Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal ControlWhen experience with uncontrollable events gives rise to the expectation that events in the future will also elude control, disruptions in motivation, emotion, and learning may ensue. "Learned helplessness" refers to the problems that arise in the wake of uncontrollability. First described in the 1960s among laboratory animals, learned helplessness has since been applied to a variety of human problems entailing inappropriate passivity and demoralization. While learned helplessness is best known as an explanation of depression, studies with both people and animals have mapped out the cognitive and biological aspects. The present volume, written by some of the most widely recognized leaders in the field, summarizes and integrates the theory, research, and application of learned helplessness. Each line of work is evaluated critically in terms of what is and is not known, and future directions are sketched. More generally, psychiatrists and psychologists in various specialties will be interested in the book's argument that a theory emphasizing personal control is of particular interest in the here and now, as individuality and control are such salient cultural topics. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Learned Helplessness in Animals | 17 |
The Biology of Learned Helplessness | 60 |
Learned Helplessness in People | 98 |
The Attributional Reformulation | 141 |
Learned Helplessness and Depression | 182 |
Learned Helplessness and Social Problems | 227 |
Learned Helplessness and Physical Health | 264 |
Epilogue | 300 |
| 311 | |
| 348 | |
| 357 | |
Common terms and phrases
Abramson activity amygdala analgesia animal's anxiety anxiogenic anxiolytic argue attribution theory attributional style aversive events bad events behavior beta-carbolines brain causal explanations causes changes Chapter cognitive therapy contiguity contingency correlation deficits depres depressed mood escape learning example expect Experimental explanatory style exposure factors failure fear GABA global helplessness reformulation human helplessness hypothesis illness immune individual inescapable shock influence internal investigations involved Journal of Abnormal Journal of Personality Kofta laboratory learned help learned helplessness effects learned helplessness model less Maier Martin Seligman measure mediating motivation ness neurotransmitter noncontingency nondepressed norepinephrine occur opiate outcomes particular passivity performance Personality and Social pessimistic explanatory style Peterson problems processes produce rats reactance receptors reinforcement relationship response Seligman Shown Shown shuttlebox Social Psychology specific stable stress stressor studies subjects suggests symptoms T8 cells test task tion trollable uncon uncontrollable events unipolar depression versus
Popular passages
Page 320 - Dunlap, G. (1984). The influence of task variation and maintenance tasks on the learning and affect of autistic children.
References to this book
Cognition and Emotion: From Order to Disorder Michael J. Power,Tim Dalgleish No preview available - 2008 |