Learned Helplessness
(Seligman, Helplessness: On depression, development, and death, 1975)
Martin Seligman conducted what today would be considered quite unethical research on rats and dogs. He subjected them to painful shocks. Half of them were able to escape the shocks by jumping a fence. The other half had to endure the shocks whenever they came on, until the shock was turned off by the experimenter. These latter subjects were “helpless” to influence their situation.

Once the animals were conditioned, Seligman then placed them in new situations where they could get food or avoid pain only by devising new strategies. The animals that had been taught they could escape the shock tended to succeed. The animals that had endured the shock gave up, and some died by drowning or starvation.
Seligman believes that “learned helplessness” in humans causes depression, and has begun to conduct research on its opposite, “learned effectiveness”. We use learned effectiveness as a strategy in our work, teaching students to take small steps that are bound to succeed, and then raising the bar to higher and higher levels of accomplishment. Once a student who felt helpless learns that he or she can be successful, that student becomes more motivated, engaged, and responsible. Learning increases and negative behaviors decrease.