How often do you feel helpless, powerless, incapable of anything, an incompetent person? You begin to justify yourself, refer to circumstances, situations, other people, thereby relieving yourself of responsibility... If this happens constantly, then most likely you are in a state of learned helplessness - that is, your ability to overcome existing difficulties is impaired. Let's figure it out, what this condition is, how it is characterized and what can be done to get out of it. Learned helplessness is a psychological attitude characteristic of some people that they are unable to change the negative circumstances of their life. Bad experiences play a decisive role in their formation. Before believing in one's own powerlessness, a person usually makes several attempts to improve his life. And if they all end in failure, he develops a persistent feeling of helplessness. It makes a person passive, reduces the quality of his life, and in the long term can cause a mental disorder. This phenomenon was discovered relatively recently - in the 60s of the twentieth century, it was first described by American psychologists Martin Seligman and Stephen Mayer. In 1967 at the University of Pennsylvania animal experiments were carried out based on the theory of Ivan Pavlov. The purpose of the experiment was to provoke a fear reaction in dogs to high-frequency sounds. To do this, the animals were placed in a closed space from which there was no way to escape, and they were shocked immediately after a sound signal. After a series of experiments, laboratory assistants opened the cells. It was expected that when the experimental subjects had the opportunity to avoid the electric shock, they would take advantage of it and run away as soon as they heard the familiar sound, foreshadowing an imminent painful reaction. However, the animals made no attempts to leave the cage and whined pitifully. The dogs accepted the inevitability and demonstrated learned helplessness. Then Seligman and Mayer decided to conduct their own experiment - controversial from a moral point of view, but clear. They divided the experimental dogs into three groups. The first group was subjected to electrical discharges and, as a result, electric shocks, but there was a lever in the cage that, when pressed, stopped the flow of current. In the cages where the dogs of the second group were sitting, there was no lever - here the current supply stopped only when the subjects from the first group used the lever. No current was administered to the cages where the third group was sitting. Then all the experimental subjects were combined and placed in a common cage with a low partition, over which they could jump and avoid the discharge. Based on the results of the experiment, dogs from groups No. 1 and No. 3 took advantage of this opportunity. Animals from the second group, who did not have the opportunity to influence the situation at the previous stage, did not even try to get out: instead, they endured the blows, lying on the floor and whining. Proponents of the theory of behaviorism doubted the results of the experiment and stated that the subjects from the second team remained in their cages because their immobility was randomly positively reinforced (in other words, the animals might think the pain would stop if they did nothing). Then Myers suggested doing positive reinforcement in case of passive behavior of dogs and observing their behavior. For this, another experiment was carried out. The dogs were again divided into three groups. The current was no longer supplied to the cells of the first group if the animals froze in a motionless state. Dogs from the second group were not given the opportunity to independently avoid pain, and the third group was not exposed to electric shocks. After a series of experiments, the dogs were again transplanted into cages with low partitions. According to the theory of behaviorism, animals that were sitting motionless had to remain in the box to avoid being shocked. But everything turned out differently: the test subjects from the second group, who could not influence the situation in the previous part of the experiment, did not try to leave the cage. And the dogs from the first group froze ata few moments and jumped out of the box when they realized that the painful effect of the current did not stop. From this they made the following conclusion: animals that had experience of successfully getting rid of pain were able to adapt to the new situation. The same thing happens with people: being in a long-term traumatic situation, or an activity that seems meaningless, can drive you into a state of learned helplessness. There are three components of this state: the presence of a subjective assessment of the inability to cope with the task yourself, the feeling of being unable to control the situation, attributing the reasons for failure to yourself and your personal qualities. Learned helplessness manifests itself in such thoughts and phrases: “We haven’t lived richly, it’s not worth starting” “Everyone in our family is like that” “I won’t ask for a raise, it doesn’t make sense” “I never succeed in anything” “At work almost everyone is smarter than me” “I really want to learn vocals, but why? I still don’t have the abilities” “We still don’t decide anything” and in behavior: Pseudo-activity (senseless fussy activity that does not lead to results and is inadequate to the situation) followed by inhibition Refusal of activity (capitulation, apathy, loss of interest) Stupor (state inhibition, lack of understanding of what is happening) Enumeration of stereotypical actions in an attempt to find one that is adequate to the situation, with constant intense monitoring of results Shift to a pseudo-goal (updating another activity that gives a feeling of achieving a result, for example: instead of resolving a conflict - the need to eat sweets, instead of writing a coursework - the desire to do cleaning, preferably general cleaning, etc.) Destructive behavior (aggressive behavior directed at oneself and/or others). These forms of behavior are activated automatically, without a step-by-step analysis of the situation and the development of a conscious strategy of behavior. They can replace each other as resources are depleted. There are 2 reasons for the formation of learned helplessness. The first of them is related to the characteristics of upbringing. If a child is not allowed to take initiative from childhood, is not allowed to solve problems on his own, and constantly demands from him complaisance and obedience, he can grow up as a passive and unconfident adult. For example, mothers of “helpless” children often strive for maximum satisfaction of any needs of the child, turning his desire into law, but at the same time they are prone to excessive demands and prohibitions - they prescribe who to be friends with, what to eat , where “not to go.” They usually argue this by the exclusivity of their child, by the desire to give him what they themselves were deprived of. You can often hear from them: “let me do it, you can’t handle it yourself,” they very abruptly cut off any attempts of their children to experiment with something or try something new. Fathers of “helpless” children often have undeveloped paternal feelings, they show superficial interest in children's affairs, treat the child as “small” at any age, experience fear or reluctance in children growing up. Such fathers encourage their children to retain childish qualities (spontaneity, naivety, playfulness), do not set clear boundaries and requirements for the child’s behavior, assign too few responsibilities to the child, but at the same time may be prone to excessive sanctions (rigid parenting style) and harsh react even to minor behavioral violations. To avoid this, psychologists advise parents to regularly draw children’s attention to the results of their own efforts. This helps to build a sense of control and self-confidence. It is also harmful to regularly tell a child that he allegedly does not naturally have the ability to study certain subjects or play sports. Having believed in his own lack of talent, a child may stop all attempts to master areas of knowledge that are difficult for him. The second reason is being in a long-term traumatic situation. Several years after the Seligman and Myers dog experiments, Donald Hiroto created an experimental situation forpeople, where subjects of two experimental groups were presented with a loud sound. One group could interrupt it by selecting a key combination on a special remote control. The other group was deprived of control, but received instructions to learn how to control it. For the purity of the experiment, the third group did not participate in this series of experiments. The main experiment involved all three groups learning to stop making noise. Hiroto supplemented the experiment with instructions: half of the subjects from the three groups were told that control over sound depends on chance, and the other half that it depends on the abilities of the subject. The results were as follows: just like in the experiment with dogs, the control group and the group that had the opportunity to control situation, quickly learned to control the noise, while subjects from the group deprived of control in the preliminary experiment failed to do this. Most of the subjects in this latter group sat passively and endured the unpleasant noise. And this happened despite the fact that all the circumstances (the experimental situation, place and time) had changed. Another important result was also obtained. Every third test subject whom Hiroto tried to put into a state of helplessness did not give up. In addition, every tenth of those who were not exposed to shock were initially helpless. The instructions received at the beginning of the experiment influenced the responses of the subjects. Those who received instructions that the impact depends on the case took longer to cope with switching off, and in all three groups. Learned helplessness is formed primarily by a traumatic environment, which does not reinforce the connection “my action equals an understandable result,” but destroys it. This, for example, is a chaotic environment: the parent is inconsistent, quick-tempered, and the child does not know what he will be punished for and what he will be praised for - so he decides that it is better to do nothing, just in case. You can immerse yourself in such an environment as an adult, for example, with an inadequate boss or an abusive partner. In general, any abusive interpersonal relationship can lead to learned helplessness. One of the main factors is double firmware, the double bind concept developed by the American scientist Gregory Bateson. This is a method of communication in which a person is given conflicting messages over and over again from a significant other. For example, a mother tells her child that she loves him, but pushes him away when he tries to hug her. Or your partner “allows” you to go to a party without him, but after returning he stops talking to you. Double messaging is an effective way to control without direct coercion. A person who has been accustomed to this kind of manipulation since childhood practically loses his own will and becomes depressed and apathetic. And - helpless. Learned helplessness can develop at any moment in life, which is accompanied by a long, intrusive, repeated traumatic experience. The main thing is that a person develops the idea that he cannot influence anything, which constantly has negative reinforcement. The most extreme example is a concentration camp. For example, psychologist Viktor Frankl in his book “Saying Yes to Life” describes how people refused to make any decisions, since any decision could entail severe punishment or even death: “A person lost his sense of himself as a subject not only because which completely becomes the object of the arbitrariness of the camp guards, but also because he felt dependent on pure chance, becomes a plaything of fate.” How to get out of a state of learned helplessness: The dogs in Seligman's experiment were eventually cured as follows: “...They began to drag these poor, resisting animals over the partition of the chamber back and forth until they began to move on their own initiative and found that their actions were producing results . When they reached this stage, the healing was one hundred percent reliable and lasting.” Thus, Martin Seligman proposed the main.