Learned helplessness and self-reported affect.

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the mood correlates of learned helplessness in human subjects. One group of subjects was pretreated with a series of inescapable aversive tones, and the degree of debilitation was measured on a subsequent solvable anagram task. These subjects were compared with a group pretreated with escapable aversive tones. Results replicated the learned helplessness effect: The group pretreated with inescapable tones demonstrated greatly debilitated performance at solving anagrams relative to the escapable group. The learned helplessness group also reported greater depression, anxiety, and hostility relative to the group pretreated with escapable tones. Moreover, a correlational analysis comparing self-ratings of helplessness during the experiment and a general 'emotionality index, composed of the sum of scores on the three affect scales, revealed a high association between the two variables (r= .63, p< .01). Seligman (1975) has proposed that the learned helplessness concept may serve as a model for reactive depression in man. If this model is valid, he has speculated that the experimental procedure for producing helplessness may yield symptoms associated with mild depression. The present study was designed to provide a test of the validity of this model. Mood changes instigated by the learned helplessness task 'were assessed to evaluate whether they are similar to those mood states reported to be salient characteristics of depression. The investigation utilized an experimental paradigm similar to that employed by Hiroto and Seligman (1975) for producing cross-modal helplessness. The Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (Zuckerman, Lubin, & Robins, 1965) was administered at various times during the experiment to gauge mood change. This check list elicited self-reports of depression, anxiety, and hostility.