Educational Psychology / Unit 7 EDP 0628 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Learned Helplessness
Captions available
The idea
Learned helplessness is the belief that effort makes no difference, arising after repeated uncontrollable failure; Seligman and Maier's original studies in 1967 exposed animals to inescapable shock.
In practice
Helpless explanations are internal, global and lasting; optimistic ones are external, specific and temporary.
Where people slip
Learned helplessness is broader than low self-efficacy: it doubts effort itself, not ability at one task.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Educational Psychology