Learned helplessness is the conviction that one has no control over events in their life (Galluchi, 2014). It can be viewed as the opposite of self-efficacy (the belief in one’s ability to successfully complete a task) (Galluchi, 2014). It is often caused by experiencing uncontrollable situations that lead the individual to believe the future will also contain uncontrollable situations (Galluchi, 2014). This experience alone does not cause learned helplessness to develop; the individual must also 1) attribute the situation’s outcome to their own inadequacies and 2) view these inadequacies as stable, internal attributes (Galluchi, 2014).
How can it decrease performance?
Typically, one adapts to failures by learning more, trying harder, thinking about problems, and considering causes of failure, then persisting in trying to succeed (Galluchi, 2014). With learned helplessness, individuals do not persist in trying to overcome failures; their past has influenced them to believe that 1) success is unlikely and that 2) they have little to no control over the skills/abilities (Galluchi, 2014). Therefore, why try? They believe that they cannot improve no matter how hard they work.
How can it improve performance?
Learned helplessness is not known to improve performance.
Strategies to Pivot
If the causes of learned helplessness are 1) past failures and 2) perceptions of abilities and are the converse of self-efficacy, then the strategy for overcoming this is to increase self-efficacy (Galluchi, 2014).
See self-confidence training.
Training Questions
Using your mental performance log, answer these questions. Remember that the more thought and effort you put into them, the more you'll get from the experience.
- Describe a time when you or someone you know exhibited learned helplessness. (You don’t have to reveal personal details just general situation.).
- Now that you know about learned helplessness and performance, describe some ways that you could have helped the person in your example, reduce their helpless behaviors.