Tests the egotism hypothesis for poor performance following insoluble problems, and investigates the contribution of egotistic mechanisms to performance in perceived group affiliation and helpless threat conditions. Reports that participants in the failure and group-affiliation conditions performed better than others. Observes that this supports…

Proposes a model that assumes the relationships among unemployment and expectation of success, commitment to work, motivation, causal attributions, self-esteem, and depression are moderated by first-time job-seeking and age. Results show that, for first-job seekers, the relationships among these variables is consistent with expectancy-value…

Explored the Korean concepts of emotion "dapdaphada" and "uulhada," somewhat equivalent to helplessness and depression, respectively. Results with 50 Korean and 50 German undergraduates indicate that these terms are specific emotion words in the domain of sadness with no translation equivalent in German. (SLD)

Tested efficiency of induced self-esteem in reducing various deficits caused by learned helplessness. Results indicated subjects who received induced self-esteem treatment showed significantly more deficit reversal. Results are discussed in relation to the usefulness of induced self-esteem as a form of treatment for helplessness depression.…

Argues that little research has been directed toward exploring cognitive variables that characterize students with poor school attendance. Presents the findings of a pilot study that compared a small sample of truants and non-truants on locus of control and attributional style. Finds that attributional style is a significant factor in explaining…

Canadian data from the 1998 Cross-National Survey on Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children were analyzed to examine the effects of school experiences on personal health (physical health, mental health, self-esteem, helplessness, and body image) and interpersonal relationships (number of close friends and making friends) among adolescents.…

Gotlib and Asarnow suggest that learned helplessness may not adequately model clinical depression. They reply to Rohsenow's criticism that Gotlib and Asarnow's conclusions are unwarranted because the null hypothesis is not demonstrated by a single study and because adequate diagnostic criteria are not presented. (Author/BEF)

Explores the experience of psychotherapists (N=100) working with suicidal patients. Findings indicate that suicidal patients can evoke intense feelings within the therapist. Commonly mentioned responses include feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and a sense of failure. Outlines measures vital to the support of therapists and discusses the…

Examined the effects of escapable versus inescapable aversive stimuli (noise) on performance in relation to the conceptual complexity level of college students (N=60). Overall, results suggested that conceptual complexity level mediated the experience of learned helplessness. Conceptually complex students were less negatively affected than…

The increase in global mobility has brought about the recent increase in the number of students who are not from the majority culture in classrooms across the United States and Canada and who report experiencing loneliness and social isolation. The students' loss of self-esteem and the development of learned helplessness are directly related to…

This study investigated the need to include explicit attributional retraining in a program designed to teach self-regulation reading comprehension strategies to 60 Spanish children (grades 5-6) with learning disabilities. Regardless of attributional retraining, children improved on measures of cognitive strategies, but their gains were very low on…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the presence of helplessness in students with learning difficulties (LD), and evaluate the role of goal orientations as antecedents of helplessness, negative affect, and psychopathology. Following induction of failure, results suggested that students with LD displayed increased negative affectivity,…

Homeless youth are a population at a high risk for suicidal behavior. A previous exploratory study emphasized the importance of feeling trapped or helpless, which appeared to mediate the impact of other risk variables. Confirmatory work was needed to test this inductively derived model. Two hundred eight homeless youths completed surveys on the…

Principles arising from aspects of Vygotsky's ideas for the development of self regulation and from cognitive social learning theory are discussed. It is suggested that present methods of teaching mathematics are not adequate and that the use of instructional technology is needed to overcome the shortcomings. (JAZ)

Restated in such a way as to isolate and remove the confounding influence of overall attributional style, the learned helplessness model of depression works for affective, somatic, and psychological symptoms of 160 Filipino college students. Applied to 227 American students, the restated model predicts affective and psychological, but not somatic,…