Learned Helplessness - Term Paper Example

Learned Helplessness Learned Helplessness Impact of Organizational Role Stress on Learned Helplessness in NGOs: Implications for Human Resource Management by Hardik Sha & Sanjyot Pethe This article is about a study conducted to determine the relationship of Organization Role Stress (ORS) and Learned Helplessness (LH). The study aims to identify the role of human resource management in moderating the relationship (Sha & Pethe, 2004). The study was conducted through a questionnaire given among five NGOs in India with a sample size of 84 employees.

The results of the study found that there was a significant and positive correlation between LH and ORS which means that the change in the level of ORS leads to a change in LH (Sha & Pethe, 2004). The study also revealed that four components of ORS are very much related to LH namely: role ambiguity, role expectation conflict, role isolation and self-role distance. These components are caused by unclear structures, lack of job description, specification and analysis, improper placement, inadequate communication, overlapping role expectations and lack of team effort.

The results also showed that the higher the LH, the higher the ORS and vice versa. From the findings of the study, it was determined that the role of the human resource management is crucial in adopting changes to reduce the stress and LH of employees in NGOs. Some of these steps include an improvement of the communication system to clearly define the vision and mission of the organization, introduction of a framework for remuneration and a restructuring of the organization to clearly identify roles of each employee (Sha & Pethe, 2004).

According to the study, if management is able to implement the suggested changes, they can reduce the stress and LH of the employees and eventually increase their morale and motivation. Learned Helplessness in Sport by Harry Prapavessis & Albert V. Carron The study was conducted to examine whether tennis athletes have maladaptive achievement patterns associated with learned helplessness, and whether this condition is related to gender and/or skill level (Prapavessis & Carron, 1988). It also aims to determine whether there is a relationship between maladaptive achievement patterns and the attributional styles used in failure performances.

Fifty male and female athletes, with different skill levels, in a tennis academy were asked to answer a sport-specific questionnaire to assess their cognitive, motivational, and emotional maladaptive achievement patterns. Results showed that 11 subjects demonstrated maladaptive achievement patterns associated with learned helplessness (Prapavessis & Carron, 1988). Findings also showed that gender or skill level differences were not present. Results showed that helpless subjects had a different attribution dimension style for explaining failure performances as compared with the nonhelpless.

The research also revealed that the helpless subjects gave ratings that were internal, persistent, and recurrent (Prapavessis & Carron, 1988). Learned Helplessness in Social Situations by Therese Goetz & Carol Dweck The study was conducted among 130 4th and 5th grade students to determine the responses to rejection of the children with different popularity levels. The study showed that rejected and neglected children resembled learned helpless children in regard to both attributions and behaviour following social rejection.

The neglected children showed greater behavioural deterioration following rejection than rejected children. “The most severe disruption of attempts to gain social approval (withdrawal and perseveration) was associated with the tendency to emphasize personal incompetence as the cause of rejection, regardless of popularity level” (Goetz & Dweck, 1980). References Goetz, T. & Dweck, C. (1980). Learned helplessness in social situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(2), 246-255.

Prapavessis, H. & Carron, A. Learned helplessness in sport. (1988). The Sport Pscychologist, 2(3), 189-201. Retrieved 24 May 2011. http://journals.humankinetics.com/tsp-back- issues/TSPVolume2Issue3September/LearnedHelplessnessinSport Sha, H. & Sanjyot, P. (2004). Impact of organizational role stress on learned helplessness in NGOs: Implications for human resource management. SCMS Journal of Indian Management. Retrieved 24 May 2011. http://dspace.scmsgroup.org/bitstream/handle/10562/773/article.pdf?sequence=1