Abstract
The present study investigates whether stability of the uncontrollability experience is an important factor in causing cognitive exhaustion syndrome. In the first phase, participants experienced different types of deprivation of personal control in terms of trying to find a solution to solvable and unsolvable tasks based on the procedure of Informational Helplessness Training. The Linear Orders Task was used to evaluate the efficiency of generative reasoning. The results revealed the greatest deficits in the group with random uncontrollability experience, with the first solvable and the last unsolvable task. Mechanisms underlying the effects of various uncontrollability experiences on cognitive exhaustion are discussed.
Highlights
The issues of personal control over one’s own activity and human functioning when control is lost have held psychologists’ interest for almost half a century (Bandura, 1977; Bukowski, Asanowicz, Marzecová, & Lupiáñez, 2015; Kofta & Sędek, 1999; Langer, 1975; Maier & Seligman, 1976; Overmier & Seligman, 1967)
The present study investigates whether stability of the uncontrollability experience is an important factor in causing cognitive exhaustion syndrome
We conducted the present study in order to verify whether different types of personal control deprivation differentiate learned helplessness deficits
Summary
The issues of personal control over one’s own activity and human functioning when control is lost have held psychologists’ interest for almost half a century (Bandura, 1977; Bukowski, Asanowicz, Marzecová, & Lupiáñez, 2015; Kofta & Sędek, 1999; Langer, 1975; Maier & Seligman, 1976; Overmier & Seligman, 1967). Helplessness training is referred to as the constant contact of an individual with an uncontrollable situation, which is realized in experimental studies as the procedure in which an examinee is given unsolvable tasks only (Kofta & Sędek, 1993; Maier & Seligman, 1976; von Hecker & Sędek, 1999). It is assumed that attributing helplessness to stable factors leads to chronic deficits and expectancy of a lack of any control in the future, whereas making unstable attributions may not necessarily have detrimental effects on subsequent tasks (Mikulincer, 1988) In line with this perspective, it seems plausible to hypothesize that coping with alternately solvable and unsolvable tasks will enhance the tendency to form unstable attributions and as a result lead to less severe – in comparison to the classic helplessness training – effects of experiencing uncontrollability
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