Tested reformulated learned helplessness theory of depression with adolescent inpatients (N=63) diagnosed as depressed, conduct disordered, or both. Adolescents with major depressive diagnosis differed from nondepressed adolescents with significantly lower attributional style scores for positive events. Subjects who reported more severe depression…

Tested relation between attributions and types of depression postulated by reformulated learned helplessness theory versus an alternative in undergraduate college students (N=334). Results suggest inclusion of types of depression modestly increases support for one of hypotheses of reformulated theory but makes more questionable previously untested…

Presents a family systems perspective on wife battering and treatment implications for mental health counselors. Focuses on the processes and interrelatedness between events and people in a battering relationship. Discusses some of salient literature on wife battering from an individual perspective and suggests that future models and theories…

This study examined learned helplessness and its effect on test taking. Students were given one of two tests; the first began with extremely difficult questions and the other started with easy questions. The researchers hypothesized that those who took the test beginning with difficult questions would become easily frustrated and possibly doubt…

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which intimate partner violence and different forms of child maltreatment occur within and across childhood and adulthood for a high-risk group of women. Method: Low-income adult women were interviewed, retrospectively, regarding their experiences with intimate partner violence and…

Historically, most investigations of the social and psychological effects of disaster have focused on describing the impact of single traumatic events rather than on developing an understanding of how disasters or particular characteristics of disasters affect various groups of victims. This study investigated the hypothesis that stress caused by…

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…

Reports a study conducted to determine whether individuals who observed others experiencing noncontingency would develop learned helplessness vicariously. Subjects were 75 college female undergraduates. (MP)

Religious attitudes about blindness such as viewing blindness as a punishment for sins or viewing blind persons as helpless present extremely difficult attitudinal barriers. The article explores the relationship between religion, religious attitudes, and blindness and describes a seminar training program for ministerial students. (Author/CB)

Sixteen "helpless" learning disabled students (grades four to five) assigned to an attribution training group demonstrated greater reading persistence and showed significant increases in effort attributions for failure as well as more internal attributions for achievement situations when compared to Ss in the control group. Treatment gains for…

Examined the relationship of helplessness, locus of control, depression, and voluntary participation in therapy. Results confirmed the relationship between helplessness, locus of control, and depression and suggested patients with greater degrees of helplessness were less likely to take an active role in treatment. (JAC)

What happens when explanations externalizing the cause of one's achievement failures are no longer credible? College undergraduates experiencing successive subjective failure in classroom tests gave postdictive explanations for failures, indicated shame, and rated expectancy for future success. Self-worth predictions suggest despair occurs when…

Rotter's social learning theory is applied to the learned helplessness paradigm, and is used to analyze (1) expectancy change processes occurring during helplessness training and (2) the generalization of those changes to other situations. Literature on individual and situational differences is also reviewed. (Author/SS)

Tested attribution are driven by control motivation and that attributional activity increases following an experience with lack of control. Subjects were given high, low, or no helplessness training and tested for motivational variations. (Author/SS)

Compares M. E. P. Seligman's recent work on learned helplessness with N. R. F. Maier's 30-year-old work on frustration behavior. Notes striking similarities between the two approaches. Concludes that the learned helplessness model might explain the "abnormal fixations" that Maier reported. (Author/RL)