PAVLOV'S DOGGIES, STINKIN' THINKIN' AND LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

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Sep 20, 1999

Everybody seems to know at least one victim of learned helplessness. There's the child failing at school. There is the adult who has no self-esteem, feels helpless, and feels powerlessness in the environment. There is the "slacker" who can't, or won't, get a job, opting for the comfort of a parent's couch and endless TV reruns. The person suffering from this condition doesn't even try. He thinks he is incapable of taking reponsibility for his own life.

In a burgeoning era which prizes initiative, success and fulfilled ambitions, learned helplessness has become an increasing mental health issue. Because of faulty learning in a childhood environment and the belief that everything a parent or sibling says to her is true, a lifetime of shame and guilt can readily lead to deep depression and the possibility of suicide.

CAUSES OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AS A LIFE POSITION

The literature, including that of authority Martin E. P. Seligman, appears to agree that learned helplessness starts out as a communication problem between the family and the child. The child must abide (or so he thinks) by what he is told regarding his self-worth. With little or no empowerment, the presence of "mixed messages" and the discounting of achievements and emphasis on what the child didn't do, he soon becomes a victim of learned helplessness. He thinks "They say I can't do anything right; why try?"

SYMPTOMS OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Phillip J. Decker, in "Empowering Employees", states several symptoms of learned helplessness, geared toward the workplace:

1). Lack of eye contact, attending to others and looking down a lot.

2) Lack of fun and coworker communication.

3) Looking busy when boss is near.

4) Suppressed minorities.

5) Unwillingness to make a decision, move or commitment.

FACTORS LEADING TO LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Dien Hsi Yen has proposed several words and phrases no child (or anyone, for that matter) should hear. Among the communication culprits and parental injunctions of inadequacy are the following:

Stupid!
Lazy!
Crazy! or mental!
Shut up!
Let me do this!
Hurry up!
Worthless!

Sarcastic remarks, like "Look at these grades! What do you go to school for--lunch?" and mixed messages like "Only 4 A's! Where did that B come from?" serve to fuel the child's opinion of herself--always poor. Further, Tom Kiska of the Detroit Press, hypothesizes that bad news on a newscast or gruesome and violent TV series reinforces the grief and trauma already present in one suffering from learned helplessness. Stories of the Columbine tragedy in April, 1999, the recent church shootings in Fort Worth, Texas, serial killers and rampant crime, Hurricane Floyd and the largest evacuation in history, and other situations in which the person or persons are

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