Learned helplessness: delving into the psychology of the victim

Learned helplessness leads the sufferer to do nothing to avoid suffering.

The learned helplessness is perhaps one of those psychological phenomena whose importance affects the existential level of the human being, and whose research and the answers that science can provide should be able to improve the way we relate to each other. Minimizing learned helplessness will mean progress both for society and for individuals in particular.

But what exactly is learned helplessness? what exactly is learned helplessness, and why is it so important to understand this concept? In today's article we will explore this phenomenon and its implications in our daily lives.

Learned helplessness: a syndrome to consider

Learned helplessness is something that can affect people as close as a family member or even oneself. It is not, therefore, just an academic concept with no relevance in reality, but something that affects the daily lives of many people and, on many occasions, their lives may depend on the effective help of a family member or mental health professional who tries to mitigate this learned and dysfunctional behavior.

What is learned helplessness?

But what exactly is learned helplessness?

Broadly speaking, it refers to the condition whereby a person or animal becomes inhibited in the face of aversive or painful situations when actions to avoid them have not been fruitful, ending up developing passivity in this type of situation. Understanding how this phenomenon develops is vital in order to understand and help people who suffer from this psychological bias, as it can be a limiting belief that acts as a heavy burden on their personal development and self-esteem.

Martin Seligman's contributions, the researcher who discovered learned helplessness

Seligman y Overmaier were among the first researchers to ask the question of why an animal or a person who suffered constant adverse and painful conditions in their own flesh did nothing to leave such a situation. This finding was reported in research with dogs, and was later followed by some researchers such as Watson y Rameywho studied learned helplessness in humans.

On the other hand, there is no specific situation that generates helplessness.In other words, many people can experience the same adverse situation (even as a group) and yet react differently to it. It was Bernard Weiner who considered the influence of each individual's interpretation and perception of the event on the development of helplessness and also on the way of coping with it.

Signs of learned helplessness

When someone falls into helplessness, they manifest it in three deficits: motivational, emotional and cognitive. A person who begins to fall into helplessness or who already suffers from it begins to show a delay in the initiation of voluntary responses until gradually there is no longer any (motivational deficit). Similarly, a series of behavioral disorders begin to exist. behavioral disordersThe most common are states of anxiety and depression (emotional deficit), which gradually take their toll to the point that the affected person is unable to see solutions to the problem that torments him or her (cognitive deficit).

The answer to the question why a person in a situation clearly does nothing to get out of it lies precisely in the affective lies precisely in the integral affectation not only of these three areas (motivational, emotional and cognitive) but also at the physiological level. In a word, the whole person, the different psychic and somatic areas, are affected by this syndrome. Consequently, it will not be enough to make the decision to break the negative cycle; it implies unlearning the way in which the aversive or painful situation is processed.

Why do some people develop learned helplessness?

How does one become helpless? An easy way to understand this is the story of the frogs. It is said that to cook a live frog it is necessary to put it in cold water and gradually increase the heat until it boils. On the other hand, if to cook the same frog we decide to throw it into the already boiling water, the frog will jump; it will escape from the boiling water. With this example I want to explain that learned helplessness is a scheme of thought that develops gradually and that little by little eats away at the psychic and bodily strengths to the point of breaking the will.

The sad thing to consider is how easily learned helplessness can develop. We are all vulnerable to adopting this type of thinking patterns, because there is rarely an emotional education to be able to face it.

It is enough to continually expose the potential victim to adverse circumstances, to lower morale, to overload him/her with work, to close off external support for a prolonged period of time and repeatedly. The person who has been treated in this way will soon show deficits in the aforementioned areas: affective, emotional, cognitive and even somatic. And no, it is not something that does not happen every day: family violence and/or intimate partner violence are common examples in which different degrees of learned helplessness are usually perceived on the part of the victim.

But these are not the only scenarios in which relational patterns can be generated that can lead to learned helplessness. There is it in the school, in the work, in the groups of friends...... The communicative and relational styles that generate learned helplessness do not necessarily translate into physical violence. In many cases, violence can be psychological, economic, moral, among others.

Solving learned helplessness

Regarding the need to generate dynamics to try to help a person with learned helplessness, several things should be said. It is of little help if someone tries to help by constantly repeating to the victim what he/she should do or how he/she should think. It would be like trying to tell a flu patient not to feel bad: both the flu virus and the mental schemas that lead to learned helplessness are sufficiently ingrained in the person to resist a few simple reminders of what to do or how to think. to resist mere well-meaning words or summary advice on how to cope.

Indeed, the person suffering from learned helplessness does not feel bad because he/she wants to, but because his/her psyche has consolidated dysfunctional schemas that inhibit him/her from changing his/her own situation. Therefore, it is necessary to destigmatize the victim. Understand that he has lost the ability to see the solutions that others without the problem can see and that the help he needs is not only for others to tell him what he "should" or "should not" do, but to reaffirm his capacity and self-esteem; to give him back control of his life so that he is able to take control of what he saw as unsolvable at the time..

1. Psychological therapy to treat these cases

In this regard, there are mental health professionals who can treat people with learned helplessness. One of the most frequently used therapies for this purpose is cognitive-behavioral therapy. Through several sessions, the psychologist will help the patient to restructure his or her thoughts and emotions, as well as the learned behaviors that prevent the patient fromand emotions, as well as learned behaviors that prevent him/her from moving forward.

To conclude, helplessness is not a purely individual matter.. It can go "viral", if I may use that expression. That is, helplessness can spread to an entire society or social group. The Second World War was an extreme case where all the cruelty of which human beings are capable was revealed, and the Nazi concentration camps witnessed thousands of human beings who, having lost all hope of survival, practically surrendered themselves to death.

However, it is not necessary to go so far back in time or space. Family violence, bullying, mobbing are just a few everyday examples that show us that this phenomenon is very present in our societies. It is up to us to become aware of this and to fight not only to minimize its effects, but also to combat its causes.

Bibliographic references:

• http://www4.ujaen.es/~rmartos/IA.PDF
• http://mariangelesalvarez.com/igualdad/relacion-de-control-o-igual/la-indefension-aprendida