Learned Helplessness

Let me share something i learnt in Psych about learning. It's something called 'learned helplessness'.

It was accidentally discovered by this person called Seligman around the time Don Campbell invented the lock [late 1960s]. Basically there were 3 different groups of dogs. The 1st group was the control group and was just harnessed with nothing happening to them. The 2nd and 3rd group of dogs were subject to the same electric shocks. The dogs in the 2nd group were able to stop the shocks by pressing on some lever thingy, whereas the dogs in the 3rd group had no control at all over the shocks. If it stopped, it was thanks to the dogs in the 2nd group, but otherwise, the shocks were just random and there was nothing they could do about it.

So anyway, all 3 groups of dogs were then put into a box with a low hurdle thingy that they could easily jump over. When subjected to the electric shock, the dogs in the 1st group jumped over the hurdle thingy and escaped the shock. The dogs in the 2nd group also jumped over to escape.

However, the dogs in the 3rd group appeared distressed, but simply remained where they were and accepted the shock. Why did this happen? They had learnt previously that they could not escape the shock and believed that they were helpless in this situation too. Therefore, they didn't even bother trying.

BUTTT.

A number of the dogs in the 3rd group actually attempted to jump over the hurdle thingy, and they managed to escape! Despite all the previous failed attempts at escaping, they still continued trying.

That's optimism.

I choose to be like those dogs who continued to try. How about you? :)