Learned helplessness and judgments of control.

Abstract

One of the central hypotheses of learned helplessness theory is that exposure to noncontingency produces a reduced ability to perceive response-outcome relations (the postulated "cognitive deficit"). To test this hypothesis, subjects were exposed to a typical helplessness induction task and then asked to make judgments of the amount of control their responses exerted over a designated outcome (the onset of a light). Support for the postulated cognitive deficit would be found if subjects who experienced the induction underestimated the relation between their responses and outcomes. The results, however, demonstrated that induction subjects (n = 30) made higher and more accurate judgments of control than subjects in a no-treatment control group (n = 30). This finding clearly fails to support the postulated cognitive deficit and highlights the need for other direct tests of the basic hypotheses of helplessness theory.

Perceptions of control, depressive symptomatology, and self-esteem of women in transition from abusive relationships

“…Consistent with findings of Alloy and Abramson (1982) and Ford and Neale (1985), no support was found for the cognitive deficit of learned helplessness theory. It is possible that present results were obtained because the computer task was a nonsocial activity removed from everyday experience, therefore not influenced by the very social experience of battering.…”

Transmission of Response to Trauma? Second-Generation Holocaust Survivors’ Reaction to Cancer

“…Ford and Neale (21) point out that if the belief in internal lack of control produced by helplessness persists for a long time, it will lead to an underestimation of control in a highly uncontrollable situation, such as cancer.…”

Interference with judgements of control and learning as a result of prior exposure to controllable and uncontrollable feedback during concept-learning tasks

“…This question was posed in the light of two apparently conflicting reports (i.e., Ford & Neale, 1985;Maldonado et al, 1991). The present studies showed, unequivocally, that prior exposure to uncontrollable/noncontingent feedback does have a subsequent detrimental effect on judgements of control.…”

“…Ford and Neale (1985) employed two groups of subjects: One group was exposed to a cognitive helplessness induction pretreatment, analogous to that used by Hiroto and Seligman (1975); the other group received no helplessness induction. Both groups were subsequently exposed to judgement of control test tasks with three different levels of predetermined contingency: low (dP = 25%), medium (dP = 50%), and high (dP = 75%).…”