This is a very clear example of learned helplessness. As you can see in the picture there is a guy laying on the floor with a leash tied to his neck like if he were a dog and there is another guy holding the leash. I bet the guy laying on the floor first tried to take the leash off or tried to escape but he was unsuccessful and after many attempts he ended giving up and following whatever his "controller" said. That is exactly what learned helplessness is. It is when someone or something learns to behave helplessly because that person or thing tried to do everything in their power to avoid a certain punishment or activity but no matter what they did, they were not able to stop it, so they give up and they let themselves be controlled or they just keep receiving the punishment without complaining because they know it will not work. That is what happend with the guy laying on the floor, he gave up.Failing
After being assigned with this project, I started researching about experiments made that tested learned helplessness. I asked my oldest sister to help me becuase I was too lazy to research on my own and she told me that she had seen an experiment testing learned helplessness in her psychology class when she was in college. I thought that the experiment was kind of cool so I have decided to share it with you.Some college students were in their psychology class(months before being taught about learned helplessness) and they were failing the class because they had failed every test they had made. They didn't understand how that was possible because they always had the same answers as the rest of their classmates and they were the only ones failing. They went to talk to their teacher and he said that he was not going to discuss their grades, "you got what you deserve" he said. So they went and spoke with the dean and he said that he couldn't to anything because the teacher had all the power in his classroom. So then they decided they were going to change teacher but it was too late to make any schedule changes, so then they decided they were going to drop the class but the dean didn't let them. So they couldn't do anything about their grades and they were still failing all of their tests, so they decided that they would not study anymore because what was the purpose of studying if they were still going to fail. After a few weeks their psychology teacher told them that they were part of an experiment and gave them their real grades on their previous exams. The rest of the class had knowledge about this but they never told their fellow classmates, after the students were told about the experiments, the whole classroom was introduced to Martin Seligman's learned helplessness.
What the teacher was trying to prove was his student's perseverance when taken away all of their options but they failed to demonstrate any perseverance. They gave up after being deprived of their options instead of fighting for their grades. They actually learned to behave helplessly and are the perfect example to inform you of this psychology branch called positive psychology.
Reasoning for the Creating of this Blog
This blog was made with the purpose of helping all students participating in the IB program. This is an assignment for my IB Psychology class, assigned by my favorite teacher Mr. Brian Dougherty in my school, the American School of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I hope you this information is useful for you in any way possible.
