How To Overcome Learned Helplessness

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Fifty years ago, American psychologist Martin Seligman turned all the ideas about our free will upside down.

Seligman conducted an experiment on dogs according to the Pavlov conditioned reflex scheme. The goal is to form a fear reflex to the sound of the signal. If animals received meat from a Russian scientist, then an American colleague received an electric shock. To prevent the dogs from escaping ahead of time, they were fixed in a special harness.

Seligman was confident that when the animals were transferred to the enclosure with a low partition, they would flee as soon as they heard the signal. After all, a living creature will do everything to avoid pain, right? But in the new cage, the dogs sat on the floor and whined. Not a single dog jumped the lightest obstacle - did not even try. When a dog that did not participate in the experiment was placed in the same conditions, it easily escaped.

Seligman concluded that when it is impossible to control or influence unpleasant events, a strong sense of helplessness develops. In 1976, the scientist received the American Psychological Association Award for the discovery of learned helplessness.

And what about people?

Seligman's theory has been tested many times by scientists from different countries. It has been proven that if a person systematically:

- is defeated in spite of all efforts;

- is going through difficult situations in which his actions do not affect anything;

- finds himself in the midst of chaos, where the rules are constantly changing and any movement can lead to punishment -

his will and desire to do something in general atrophies. Apathy comes, followed by depression. The man gives up. Learned helplessness sounds like Marya the Artisan from an old movie: "Whatever it is, whatever it is, it's all the same."

The theory of learned helplessness is confirmed by life. It is not necessary to sit on a leash and receive electric shocks. Everything can be more prosaic. As I wrote this article, I asked my Facebook friends to share their experiences of learned helplessness. I was told:

- about unsuccessful attempts to get a job: refusal after refusal without explanation, - about a husband who could meet in the evening with expensive gifts, or with aggression for no apparent reason, according to his mood. (Nearby - almost the same story about his wife), - about the tyrant boss who handed out fines every month according to some new and illogical criteria.

From the outside it seems that there is a way out. Rewrite your resume! File for divorce! Complain to the boss! Do this and that! But like Seligman's dog, a person who is driven into helplessness cannot even jump over a low fence. He doesn't believe in getting out. He lies on the floor and whines.

Sometimes even an abusive partner or tyrant boss is not needed. Gelya Demina, an internship student in Korea, tells how in one lesson a professor gave the class an assignment. From the letters on the pieces of paper, you need to add the names of the countries. When the time runs out, the professor asks those who are confident in their answer to raise their hands. And so over and over again. By the last assignment, half of the students turned sour.

“After we had solved all the points, we started checking the answers,” says Gelya. - The right side had almost everything right. And the guys on the left didn't have the right answers at all. The last task (D E W E N S - Sweden) was solved only by two out of ten people on the left side. And then the professor says: "Here is the confirmation of the hypothesis." The screen shows two versions of the test that we had. While the right-hand group received a perfectly normal test, the left-hand group had one letter mixed up in all tasks. It was impossible to get the correct answer in their case. All the salt was in the last question, about Sweden. It is the same for the two teams. Everyone had the opportunity to get the right answer. But over the past five questions, the guys completely convinced themselves that they could not solve the problem. By the time it was the turn of the right answer, they just gave up."

How to resist chaos? What if the learned helplessness is already conquering the inner territory? Is it possible not to give up and not surrender to apathy?

Can. And here scientists are again at the same time with life.

Remedy 1: Do something.

Seriously: whatever. Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim survived a concentration camp with a politics of constant chaos. The camp leadership, he said, established new prohibitions, often meaningless and contradicting each other. The guards put the prisoners in a situation where any action could lead to severe punishment. In this mode, people quickly lost their will and broke down. Bettelheim proposed an antidote: do whatever is not forbidden. Can you go to bed instead of talking about camp rumors? Lie down. Can you brush your teeth? Clean. Not because you want to sleep or care about hygiene. But because in this way a person returns subjective control into his own hands. First, he has a choice: to do this or that. Secondly, in a situation of choice, he can make a decision and immediately execute it. What is important is your own, personal decision made on your own. Even a small action becomes a vaccine against turning into a vegetable.

The effectiveness of this method in the 70s was confirmed by Bettelheim's American colleagues. Ellen Langer and Judith Roden conducted an experiment in places where a person is most limited in freedom: a prison, a nursing home and a homeless shelter. What did the results show? Prisoners who were allowed to arrange cell furniture and TV programs in their own way became less susceptible to health problems and outbursts of aggression. Older people, who could furnish a room to their liking, start a plant and choose a movie for evening viewing, increased vitality and slowed down the process of memory loss. And homeless people who could choose a bed in a hostel and a menu for lunch more often started looking for work - and found it.

The way to cope: do something because you can. Choose what to do with your free hour before bed, what to cook for dinner and how to spend the weekend. Rearrange the furniture in the room as you like. Find as many points of control as possible where you can make your own decision and execute it.

What can this give? Remember Seligman's dogs? The problem isn't that they couldn't jump over the barrier. So it is with people: sometimes the problem is not the situation, but the loss of will and faith in the significance of their actions. The “do because I chose to do” approach maintains or regains a subjective sense of control. This means that the will does not move away towards the cemetery, covered with a sheet, but the person continues to move towards the way out of a difficult situation.

Remedy 2: Away from helplessness - in small steps.

Ideas about myself "I can't do anything", "I'm worthless", "my attempts won't change anything" are made up of particular cases. We, as in children's fun "connect the dots", choose some stories and connect them with one line. It turns out a belief about yourself. Over time, a person pays more and more attention to experience that confirms this belief. And it stops seeing exceptions. The good news is that beliefs about yourself can be changed in the same way. This is done, for example, by narrative therapy: together with a helping practitioner, a person learns to see alternative stories, which, over time, combine into a new representation. Where there used to be a story about helplessness, you can find another: a story about your value and importance, about the significance of your actions, about the ability to influence what is happening.

It is important to find special cases in the past: when did I succeed? when was I able to influence something? when did he change the situation with his actions? It is also important to pay attention to the present - this is where small achievable goals will help. For example, you can clean up your kitchen cupboard or make an important call that you have been putting off for a long time. There are no goals that are too small - everyone is important. Did you manage? Happened? Wonderful! We must celebrate the victory! It is known that where attention is, there is energy. The more emphasis on achievement, the stronger the fuel for a new preferred story. The higher the likelihood of not giving up.

The way to cope: Set small, realistic goals and be sure to celebrate their achievement. Keep a list and reread it at least twice a month. Over time, you will notice that the goals and achievements have become larger. Find an opportunity to reward yourself with some joy for each step you complete.

What can this give? Small achievements help to recruit resources for larger-scale actions. Build self-confidence. String the new experience like beads on a fishing line. Over time, individual parts will turn into a necklace - a new story about yourself: “I am important”, “My actions matter”, “I can influence my life”.

Remedy 3: A different look.

Seligman discovered the problem, and later his life and career he devoted to finding a solution. The scientist found that animals can learn to resist helplessness if they have previous experience of successful actions. The dogs, which at first could turn off the current by pressing their head on the panel in the enclosure, continued to seek a way out, even when they were fixed.

In collaboration with renowned psychotherapists, Seligman began to study the behavior of people and their reactions to external circumstances. Twenty years of research led him to the conclusion that the tendency to explain what is happening in one way or another affects whether we seek an opportunity to act or give up. People with the belief “Bad things happen because of my fault” are more prone to developing depression and a state of helplessness. And those who think "Bad things can happen, but it's not always my fault and someday it will stop," cope faster and come to their senses under unfavorable circumstances.

Seligman proposed a reframing scheme: rethinking experience and restructuring perception. It is called the "ABCDE Scheme":

A - Adversity, unfavorable factor. Think of an unpleasant situation that triggers pessimistic thoughts and feelings of helplessness. It is important to start by choosing situations that, on a scale from 1 to 10, you rate no higher than 5: this will make the experience of teaching reframing safer.

B - Belief, conviction. Write down your interpretation of the event: whatever you think about the event.

C -Consequence, consequences. How did you react in connection with this event? How did you feel in the process?

D - Disputation, another look. Write down evidence that challenges and refutes your negative beliefs.

E - Energizing, revitalization. What feelings (and possibly actions) have generated new arguments and more optimistic thoughts?

The way to cope: Try to disprove pessimistic beliefs in writing. Keep a diary to record unpleasant events and work them out according to the ABCDE scheme. Reread your notes every few days.

What can this give? Stressful situations will always arise. But with time and practice, you can learn to deal with anxiety more effectively, not give up on helplessness, and develop your own successful response and behavior strategies. Energy that previously served pessimistic beliefs will be released and can be invested in other important areas of life.