Perry and Dickens (1984) found that noncontingent-trained students perceived they had less control and manifested a helpless attribution profile compared to contingent-trained students in a simulated college classroom. To examine the effects of varying amounts of noncontingent success on students' perceived control and attributions, 90 students at…

According to the learned helplessness hypothesis, organisms exposed to uncontrollable events learn the independence between their responses and environmental outcomes. This learning is believed to interfere with subsequent behavior. To further examine the dimension of uncontrollability, 48 college students were given solvable, unsolvable, or…

In recent years the college dormitory has become a popular setting for examining chronic effects of crowding and high density in humans. Possible differences between corridor- and suite-type residents were investigated to examine the degree to which corridor- and suite-design dormitories influence assertive behavior of the residents. It was…

The view that humans fail to solve certain types of problems because they are helpless and passive originated from a series of studies with animals; subsequent research attempted to replicate the findings of the learned helplessness behavior with humans. In an attempt to replicate and extend the Hiroto and Seligman (1975) study of humans exposed…

There is considerable debate regarding the effects of childhood sexual abuse on an individual's subsequent adjustment. To determine which variables are most useful in predicting subsequent adjustment of individuals who were involved in sexual experiences as children or adolescents, 59 female and 17 male undergraduates who reported having had a…

The effects of contingency training, instructor expressiveness, and student incentives on student achievement and attributions were investigated in a simulated college classroom. The following conditions were involved: a contingency manipulation resembling an aptitude test; an instructor lecture; two levels of student incentive; and an achievement…

The reluctance of depressed people to try hard may result not from their low expectancy for success, as Learned Helplessness Theory suggests, but rather from egotistic motivation to preserve whatever self-esteem they still have. Two studies were conducted using a paradigm which permitted a direct comparison of Learned Helplessness Theory and…

Both external locus of control (i.e., a generalized expectancy that reinforcement is controlled by luck or fate instead of oneself) and internal locus of attribution (i.e., beliefs that success or failure result from an individual's actions rather than external causes) have been related to depression. To examine the relationship of attributions…

John Bowlby's theory of affectional bonding and the reformulated learned helplessness theory of depression were integrated into a multivariate model in order to expand the breadth of current attributional theories of depression. This retrospective study focused upon the quality of parent-child relations, the types of discipline parents employed,…

Recent models of depression have shown differences in information processing to be important concomitants of depressed affect. To determine whether the cognitive distortion found in depressed individuals extends beyond self-evaluation and interpersonal evaluation into abstract decision making, 288 college students completed the Beck Depression…

Learned helplessness has recently incorporated attribution theory to predict the specific occurrence/nonoccurrence of the motivational, cognitive and affective deficits characteristic of helplessness. College students (N=50) participated in a study to investigate the effects of a personal-universal helplessness manipulation on subsequent task…

Both cognitive and learned helplessness models of depression stress the importance of low self-esteem in the etiology of depression and depressive symptomatology. To investigate the correlations and causal relationship of low self-esteem to depressive cognition, equal groups of low, medium, and high self-esteem college students (N=135; 89 female,…

This report discusses a study of 31 postsecondary students (20 males and 11 females) with learning disabilities (LD) and/or with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that examined college achievement and attributional styles. Students completed a combined Academic Attributional Style and Coping with Academic Failures Questionnaire.…

The concept of an individual's perception of control was applied to the classroom performance of university students. The initial approach was to use a laboratory simulation of a university classroom to explore the following: (1) whether it is possible to induce feelings of helplessness in a university classroom; (2) effects that feelings of…

Under a mastery learning system students can take successive parallel tests with study interspersed between tests until they demonstrate a minimal level of competency. For most students, such procedures increase final performance, yet some may experience repeated subjective failure. Self-worth theory predicts that repeated failure in the face of…