Inoculation against Learned Helplessness

Abstract

Different patterns of successes and failures which comprised two partial reinforcement schedules were combined with the presence or absence of training in the attribution of effort to assess their relative effectiveness in preventing learned helplessness in non-depressed human subjects. These conditions preceded a series of insoluble discrimination problems. Also, in the absence of prior training, a helpless group received the insoluble problems, a non-helpless group received contingent feedback, and a no-treatment control group received no feedback. All groups were tested for escape/avoidance performance on a shuttle box. Analysis indicated that only the attribution of effort combined with partial reinforcement in which the number of consecutive failures prior to a success was variable produced an inoculation against learned helplessness. Results are discussed in terms of the joint contribution of reinforcement histories and perceptions of personal control over outcomes in mediating the impact of uncontrollable events.