Learned Helplessness at Work

Abstract

This chapter presents some empirical data and discusses the potential usefulness of the learned helplessness model in work environment research. The theory of learned helplessness should also be of interest to behavioral scientists engaged in work environment research. During the last decade, the concept of learned helplessness has also begun to appear in the public debate about various social problems. M. Seligman set out to demonstrate the similarities between the effects of learned helplessness as a laboratory phenomenon on the one hand and depression on the other hand. The “paradigmatic learned-helplessness finding” came from experiments with animals followed by laboratory experiments with human beings. In the revised as well as in the original theory, learned helplessness was followed by motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects; now, lowered self-esteem was added.