Learned helplessness deficits: Uncontrollable outcomes or perceived failure?

An experiment is described showing that learned helplessness deficits are produced by prior exposure to uncontrollable outcomes rather than perceived failure. Although the controllability manipulation did produce differences in perceived success or failure, similar differences were also induced by means of instructional feedback. These latter differences, within the controllable and uncontrollable groups, were not associated with poorer performance by subjects given failure feedback. Moreover, the instructional feedback did not influence subjects' perceptions of controllability or uncontrollability. The results confirm that helplessness deficits cannot be explained as reactions to task failure.This research was supported by Research Grant A28015473 from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.     

气质情绪特性测评工具的编制及其对5831名大中小学生测评中的应用

在气质情绪特性理论框架下,编制《青少年儿童气质情绪特性问卷》,并对小学至大学共5831名学生的气质情绪特性进行调查。结果发现：问卷具有良好的信、效度;各学段女生情绪产生的速度都要快于男生;小、初、高三学段与大学阶段相比,情绪变化速度更快且更外显;本科生比专科生情绪更外显且更易控;文科生比理科生对情绪更敏感、产生强度更强、产生速度更快、变化速度更快且更外显。此研究为深入探索个体的情绪特征,拓展了新视野。     

Learned helplessness and learned resourcefulness: effects of noncontingent success and failure on individuals differing in self-control skills

We designed two experiments to investigate the role of self-control processes in learned-helplessness studies by assessing the differential reactions to uncontrollability of subjects who presumably had either a rich (high resourceful, or HR) or poor (low resourceful, or LR) repertoire of self-control skills. HR and LR subjects received noncontingent success feedback, failure feedback, or no feedback on a task that ostensibly assessed "therapeutic abilities." Subjects were subsequently tested on insolvable puzzles (Experiment 1) or on solvable anagrams (Experiment 2). According to Kanfer and Hagerman's (1981) self-regulation model, self-regulatory activities are evoked primarily in situations in which subjects are faced with repeated failure. Hence we predicted that individual differences in self-control would influence performance on the insolvable puzzles and not anagram performance after exposure to noncontingent failure. This prediction was confirmed: Only the performance of LR subjects on the insolvable puzzles was debilitated by the helplessness induction, whereas HR and LR subjects showed equal helplessness-induced deficits on the anagrams. The latter finding was interpreted in terms of the learned-helplessness model without the mediating effects of self-regulatory processes. As predicted from the self-control model, HR subjects more frequently checked statements indicating positive self-evaluations and task-oriented thoughts and less frequently checked negative self-evaluations than did LR subjects during exposure to uncontrollability in both experiments. We concluded that the self-control model accounts best for subjects' self-reactions during exposure to uncontrollability or failure, whereas the learned-helplessness model accounts for the generalization of helplessness from uncontrollable situations to controllable ones.     

The effect of superstitious belief on performance following an unsolvable problem

Two experiments investigated the hypothesis that performance is not impaired following instances of uncontrollability when superstitious beliefs are invoked. In Experiment 1, undergraduates worked on an anagrams task following exposure to either a solvable or unsolvable word puzzle. Level of superstitious belief was assessed using Tobacyk, 1988 revised Paranormal Belief Scale. Following the unsolvable problem, students with a high level of superstitious belief solved more anagrams than students with a low level of superstitious belief. In Experiment 2, level of superstitious belief was assessed both before and after working on a solvable or unsolvable puzzle. Reported level of superstitious belief increased following exposure to unsolvable, but not solvable problems. These studies support the hypothesis that participants invoke superstitious beliefs during instances of uncontrollability, which may prevent or interrupt subsequent performance impairment.     

How are high school studies related to performance in a psychology degree?

The relationship between performance in final high school studies, on which the university entrance system is based, and performance in a psychology major at university is examined. A total of 241 students were identified who completed first year psychology at a regional university, and had started university within two years of completing high school. Their marks in psychology subjects over the 3‐year major program, their University Admission Index (UAI) and Higher School Certificate subject profile were extracted from the university student records system and subjected to a series of analyses. Psychology marks were averaged to produce a score for each of the three year‐levels. UAI correlated with performance at all three levels (.42 – .49) and was the strongest predictor of performance. Having studied mathematics or a creative arts subject, but not a science subject, had a significant impact on performance in the psychology course over and above the influence of UAI score.     

The Gender Gap in Possible Selves: Divergence of Academic Self-Views Among High School and University Students

Two studies were designed to investigate the current and possible academic self-views of university and high school students. In the first study, upper level university students were shown to diverge by gender in their current- and possible-self-views. Women reported more ability for and identification with the arts, communication, and social sciences; men reported more ability for and identification with mathematics, science, technology, and business. Gender differences were greater with respect to possible future selves than to current selves. The second study included lower and upper level university students as well as high school students. Again, a gender divergence appeared among the university students; however, it was not as marked among high school students. Analyses showed that both women and men differed significantly across educational levels in their self-ratings and that, within the masculine-stereotyped academic domains linked to powerful careers, university women endorsed fewer possibilities for themselves that high school women did. These findings suggest that, as they make the transition from high school to university, young women may be actively closing off possibilities for their futures.     

School Families: Implementation and Evaluation of a Middle School Prevention Program

The authors describe a school prevention program called School Families that emphasizes normal developmental needs of middle school students. In addition, the results of an in-depth qualitative evaluation of the program are presented. The School Families groups comprised middle school students, teachers, and adults from the university and community who meet weekly during the school day to process issues related to academic performance, decision making, self-esteem, and social skills. On the basis of written narratives, individual interviews, and focus-group discussions, the 35 participants (12 middle school students, 14 teachers, and 9 university students) reported that the School Families program largely had a beneficial influence on them.     

Self-Esteem and Body Satisfaction in Male and Female Elementary School, High School, and University Students

A total of 227 male and female elementary school, high school, and university students completed questionnaires concerning self-esteem, body satisfaction, and body build. Self-esteem was lower for female students than for male students overall, and for high school than for elementary school or university students. It was positively correlated with body satisfaction (cathexis, body image, weight satisfaction), but the regression analysis only predicted self-esteem by cathexis. The gender difference in self-esteem, and the relationship between self-esteem and cathexis, may develop as early as elementary school. Suggestions for future research are given.     

Extraversion,neuroticism, and psychoticism in Iranian students1

A Persian translation of Eysenck's extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism inventory (PEN) was given to 209 university and 101 high school students in Iran. Comparisons of the mean scores on extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism between the two age groups do not show any significant differences, although the high school students appear to score higher than university students on all three personality dimensions. Comparisons of reliability estimates determined separately for the two age groups suggest that the PEN is equally reliable for high school and university students. The results are discussed in their cross-cultural context.     

Belief in the Controllability of Weight and Attributions to Prejudice Among Heavyweight Women

The perceived controllability of weight is a central feature of prejudice against heavyweight people, but its role in the experience of prejudice is not well established. Heavyweight women (N=66, mean age = 38 years) were exposed to information about cardiovascular health or the uncontrollability of weight and then wrote a persuasive health-related essay. All participants received a negative evaluation on the essay quality from a male evaluator whom they believed could see them or not. Belief in the uncontrollability of weight led to more attributions for the feedback to the evaluator's prejudice but only when the participants thought that they were visible. The results are discussed in terms of the stigma of overweight.     

The impact of school transitions: A focus for preventive efforts

The relationship between cumulative or single school transfers and a student's academic adjustment was explored. The school records of 250 high school students were examined and school transfers due to either residential mobility or the normative school change from eighth to ninth grade were identified. Correlations between the cumulative number of school transfers in a student's history and their ninth-grade academic performance and attendance record were computed for both ethnic and sex subgroups. Analyses of variance for repeated measures were performed to assess the impact of any single school transition occurring at different points in the child's development. Correlational analyses indicated that high rates of school mobility were significantly related to poor academic performance, particularly for black and Hispanic students. Analyses of variance revealed that while no single school transition due to residential mobility in Grades 1 through 8 had a significant impact on the student's posttransfer adjustment, the normative transition to high school was significantly related to lowered school performance and increased absences, particularly for students with a history of repeated school transfers and for black students.     

Black students/white university: different expectations

This article identifies the kinds of problems that are experienced by black students who attend a predominantly white university. There are explicit and implicit assumptions and expectations that the students and the university staff have about each other, but these assumptions and expectations are often incompatible. The black students have many problems of adjustment in academic, social, and personal areas. The author proposes some suggestions on how to minimize the adjustment process and foster improved communication between the black students and the university officials. Also examined is the role of high school counselors in aiding black students in making the transition from high school to college.     

Learned helplessness and learned effectiveness: effects of explicit response cues on individuals differing in personal control expectancies

Female undergraduates (n = 62) who scored as extreme internals or externals on the Mirels Personal Fate Control Scale participated in a partial replication of Hiroto's learned helplessness experiment. Lights were added to the treatment apparatus, which made explicit to subjects the contingency or noncontingency between their responses and the termination of an aversive tone. As predicted, the performance of internals was significantly impaired by uncontrollability (learned helplessness), while that of externals was facilitated by controllability (learned effectiveness). Externals performed as well as internals in the "escapable" condition, but their performance was inferior to that of internals in the control condition. Following "inescapable" treatment, internals performed worse than externals. These results are supportive of Lefcourt's theory of cue explication. Implications for locus of control and learned helplessness research are discussed.     

Adolescent Literacy Tutoring: Face-to-Face and Via Webcam Technology

The purpose of this research project was to examine the effectiveness of supervised literacy tutoring delivered by 25 secondary teacher candidates to middle and high school students via webcam technology and in person. The results stem from two semester-long studies of technology-delivered tutoring from a university to middle and high school settings. Findings support the effectiveness of delivering literacy tutoring components through 18 one-hour tutoring sessions using webcam technology with secondary teacher candidates as instructors. In addition, the data revealed that there was no significant difference in the literacy growth among those students who received tutoring in person or via webcam technology.     

Attributional Retraining: reducing the likelihood of failure

Failing a course is an acutely negative event for first-year university students, and a major contributor to high attrition rates at North American universities. Despite its prevalence, course failure receives relatively little research attention. What can be done to reduce course failure and help first-year students remain in university? This study examined the efficacy of an Attributional Retraining treatment intervention to reduce course failure in an Introductory Psychology course. Attributional Retraining is designed to restructure students’ causal explanations of poor performance by encouraging controllable attributions such as effort and strategy in place of immutable causes such as academic ability or intelligence. Relative to students in the control group, first-year students who received Attributional Retraining were less likely to fail the Introductory Psychology course (14.6% vs. 6.4%). This finding emerged beyond the effects of several well-established predictors of academic outcomes including student background characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and past academic performance) and learning environment variables (student registration status and participation in a first-year orientation program), suggesting the utility of Attributional Retraining for students with varying backgrounds and in different educational contexts. To the extent that Attributional Retraining is effective, inexpensive, and relatively easy to administer it may be a viable option for inclusion in orientation programs designed to reduce course failure and attrition among first-year university students.     

Spontaneous and reactive attributions following academic achievement

This paper describes two studies which deal with attributions following academic achievement. Study 1 investigated the influence of different types of instructions (spontaneous vs. reactive), self-concepts of ability (high vs. low), and outcomes (success vs. failure) on causal attributions in a school setting. Participants were 402 eighth to tenth graders. Students with a low self-concept of ability produced more attributions than students with a high self-concept. Under reactive conditions, students' attributions following success were in accordance with the self-consistency theory. Under spontaneous conditions, these students produced attributions in a self-serving way. Furthermore, success evoked more attributions than failure. In Study 2, 160 university students worked on an unfamiliar task (a computer-simulated dynamic system). The results supported the assumption that students spontaneously generate attributions to raise or at least preserve their self-esteem.     

The elimination of learned helplessness deficits as a function of induced self-esteem

The efficiency of induced self-esteem in reducing various deficits caused by learned helplessness was tested in this study. Sixty undergraduate students were divided into three equal groups. The first group received uncontrollability treatment, the second received controllability treatment, and the third received no treatment. The subjects in the first two groups were asked to reduce the anxiety reaction of a confederate, as shown on an oscilloscope, by talking to him. The anxiety waves were shown on the oscilloscope and were preprogrammed so that subjects in the uncontrollability treatment group experienced lack of control over the results, while the ones in the controllability group were led to belive that they successfully controlled the changes of the confederate's anxiety. Then, half of the subjects in each of the three groups received positive feedback on their personality, while the other half received no feedback. In the last phase all subjects participated in a word recognition task using a tachistoscope operated by a combined push-button and microphone device. Response latency, number of correct identifications, and persistence in the task were recorded. In addition, the subjects completed a mood scale. The results indicate that subjects who received induced self-esteem treatment showed significantly more deficit reversal as reflected in response latency, persistence, feelings of potency, and sadness. The results are discussed in relation to (a) the assumption regarding the similarities between learned helplessness and depression, and (b) the usefulness of induced self-esteem as a form of treatment for helplessness depression.     

The Double Cohort retention and academic success comparison: are students in the new Ontario secondary school program disadvantaged?

In September 2003, Ontario universities accepted a double cohort of new students resulting from the Ontario government’s decision to eliminate Grade 13. The admission to university of two categories of students distinguished by their age and high school program raised a number of questions, not only in terms of admission infrastructure but mostly in what concerns the sum of student retention, academic success, and graduation. Factors associated with success and with the maintenance of university studies are numerous: stress, socioeconomic status, parents’ education, intellectual capacities, motivation, social abilities, and social support (Olds & Papalia, 2000). Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (1) to test the hypothesis of a double cohort effect on student academic success during the first year of university, (2) to verify the hypothesis that high school academic history, socioeconomic variables related to stress and perceived stress predict academic success and retention at the end of first year university. In September 2003, 300 first year students answered questionnaires inquiring about their high school program and high school GPA, their socioeconomic characteristics, and their perceived stress. These measures were then used to predict drop out, final GPA, number of credits attempted, passed and failed in June 2004. Results showed that school persistence and first year university academic achievement are mostly predicted by gender, high school GPA, type of financial resources, and number of hours worked at a paid job. Although not significant, we have found a higher proportion of Grade 12 students who dropped out during first year at university, suggesting a possible long-term effect of high school program on academic achievement.     

Male-Female Performance in Learned Helplessness

The impact of uncontrollability and failure on adult males and females in a learned helplessness situation was investigated. It was hypothesized that females would show more helplessness effects. Twenty-four males and 24 females enrolled in a university psychology course were studied. Helplessness was induced through a series of anagram tasks used in earlier research by one of the authors. As expected, females showed more helplessness effects in the helplessness-induction manipulations of the anagram tasks. Discussion is offered in terms of possible sex differences in childhood training with regard to handling frustration and failure.     

Dialectical thinking: A cross-cultural study of Japanese,Chinese, and British students

Peng and Nisbett found that Chinese people are more apt to engage in dialectical thinking (DT) than Americans. We gave the Dialectical Self Scale questionnaire and 10 pairs of opposing opinions to high school and university students of Japanese, Chinese, and British nationality. We asked them to fill in the questionnaire, to rate how strongly they agreed with each opinion, and to rate how wise it is to think dialectically. The scores on the questionnaire were higher among Easterners than among Westerners and higher among university students than among high school students. But the results of opinion agreement indicated that the dialectical tendency was stronger among the Chinese and British than among the Japanese. Furthermore, however, Japanese participants judged DT as wiser than Chinese and British did, and Chinese university students believed it was wiser than Chinese high school students did. We propose that this effect is attributed to Marxist education in China.