
Learned helplessness - georgecmu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
======
fhe
The psychologist who discovered this, Seligman, had since turned to studying
the opposite: the psychology of happiness. Check out his TED talk, where he
talks about his new research:
<http://www.ted.com/speakers/martin_seligman.html>

In summary, according to Seligman, the three levels of a happy life (in order
of short to long-lasting): 1\. pleasure (physical comfort, great food, etc.)
2\. engagement (loving what you're doing, e.g. getting into flow state while
coding) 3\. meaning (be part of something larger than yourself, e.g. Mother
Teresa, Gandhi)

Of note is that, in Seligman's original experiment, a percentage of the dogs
never gave up, i.e. never learned that they were helpless. they kept on trying
despite their efforts never paying off. when they were put in an environment
where they actually had control, they quickly took charge of their own lives
(at least in terms of avoid electric shocks) -- a heart-warming story to
entrepreneurs.

~~~
sliverstorm
> they quickly took charge of their own lives (at least in terms of avoid
> electric shocks) -- a heart-warming story to entrepreneurs.

I don't know that anything in or about that study could be described as
"heart-warming", but ok

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Debugreality
Helicopter parenting and teacher/student learning as compared to self directed
learning strike me as two current trends that may lead to learned helplessness
in our society.

So many people in my life need constant encouragement to help overcome learned
apathy. I'm not really sure what the main cause is but they seem to be likely
candidates.

~~~
billswift
The big difference between thirty years ago when I was a teen and now is the
growth of organized extra-curricular activities. Children and teens have even
fewer opportunities to decide and plan their own course than we used to. And
you can't learn what you can't practice.

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herrherr
But how can you help people to get out of this 'learned helplessness'?

~~~
michael_dorfman
Learned Optimism.

Seriously. Seligman wrote a great book on the subject:
[http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-
Mind/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-
Mind/dp/0671019112)

~~~
billswift
I started reading this back when it was new, but quit fairly early on, when
the author wrote that pessimists had a much more accurate view of reality than
optimists.

I wrote a post in March of last year, _Optimism - Dangers and Benefits_ ,
[http://williambswift.blogspot.com/2009/03/optimism-is-not-
ne...](http://williambswift.blogspot.com/2009/03/optimism-is-not-necessarily-
as.html)

------
AndyKelley
wikipedia says 'People with pessimistic explanatory style—which sees negative
events as permanent ("it will never change"), personal ("it's my fault"), and
pervasive ("I can't do anything correctly")—are most likely to suffer from
learned helplessness and depression.'

It seems to me that if you tended to believe "it's my fault" then you would
have the opposite result - empowerment. When you admit that something is your
fault, you now are responsible for overcoming/solving/fixing it, which is the
opposite of helplessness.

~~~
michael_dorfman
Not if it is combined with the other two (permanent and pervasive.) The idea
is that if something is your fault, and cannot be changed, and in fact
everything is your fault, then the conclusion is that _you_ are hopelessly
defective, and there is nothing to be done: learned helplessness.

~~~
chc
I know a woman who was telling me about a cause she thought somebody should
take up. I told her nobody else seemed to be interested in getting the ball
rolling, so she should lead the charge. She looked like I'd suggested bending
spoons with her mind. "A person like me can't do that," she explained.

She didn't mean that it would be too draining or impractical for somebody in
her situation. She just wasn't capable — it was an a priori fact.

