The Impact of Learned Helplessness on High School Students - Research Paper Example

The Impact of Learned Helplessness on a Group of Emotionally Disturbed High School Students Students today experience many problems in their lives, with their interest levels in learning going down. The causes of so many students turning away from attending schools, facing learning problems and failures in academics or extracurricular activities can well be understood by studying the effects of Learned Helplessness on them. Learned Helplessness, an Introduction Learned helplessness (LH) is a psychological phenomenon which was discovered in 1960 by Seligman. He found that if animals were subjected to an electrical shock in a cage which had no escape, they were unable to respond to such subsequent situations even when avoidance or escape was possible. (findarticles.com, 2001) This phenomenon can also be applied to human psychology. When individuals do not find any response/outcomes in relation to their actions/endeavors, they may feel unproductive, feeling that all their efforts go into vain and are useless. This is referred to as “learned helplessness” in people. LH may start taking place from one’s early life, especially in childhood or teen age. The Impacts of Learned Helplessness on Students Students are subjected to lots of work and learning in their academic lives. They are required to study most of their time so that they are able to pass in their examinations and tests, with good results. The most common victims of learned helplessness that we come across are students. There may be several reasons to this. When students do not find any favorable response to their hard work, it may hamper their education and lead to anxiety and depression. It’s purely a psychological fact. When people face depression and/or anxiety, they start panicking. Even if they come across situations which are familiar, or easy, they may act in a way which will result in a failure. This further augments the effect of the “helplessness” they face. They may start giving up, or lose their interest in their work and academics. “The sense of mastery over one’s environment is an important foundation for future emotional development.” (findarticles.com, 2001) If students do not find control over what their do and are unable to see any advantage or results for their work, their emotional levels are highly effected, and in a negative manner. Depressions, phobias, shyness and loneliness, all are associated with the effects of LH. Students may start having a feeling of being left behind when they are not given enough concentration. For a student who feels shy in his class just because he is unable to perform as good as his fellow schoolmates, he may eventually start feeling that there is nothing that he can do to overcome it. This sense of having no direct control over situations may lead him to stop trying to engage in class activities further. Students then tend to give up easily or fail more often, even at easier tasks. (Michael Firmin, 2004) They start presuming everything to be uncontrollable for them and subsequently stop their efforts and start accepting it as their fault. They may interpret/believe that it as a penalty for their carelessness, lack of understanding and ability. However, this is not a true statement. The difficulties that a student encounters in the classroom are the result of a lack of understanding by the teacher of the student, and his abilities. When students find their teachers supporting the high grade scorers, he may feel neglected and discouraged. This will further make him to stop trying to understand what is being taught in the class, just because he believes that he cannot do it. A common statement heard from students is that they know what has to be done, but they don’t know how to do it. This shows the clear effect of learned helplessness on students since they start losing self-confidence and the sense of competence. They reach a point where they surrender total control of their lives into the hands of others. “In effect abdicating any and all responsibility for their very own lives. Feeling helpless and hopeless.” (Howdle, 2008) Many things happen to students in their daily life. They are praised, criticized, assigned grades, and a lot more. When they experience LH, it may cause three types of deficits: motivational, cognitive and affective. When they feel helpless and hopeless, they find it useless to try. Thus, motivation suffers. (Woolfolk, 2006) They become pessimistic about learning and develop cognitive deficits. They miss the opportunities to practice and improve their skills and eliminate their deficiencies. When students start developing the feelings of anxiety, depression and listlessness (lack of energy and enthusiasm), they suffer from affective problems. (Woolfolk, 2006) Students transform from being “mastery-oriented” (low fear of failure) to “failure accepting” where they always expect failure in each and every opportunity and run away from it. Their performances also deteriorate over time, eventually forcing them to be dropped out of schools and colleges. Other Impacts Students approach assignments with very low expectations of succeeding and tend to give up further effort on the very first signs of failure. They do not attempt anything with interest, neither do they put any effort in learning what they were unable to do. Teachers commonly refer to this as the “failure syndrome”. Other terms used for this are “frustrated” and “self-defeated”. (Brophy, 2008) Failure syndrome students needlessly fail as they do not put in their best efforts and perform tasks half-heartedly. They suffer from low self-efficacy. Students who develop LH reactions are found at all levels of academic ability, whether it be high school, graduate or post-graduate level. Serious frustration makes them prone to develop “catastrophic” reactions. Students attribute their failures to their lack of ability rather than to causes which are controllable. This is a sign of their loss of self-confidence. Moreover, they also start attributing their successes to external and uncontrollable sources such as luck, believing that the task was an easy one and that anyone could have done it. (Brophy, 2008) Conclusion Learned helplessness puts the students at a disadvantage in the class room. They may start showing symptoms of failure such as apathetic responses to difficult tasks or tasks in which they have been previously failing. Such students suffer from many difficulties in their lives and once they lose their self-confidence, they may fail miserably in all circumstances. Some students also quit learning and/or schooling and decide to do layman jobs, which damages their lives tremendously. Extreme depression has also lead many students to suicide. Learned helpless is a serious issue and must be dealt with in a careful manner by teachers and administrators so that they can build self-confidence in students and enable them to perform well and achieve good grades. Works Cited (2008). Motivating Students to Learn. In J. E. Brophy, Motivating Students to Learn (pp. 126-127). Laurence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers. findarticles.com. (2001, Apr 06). Learned Helplessness. Retrieved May 08, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2602/is_0003/ai_2602000349/ Howdle, B. (2008, Apr 28). Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Learned Helplessness. Retrieved May 08, 2010, from http://hudds53.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/dying-mans-daily-journal-learned-helplessness/ Michael Firmin, C.-E. H. (2004). Learned Helplessness: The Effect of Failure on Test-Taking. Vol. 124. (2006). Educational Psychology. In A. Woolfolk, Educational Psychology (pp. 405-407). Dorling Kindersley. Read More