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Ahmet Faruk Koçdemir
IED 134
Res. Assist. Zümre Gizem YILMAZ
12 May 2018
The Role of Learning in the Development of our Behaviors and
How Seligman’s Theory of Learned Helplessness Applies to Human Depression
Learning plays an enormous role in determining our actions. Understanding the process by
which our behaviors were shaped, why we act or feel in a certain way along with our
cognitive styles is the key to self sufficiency, which I believe is a necessity required by every
individual. According to John Locke’s Tabula rasa theory (the idea that we were born as a
blank slate), all of our knowledge comes from experience or perception. Though it may sound
like an overstatement, considering the inborn factors known to us today, it clearly underlines
the importance of environmental factors in the formation of our behaviors and character.
Another view in psychology that favors the nurture side of the nature versus nurture debate
is behaviorism. Behaviorist approach was developed by John Watson, and it states that
behavior is mostly learned through interaction with the environment. Although behaviorists
accept the significant role of inheritance in the development of behavior, they focus mainly
on environmental factors. In his famous ‘’twelve infants’’ quotation, Watson said:
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up
in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist
I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and the race of his
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ancestors. (104)
This saying is again an overstatement, but it illustrates the importance of learning in
development of our behaviors and how we are all actually walking sticks of habits.
For further understanding of the subject, we must take a look at Classical Conditioning. It
was a theory suggested by Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov and it refers to a learning
process via association. For example, dogs can be conditioned to saliviate to the sound of a
bell, or someone who got sick after eating chocolate may associate chocolate with nausea
thus avoiding eating chocolate afterwards, while in fact the nausea he had experienced had
nothing to do with the chocolate he ate. These are examples of learning by association, that
is; classical conditioning. Another good example of this is shown in the movie Clockwork
Orange, ​where the villian protagonist is made to watch hours of violent scenes to be cured of
his sadism while given drugs which cause nausea. Later this character associates violence
with the nausea caused by the drugs given to him and every time he attempts to do something
related to violence, he feels sick and can’t help but giving up his violent behaviors.
Same story just goes on. Phobias, which means irrational fears, work exactly the same way.
Our character. We percevie eveything around us according to what we have seen and felt
before, which creates the illusion of having an identity, a character. We think that our desires,
fears, thoughts, actions and reactions belong to us, they are real; while in reality they are only
reflections of what we had experienced before and nothing but patterns of behavior learned
and coded in us long before we were aware of. This process by which we learn behavior was
explained in order to get a good understanding of helplessness theory.
​ American psychologist Martin Seligman suggested that exposure to uncontrollable
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negative events leads to helplessness; that is, the person believes that he/she is helpless and
has no control over the events then starts to exhibit helplessness too, in situations which are
controllable and finally, this feeling of helplessness leads to depression.
First experiments conducted on animals showed that the animals exposed to inescapable
shock later failed to learn to escape. They became passive and developed symptoms that
resemble depression. Later studies discovered that the same phenomenon of learned
helplessness applied to people as well. For example, kids who were given unsolvable puzzles
showed less success rate than their peers do on solvable puzzles. What was the reason behind
the failure of the kids on solvable puzzles? This event was explained in terms of the
expectancy individuals developed about the occurrence of adversity in their lives. These
expectancies determined their future behavior. The belief that the adversity will continue and
that one will not be able to overcome it leads to helplessness, passivity, withdrawal, anxiety
and depression. Belief in one’s control over the events lead to persistence, coping and
resilience from depression. In conclusion, our beliefs about the adverse events can affect the
way we think and determine what happens to us in life.
A lot of the depressed effect has got to do with the habitual ways of interpreting negative
events, which is called explanatory/attributional style. Seligman and his colleagues found that
when individuals encounter an uncontrollable negative event they ask themselves why and
make attributions for the situation. This explanation is the determinant factor in the case of
helplessness (Maier et al. 24). Two main attribution styles are discussed: Pessimistic and
optimistic style. There are three main attributions an helpless/pessimist individual make:
Stable, global and internal. If the attribution is to a stable cause (‘’it’s going to last forever’’)
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instead of unstable, then the helplessness will be long-lasting. If it is global (‘’it’s going to
ruin everything’’) instead of specific, then the helplessness will be general. And if the
attribution is internal (‘’all because of me’’) instead of external then self-esteem deficits will
occur. Individuals with pessimistic explanatory style attribute negative events to stable,
global and internal causes and their success to temporary, specific and external factors while
the individuals with optimistic explanatory style do the opposite. They attribute negative
events to temporary, external and specific causes (‘’I did not make the deadline because it
was unreasonable’’) and positive events to causes that are stable, global and internal (‘’She
loves me because I’m thoughtful’’).
Seligman states that the pessimistic style is thought to lead to helpless expectancies. It is
also known that individuals with pessimistic explanatory styles are more likely to experience
depression, academic failure, deterioration in seeing patterns and trouble in problem-solving.
On the contrary, optimistic individuals are immune to depression, experience greater
academic success and job performance (Gillham 3). Explanatory style is associated with
coping, adoptation and well being in an individual.
But what causes this difference in the explanatory style? Why some people make
pessimistic explanations for events, while others do not? In this case, families’ influence on
their children takes place. It is a known fact today that children adopt the explanatory style of
their parents. Also emotional traumas in early life seem to indicate pessimism later in life.
Another important point is the constant exposure to uncontrollable negative events. If
someone constantly fails in his pursuit of something, helpless effects, wtihdrawal and
depressive symptoms will appear. The repeated experience of helplessness results in
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long-lasting, permanent and serious results of depression and self-esteem deficits. The best
thing to do when events are truly uncontrollable, is to stop the attempts at control, thereby
preserving energy resources and miminizing the damage to self.
One striking discovery was the relation between helplessness and locus of control. It is the
degree to which one believes that he has control over the outcome of events in his life, with
‘’internals’’ tending to believe outcomes are caused by their own responding and ‘’externals’’
tending to believe outcomes are not caused by themselves but by luck, chance or fate.
Because of their attribution of control outside themselves, externals ignore one’s control
over his fate. A study by Klein and Seligman found that helpless subjects perceived skill
tasks as if they were ‘’tasks of chance’’ (Abramson et al. 51). And it is also a known fact that
people with an external locus of control are more stressed and prone to clinical depression.
In the meantime, the neurobiological explanation for helplessness follows as such: Just as
low levels of serotonin (a hormone responsible for regulating the mood) is associated with
depression, the excessive amounts of serotonin also results in behavioral changes. It
contributes to stress and anxiety, which are the main components of helplessness model of
depression. Experiencing uncontrollability makes the dorsal raphe nucles (a part of the brain
largely responsible for serotonin release) produce excessive amounts of serotonin, which
results in anxiety attacks and stress.
Finally, helplessness in young children are to be observed. Dweck proposes that,
interesting enough, young helpless children have an idea of self as an object of ‘’contingent’’
worth. It means that these children equate doing well with evidence of positive worth and
doing poorly as an indiciation of negative worth. Their idea of self is strongly tied to external
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validation. This mindset is characterized with a self-valuation goal orientation by which
children try to obtain positive self-image. They are likely to choose goals that present the
least in the way of challenge so that they can prove their worth. In the face of failure, they are
expected to feel desperate by the experience, avoid reponsibility and have low expectancies
for success, which are all characteristics of helplessness. Their self-view is closely tied to
performance outcomes. As a result, ‘’helpless young children lack a solid sense of worth and
consequently are prone to depression in the following adulthood’’ (Kristner, et al. 338).
What can be done to get better? Depression results from errors in interpreting reality. It is a
kind of distorted emotional reaction to events and a tendency to exaggerate and generalize
negative events across situations. Studies suggest that ‘’changing one’s interpretion of events
(cognitive style) is a much more effective way of alleviating the symptoms of depression than
antidepressant medication or even behavior therapy’’ (Abramson et al. 70).
From what I know, understanding of our learning process leads to understanding of our
behaviors. And knowledge about our actions enables us to change them for the better.
So by studying and learning behavior we know ourselves better. Instead of being helpless and
desperate in the face of failure, we stand up and look for solutions to our problems.
Works Cited
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E., & Teasdale, J. D. ‘’Learned helplessness in humans:
Critique and reformulation.’’ Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 81, no.1, 1978, 49-74.
-----. E.Gilham, Jane, editor. The Science of Optimism and Hope: Research Eassays in Honor
of Martin E.P Seligman. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Templetion Foundation Press, 2000. Print.
-----. E.Gillham, Jane. Introduction. The Science of Optimism and Hope: Research Eassays in
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Honor of Martin E.P Seligman. Ed. Jane E.Gillham. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Templetion
Foundation Press, 2000. 3-10. Print.
-----. F.Maier, Steven et al. ‘’From Helplessness to Hope, The Seminal Career of Martin
Seligman.’’ The Science of Optimism and Hope: Research Eassays in Honor of Martin E.P
Seligman. Ed. Jane E.Gillham. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Templetion Foundation Press, 2000.
11-32. Print.
Kistner, Janet A & Ziegert, Dannah I & Castro, Rafael & Robertson, Bruce. "Helplessness in
Early Childhood: Prediction of Symptoms Associated With Depression and Negative
Self-Worth." Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, vol. 47 no. 3, 2001. 336-354. Project Muse.
Web.
Watson, John B. Behaviorism. New York: The People's Institute Pub. Co, 1924. Print.