{"id":262313,"date":"2024-10-12T22:12:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T22:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/what-is-learned-helplessness\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:52","slug":"what-is-learned-helplessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/what-is-learned-helplessness\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Learned Helplessness? &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>by <strong>TeachThought Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What is learned helplessness?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Definition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a person, after repeated failures or negative experiences, believes they have no control over situations\u2019 outcomes and stops trying to improve or change them.<\/p>\n<p>Below is an example of Learned Helplessness in the classroom.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\">\n<div class=\"perfmatters-lazy-youtube\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gFmFOmprTt0\" data-id=\"gFmFOmprTt0\" data-query=\"feature=oembed\" onclick=\"if (!window.__cfRLUnblockHandlers) return false; perfmattersLazyLoadYouTube(this);\" data-cf-modified-eba1cbc6b609d412cdc7c85f-=\"\">\n<div><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"YouTube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/gFmFOmprTt0\/hqdefault.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/gFmFOmprTt0\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"YouTube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><noscript><iframe title=\"Learned Helplessness\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gFmFOmprTt0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> The biggest fear for an adolescent, written throughout this text, is not fitting in. Jesse, you talked about acceptance. Now, to understand how this happens, how it looks, and what it feels like, we\u2019re going to do an activity. This is an on-your-own activity, and it\u2019s not meant to tax you\u2014these are easy tasks. This is just to get you feeling what we\u2019re going to go over.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody, if you would, take out a short piece of paper. I\u2019m going to pass out these papers\u2014keep them face down. And please, no one write on these; write on your own paper.<\/p>\n<p>Does everybody have one? Now, if you would, just do them one at a time. I\u2019ll tell you when to do them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/learning\/cognitive-load-theory\/\"><strong>What Is The Cognitive Load Theory?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Everybody, turn over the paper and do your own work. This isn\u2019t meant to be hard. These are anagrams\u2014just do the first one only. Go ahead and solve it. An anagram is where you rearrange the letters to form a word.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019re done, I need to see your hand raised. Keep going, and we\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n<p>Keep your hands up, please. Just do number one. Don\u2019t go on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Alright, let\u2019s move on to number two. Don\u2019t worry about number one. Go to number two and solve it. Again, when you\u2019re done, raise your hand.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, everybody\u2019s hands down. We\u2019re going to go ahead and do number three. For number three, rearrange the letters, and as soon as you\u2019re done, put your hand up.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what you need to know: you were given two different lists. This side of the room was given three words. The left side of the room was given these: \u201cbat\u201d\u2014what would the word be? The second word was \u2018lemon\u2019\u2014what\u2019s the word, Brian?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">See also <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/critical-thinking\/most-important-skills\/\">8 Of The Most Important Critical Thinking Skills<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brian:<\/strong> \u201cMelon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Correct. They were easy words. But here\u2019s the trick: both sides of the room were given the same third word, which was \u2018cinorama,\u2019 an anagram for \u201cAmerican.\u201d However, your first two words on this side of the room were not solvable\u2014they were impossible tasks.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sorry about that, but here\u2019s why we did this. I was able to induce something called \u2018learned helplessness\u2019 in the left side of the room, very easily, within about five minutes. I want you to think about what happened to you, left side of the room, when you saw the right side of the room raising their hands because they had completed the task.<\/p>\n<p>What happened to you during that time? Jory?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jory:<\/strong> I felt stupid.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> You felt stupid. Okay. What else?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joelle:<\/strong> I felt rushed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> You felt rushed. Joelle?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joelle:<\/strong> I was even more confused.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> You were even more confused because they had already solved it, and you were still struggling. Chelsea?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chelsea:<\/strong> I was frustrated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Frustrated. What happened by the time you got to the third word? Because I\u2019m here to tell you, this side of the room is not significantly more intelligent than this side. It was a random assignment. So why did you have a more difficult time with the third word, which was the same word? Brian?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brian:<\/strong> My confidence was shot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Exactly. What you experienced was a term called \u2018learned helplessness.\u2019 How many of you have heard of that term before?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> \u2018Learned helplessness\u2019 is often used in academic literature. Jory, do you know what it means?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jory:<\/strong> Basically, they fail once or can\u2019t do something one time, and then they apply that to everything in the future. So all future tasks become skewed by that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> Exactly. And this is what I want everyone to understand. It\u2019s usually only used in academic research\u2014you\u2019ll see it in educational psychology books, in school textbooks. But I\u2019m going to challenge us to think about how learned helplessness can apply to the social scene. Can someone give me an example of how that might look? Tasha?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tasha:<\/strong> It\u2019s like when a guy asks a girl out and he gets turned down, he\u2019s not going to keep trying. He just stops asking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> That\u2019s correct. Now, I want us to think about girls. We\u2019ve talked about <em>Reviving Ophelia<\/em> here. Think about how this applies to friendships. Can learned helplessness be induced in friendships? It\u2019s tough to establish and maintain friendships\u2014it\u2019s a difficult process.<\/p>\n<p>If a girl sacrifices her morals once to gain the approval of her friends, or a guy, she\u2019s more likely to keep doing it, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> And I\u2019ll just put this out there to be explicit: If Carl is victimized once in grade school, is he likely to stand up for himself the next time?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructor:<\/strong> And what happens the next time? And the next? What we know\u2014and this is what we\u2019ve been learning\u2014is that girls have a cultural pressure to be quiet. Girls have a cultural pressure not to be angry, not to use their voices. So if someone is victimized once\u2014if Alison is victimized once\u2014we can take that same concept of learned helplessness and apply it to social relationships.<\/p>\n<p>So, the moral of the story is, it\u2019s important for girls to practice dealing with failure. Because our gut response, when we fail, is to shut down. And when you shut down, you don\u2019t open yourself up to learning new ways for relationships.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>This version separates out the speakers, clarifies transitions, and adds punctuation to make the flow clearer. Would you like any further edits?<\/p>\n<p><em>Full transcription provided by YouTube<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachthought.com\/learning\/what-is-learned-helplessness\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] by TeachThought Staff What is learned helplessness? Definition Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a person, after repeated failures or negative experiences,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}