This 2-year study examined the relative potency of locus of control (LOC) and motivational orientation (MO) as predictors of standardized achievement scores and learned helplessness. Also tested was the prediction that children with an extrinsic MO would be prone to adopt an external LOC over time. In the first year of the study, subjects were 158…

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,…

The major task of life is to become masterful. As individuals grow the choice of which tasks to attempt and how best to achieve mastery at them becomes increasingly under their control by the situations they choose to engage in and by perceptions of their abilities. Mastery oriented people tend to attribute failure to unstable, external factors…

Learned helplessness often precedes depression. The elderly are more likely than the general population to be faced with uncontrollable events which may bring on learned helplessness. Intervention by gerontological counselors has been useful in reducing effects of helplessness. With pseudohelplessness, persons act helpless in order to control…

In 1976, suicides in the 15-24 year-old group (N=4,747) made up over 17% of all suicides in all age groups (N=26,750). In 1968, adolescent suicides (N=2,591) were only 12% of the total (N=21,000). Adolescent suicide rate is alarming unless put into perspective with the accident rate and the cultural belief in individual rights, responsibility, and…

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.…

Recent research on domestic violence has sought to provide insight into the psychological consequences of such violence. A conceptual framework, which suggests that both situational and person-centered factors contribute to adjustment to violence and affect a woman's personal and social resources, was formulated to examine the impact of stress,…

Typical learned helplessness research has involved the presentation of non-contingent, aversive events followed by measures of performance on subsequent tasks; recent investigations have focused on the effect of non-contingent rewards. To examine the effects of non-contingent rewards on children, two studies were conducted, in which children were…

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…

It has been argued that traditional psychiatric labels, hospitalization, anti-psychotic medication, and associated assistance programs tend to reinforce and perpetuate a sense of helplessness and dependency among mental patients. To investigate feelings of power and dependency of 15 neuropsychiatric patients in a sheltered workshop,…

The relationships of children's perceptions of the causes of academic success or failure to achievement behavior and to reading ability were examined using two measures: Crandall's Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale (IAR), and a measure of students' causal attributions relating to performance of a single, specific task. Subjects were…

Loneliness has been implicated as a central causal factor in depression, suicide, social problems, physical illness and general maladjustment. To investigate the correlates of loneliness in gifted adolescents, 175 adolescents (aged 14-17) who had been separated from their homes to participate in a special academic program completed a battery 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…

Following a traditional learned helplessness paradigm, subjects initially tried to terminate random bursts of noise using a button-pressing manipulandum and next tried to solve 20 serially-presented anagrams. The noise was broadcast at either a loud or soft intensity, and the subject's button-pressing was either successful (Escape condition) or…

Despite the support for the proposition that learning is enhanced by the reinforcement of correct responses, there remain learners who continue to fail when contingent reinforcement is administered, even though they may have the ability and be motivated to succeed. This condition, known as learned helplessness, presents a problem for instructional…