Learned helplessness in victims of maltreatment

Abused persons may eventually develop learned helplessness.

The concept of learned helplessness is one of the most widely studied constructs because of its decisive influence on a multitude of psychosocial processes.

It originated in 1975, when Martin Seligman and his collaborators observed that the animals in their research suffered from depression in certain situations.

What is learned helplessness?

To find out the reasons for the depression they noticed in dogs, Seligman conducted the following experiment. He placed several dogs in cages from which they could not escape, giving them electric shocks at random and variable time intervals, so that they could not predict the next shock or the pattern of the shocks, since there was none.

After several trials administering shocks, and although the dogs initially made several attempts to escape, it was observed that they eventually abandoned any voluntary escape activity. When the researchers modified the procedure and taught the dogs to escape, they remained still, refusing to go out or make escape attempts, the dogs remained still, refusing to leave or make attempts to avoid the shocks, even lying on their own excrement. on their own excrement.

Given these results, Seligman discovered that the animals' response was not entirely passive, but that the fact of lying on their own excrement was, in fact, a coping strategy (adaptation), since by lying on their own excrement they minimized the Pain and placed themselves in a part of the cage where the least amount of electric shocks was perceived. He termed this effect as learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness: a psychological phenomenon also present in humans.

Learned helplessness produces a modification of escape responses with unpredictable consequences by more predictable coping strategies. At the same time, Seligman discovered that it is possible to unlearn learned helplessnessWhen dogs were taught with repeated trials that they could escape from the cage, the learned helplessness response eventually disappeared.

This experiment has been replicated in humans, concluding that the important aspects of learned helplessness syndrome focus on the cognitive aspect, that is, on thoughts. When people have lost the ability to believe that their responses will help them escape the situation, they modify their flight responses to submissive behaviors as a coping strategy.

The presence of learned helplessness in victims of violence.

This modification of flight responses by submissive behaviors has been observed in victims of maltreatment with learned helplessness. Lenore Walker conducted this study in victims of intimate partner abuse, conducting a similar assessment of cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning.

The results showed that at the onset of maltreatment their responses or behaviors were avoidance or flight. However, continued exposure to the violence resulted in a modification of these responses. that they could decrease the intensity of the maltreatment through various coping strategies such as pleasing the abuser, doing what he wants, keeping him calm, etc.

Thus, the theory of learned helplessness as applied to victims of abuse describes how a woman may learn to be unable to predict the effect her behavior will have on the abuser. This lack of ability to predict how effective her own behavior will be in preventing battering modifies the origin or nature of the victim's response to different situations..

If you want to go deeper into this topic, I recommend the interview that Bertrand Regader conducted with Patricia Ríos: "Interview with a psychologist expert in gender violence".

Signs that indicate that someone is a victim of abuse and has developed learned helplessness.

When female victims of partner abuse suffer from learned helplessness, they will choose, in a known or familiar situation, those behaviors that produce a more predictable effect and avoid behaviors that have a less predictable effect, such as escape or flight responses.

This research also made it possible to allowed us to propose certain factors that make it possible to identify learned helplessness in victims of maltreatment.. The factors are:

• The presence of a pattern of violenceSpecifically, the Cycle of Violence, with its three phases (accumulation of tension, serious episode of aggression and loving repentance or absence of tension), together with the modification or observable increase in the intensity and frequency of maltreatment.

• Sexual abuse of women.

• Jealousy, intrusion, over-possession, and isolation of the woman.

• Psychological abuseVerbal degradation, denial of faculties, isolation, occasional indulgence, monopolizing perceptions, threat of death, drug- or alcohol-induced weakness.

• Presence of violent behavior of the partner towards others (children, animals or inanimate objects).

• Abuse of alcohol or drugs by either the man or the woman.

Last but not least, this study has allowed it to be used for the psychological treatment of victims of abuse.

Unlearning learned helplessness

The process of unlearning learned helplessness is characterized by the power endowment of these women within the couple's relationship.This will allow battered women to understand and break out of the cycle of violence, guiding them in how to predict the escalation of violence by distinguishing the different phases of the cycle and understanding that the phases of love and regret are a way of reinforcing the cycle and teaching them different skills to escape.

However, it is important to consider that there are differences between laboratory studies and real life and it is necessary to keep in mind that in real life the abuser may become more violent when the woman confronts him and/or when he tries to separate.