Date of Award

10-26-1993

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Mark D. Grabe

Abstract

The term "learned helplessness" has been used to describe behavioral deficits in an organism which has learned that the termination of aversive events occurs independently of its responding (Overmier & Seligman, 1967). An appetitive analogue to learned helplessness, referred to as "learned indolence," results when an organism receives noncontingent reinforcement (Bordages, unpublished thesis). This study sought to compare deficits produced by both phenomena in order to argue for a central underlying mechanism. Research has found that the detrimental effects secondary to exposure to noncontingent environments can be attenuated by optimistic causal attributions as opposed to attributions of a pessimistic nature (Abramson, Teasdale, & Seligman, 1978). A series of four experiments were conducted to examine the impact of helplessness and indolence on subsequent aversive and appetitive tasks. Attributional styles were also examined for their modulating effects on the expression of helplessness and indolence. Measures of affect, self-esteem, cognitive performance, and motivation were examined. Results suggests that helplessness and indolence share a number of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive features, although not entirely. Uncontrollability appears to be the common factor involved with both phenomena, and therefore, the central underlying mechanism. Furthermore, an optimistic attributional style was found to provide a buffering effect against deficits resulting from exposure to uncontrollable outcomes. Results were discussed in terms of possible avenues for the cognitive-behavioral treatment of helplessness and/or reactive depression.

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