Describe learned helplessness. How is it developed in laboratory animals, and how does it help us to understand human depression?
What will be an ideal response?
Martin Seligman described the phenomenon of learned helplessness, which occurs when animals encounter conditions over which they have no control. If rats are confronted with a situation in which they receive occasional foot shocks, they can function well if they learn to cope with these shocks by doing something to avoid them (say, pressing a lever). But if the animals learn that their behavior has no effect on their environment—sometimes they get shocked and sometimes they don't, no matter what they do—they become "helpless"; they give up attempting to cope and seem to develop the animal equivalent of depression.
Seligman theorized that the same phenomenon may happen with people who are faced with uncontrollable stress. People become depressed if they "decide" or "think" they can do little about the stress in their lives, even if it seems to others that there is something they could do. This finding illustrates, again, the necessity of recognizing that different people process information about events in different ways. These cognitive differences are an important component of psychopathology.
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In the typical long-term, romantic relationship, a couple will experience passionate love for ____
a. three months or so—six to nine months at the most b. a year or so—two or three years at the most c. seven years or so—ten to fifteen years at the most d. an unlimited number of years or decades, if the relationship is successful
Sleep-deprived people act like intoxicated people in terms of judgment, attention, and reaction time.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
When a child resists temptation to violate a moral norm, it shows that the child has
a. a concern that the action is being secretly observed. b. internalized the values of heteronomous morality. c. suppressed the urge to act out a hostile attributional bias. d. learned the rule and is motivated to follow it.
The process of retaining information in memory is called _____
Fill in the blank with correct word