Learned helplessness,depression and the perception of reinforcement |
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Authors: | William R. Miller Martin E.P. Seligman |
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Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | ![]() Depressed and nondepressed subjects were given escapable, inescapable, or no noise. Then, their perceptions of reinforcement contingencies in skill and chance tasks were assessed. Depressed-no noise and nondepressed-inescapable noise subjects exhibited smaller decreases in expectancy following failure in skill, but not in chance, than nondepressed-no noise subjects. So, depression and inescapable noise both produced perception of failure in skill as response-independent. Contrary to predictions, neither depression nor inescapable noise had a significant effect on increases in expectancy after success. These results partially support the learned helplessness model of depression which claims that a belief in independence between responding and reinforcement is central to the etiology and symptoms of depression in man. |
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Keywords: | Reprints may be obtained from the first author Department of Psychology University of Pennsylvania 3815 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19174 U.S.A. |
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