoring, additional practice, or supplementary materials to help students overcome learning obstacles.

8. Teach students to face failure: Help students understand that failure is part of the learning process. By analyzing the reasons for failure, they can learn from their experiences and be better prepared for future challenges.

[zzulm]

Being around toxic people that sabotage you and trying to control things out of your control does this too, limiting access to toxic people and learning to let go of what we can't control helps.

[cremebrulee]

My therapist told me she believes that I suffer from this, so I have been trying to learn more about it. Thanks for this explanation.

[WifeMamaArtist]

I've always said that a good parent does 3 things:
1. NOT wrap a child in cotton wool, and allow them to learn themselves.
2. HELP to grow up to be a well adjusted adult by helping and advising where necessary.
3. Be just a LITTLE embarassing. It's importsnt to balance parenting and friendship.

[Dinhjason]

The 'Story of Joe' - with a little bit of cultural nuance - hits very close to home.

On the off-chance this tidbit of mentioning would help anyone: practise your autonomy. Ability grows with self-dependence, and coming with that is self-control, try not to self-sabotage yourself by relapsing a fixation on your absence of skill; talent; and knowledge.

"You're not who you are now, you are who you're going to be", that's a mantra I trade with people when I exchange ideas. Just try not to hold yourself back.

And for an extremity, I want to mention to those who're feeling that pique of helplessness - I know what you're thinking when pushed too far - there is a way out - there is. There is. There is. It'll hurt, maybe you'll have to crawl through a metaphorical barbwire vent to escape, but there's a world on the other side, that you deserve to see - even if simply. You'll grow, and grow up, and change your mind - soon you'll learn something a little more useful than "I can't do it"; maybe you'll say instead, "I can't do it, yet".

[nonamelast]

Growing up, my parents were constantly trying to shield me from a lot of things. My mom especially. But one of the things they had taught me early on in life is that it's never too late to learn anything. And this became a foundation for a lot of the core values that I appreciated in myself and others when I grew up. And it helped me through a lot of difficult times. Helped me distinguish who is worth keeping close to me and who should be yeeted out of my life. I think you'd have to get the balance just right.

[Jukettaja]

Is there anything more evil than smiling while electrically shocking puppies?

[johndoh]

I work with Special Ed kids and I also coach rock climbing. I usually go through a flow chart: do I think they can do what I ask, do they think they can do what I ask, will this help them gain competence, if they try and succeed I praise them relative to how impressive their accomplishment is, if they try and fail I encourage them to keep trying, if they want to give up I let them but once their in a place where I can explain things to them I will to see if I can convince them they if fact can do what I asked. Most kids grow from this flow chart, some ignore me and would need much more time to build rapport in order to influence.

[LizzyAlexis]

I've wondered how to define the way I was raised. Ever since childhood, my parent has acted as both a helicopter parent and an invalidating, demeaning person. They put a lot of boundaries around our independent decision making, while also not teaching us how to be independent. As a young adult, I now get belittled for not knowing how to do a certain task. I get told, "what if you didn't have parents to help you?". I can say that my siblings and I are aware of this relationship dynamic and have been little by little trying to unlearn the senses of helplessness. We're pretty independent, but there are still some roots that linger.

[Nina-cduw]

I wasn't coddled and both of my parents had the approach to let me do my own mistakes and get up again, play with other kids unsupervised and stuff, but I still behave like the dogs so used to suffering that they just can't imagine it any other way.
I believe the explanation is "peer group", because I got bullied relentlessly from a young age on and the experience that nothing I could do, no fighting back, ignoring, no thought-out reaction could stop it for almost a decade made me so used to a state of suffering that I don't even realize how or that I could escape it (+ low self worth). I'm now way too complacent to my own suffering, but not because my parents coddled or abused me.