Learned helplessness:从何而学,习得什么?

这篇短文简单介绍了催生Learned helplessness这一概念的最初实验,略谈了作者对此概念的粗浅理解和其他译法,提出习得性自弃供参考。不涉及这一概念及有关理论在解释日常生活中各种现象和抑郁症发病机理方面的意义以及局限。     

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.     

Learned helplessness and “fear of success” in college women

Anagram performance in comparison and noncomparison situations of 90 high, medium, or low fear-of-success (FOS) women was examined after these subjects had experienced conditions within the traditional triadic learned helplessness design. Low FOS women in the comparison condition proved significantly more susceptible to learned helplessness effects than high FOS women on one dependent measure (number of incorrect anagrams), though not on the other (response latency). Results are discussed with reference to the FOS construct and to Zuckerman and Allison's (1976) scale, used in the present study. An argument is made for increased attention to personality variables within the learned helplessness paradigm.     

Learning impairment following insoluble problems: Learned helplessness or altered hypothesis pool?

According to the learned helplessness hypothesis, the learning impairment typically displayed by subjects previously given insoluble problems results from the veridical learning of response-outcome independence. This learning is represented as a belief in helplessness which interferes with the subsequent acquisition of adaptive responses. However, this interpretation is suspect since subjects in a psychology experiment tend not to learn that random relationships are random. Instead, an alternative interpretation of these findings attributes the learning impairment following insoluble problems to a hypothesis pool alteration in the direction of (inappropriately) complex hypotheses. This alternative interpretation tended to be supported ported in Experiment 1, which varied the difficulty of the test task and found the impairment (relative to a no-treatment control) following insolubility to be inversely proportional to the test difficulty. In contrast, Experiment 2 employed a procedure which facilitated the attribution of response-outcome independence and found the impairment following insolubility to be directly proportional to the test difficulty. It was concluded that the results of Experiment 2 represented learned helplessness.     

Learned helplessness or learned inactivity after inescapable stress? Interpretation depends on coping styles

Researches on uncontrollable events in the post-soviet states are overviewed. In our research, susceptibility to learned helplessness is studied in rats with active (KHA strain) versus passive (KLA strain) coping styles. Inescapable footshocks, butnot escapable footshocks, applied to KHA rats induced escape failures, diminished locomotion and coping, reduced measures of anxiety, and resulted in dexamethasone nonsuppression of the brain-hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis—all characteristic of learned helplessness. In contrast, KLA rats demonstrated the same responses upon exposure to both escapable and inescapable stresses. While learned helplessness occurred in KHA rats, it appears that KLA rats exposed to inescapable stress demonstrated learned inactivity based upon the nondifference between effects of escapable and inescapable shocks. Relationships between coping styles and social ranks are discussed. Our and other’s results with genetically selected strains suggest active coping in dominant and subordinate subjects, and passive coping in subdominant animals confirm the importance of coping style and its relation to health under stress.     

Alcohol consumption by college women following exposure to unsolvable problems: Learned helplessness or stress induced drinking?

Three experiments were intended to examine the relationship between alcohol, depression and learned helplessness. In Study I, more female undergraduate heavy drinkers than light drinkers were found to have critically elevated scores on a depression index. A sex difference in the relationship between drinking and depression is suggested since male depressives were equally distributed among drinking categories. In Studies II and III, female undergraduates were given unsolvable problems in a learned helplessness paradigm. Relative to controls these subjects reported increased depressive and hostile affect and drank more beer in a taste rating task. However, we failed to find deficits in anagram solution with those subjects given the learned helplessness manipulation. Specific questions are raised regarding the boundary conditions of learned helplessness while implications bearing on stress-related alcohol consumption are discussed.     

What Can Be Learned from the Arts About Aging?

This brief article examines some of the theoretical questions raised by aesthetics. Paintings have not only form and content, but are underpinned by philosophical principles that connect art to gerontology. We examine specific theoretical messages of a trend in art that have important implications for conceptualizing humans, including their interactions and surroundings. Three artists are used to illustrate this trend: Cezanne, Picasso, and Pollock. These and other artists of this century foster a heightened awareness of humanistic concerns. Caught between abstract reason and expert systems on the one hand, and the life worlds of older people on the other, gerontology finds itself in a place where art can speak to its deeper concerns in unique ways.     

Can Support for Democracy and the Market Be Learned in School? A Natural Experiment in Post-Communist Poland

A new program in civic education was introduced in Poland in 1994 to foster support for democracy and a market economy among youth. This program was based on the active teaching/learning model of education, with frequent student participation in "democratic games" and "market simulations." This paper focuses on a sample of students, ages 14 and 15, who participated in this program and contrasts them with students subjected to the traditional civics program. The main analysis of cross-sectional data (gathered in 1996) reveals two countervailing effects: Relative to students in the control group, students in the treatment group were less likely to take extreme anti-democratic or extreme anti-market positions, and they were less likely to take extreme pro-democratic or extreme pro-market positions. Additional analysis of panel data (1994–1996) supports the conclusion that active participation in civic education results in students' political attitudes regressing toward the mean, that is, in their rejection of extreme stances. These findings not only contradict the no-effect hypothesis but also demonstrate a peculiar, partially intended and partially unintended, impact of civic education in schools on political learning.     

Are we on the Right Course? Lessons Learned about Current FBA/BIP Practices in Schools

Schools across the nation have been charged with the task of conducting functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) to aid in the development of behavior intervention plans (BIPs) to address the challenging behavior of students with special education needs. In response, schools have initiated efforts to provide the various members of their student services and individualized education program (IEP) teams with the knowledge and training to insure compliance with the federal mandate. The current study examines the FBAs and BIPs developed by school teams across one state with regards to best practices and the requirements identified in recent litigation. Following a state-wide training effort, service team members from school districts across Wisconsin were encouraged to submit completed FBA/BIPs for a critical review (whether or not they had participated in the training). Findings suggest that the majority of the FBAs submitted displayed serious flaws. The most common problem resulted from a lack of clarity in the identification and operational definition of the target behavior or behaviors under investigation. There was a general failure to identify any effort taken by the team members to verify the hypothesized function of the behavior before attempting intervention. Perhaps most alarmingly, a significant number of the teams did not appear to take the function of the behavior identified in the FBA into consideration when developing the BIP. Teams that included members who had completed two or more days of intensive in-service education related to FBA/BIP development were found to produce better results. Readers are provided a simplified checklist for use in reviewing their own FBA/BIPs.     

What Have Lutherans Learned from Orthodox?

The purpose of this article is to consider the influence of Eastern Orthodox theology and spirituality, particularly soteriology, upon the Lutheran doctrine of salvation. It focuses on the emergence of a new interpretation of Martin Luther’s view of justification as union and Christ’s “real” presence in the believer through the Holy Spirit. This account materially reflects key intuitions of the Eastern Orthodox vision of deification (divinization, theosis) and was developed in Helsinki, Finland, under the tutelage of Tuomo Mannermaa and his school. Even though this new interpretation continues to be contested and debated, particularly in German Luther scholarship, it has also exercised wide influence on international theological discussion. The latter part of the article, more constructive in nature, seeks to link the Helsinki School insights to some other current Lutheran contributions as well as relevant viewpoints from the wider Christian West.     

Order in the house?

Abstract

The notion that human life at Creation had been set into a series of ordered relationships was central for the Lutheran reformers’ understanding of Church, home, and state. Expositors developed this imaginative theological construct primarily out of the narrative of the Creation and Fall, and they used it as a framework for understanding the obligations of humankind in relation to the Creator, as well as for homes and societies rightly ordered. The Christian home, however, did double duty, serving as an archetype not only of life rightly ordered (law) but also of the love and freedom given by Christ in union with the Church (gospel). Lutheran expositors struggled to balance these two, especially when they derived the coercive authority of the state from parental, or paternal power. Could the institution of marriage simultaneously provide the foundation for state authority, and image the love between Christ and the Church?     

Learned Helplessness or Learned Inactivity after Inescapable Stress? Interpretation Depends on Coping Styles

Researches on uncontrollable events in the post-soviet states are overviewed. In our research, susceptibility to learned helplessness is studied in rats with active (KHA strain) versus passive (KLA strain) coping styles. Inescapable footshocks, but not escapable footshocks, applied to KHA rats induced escape failures, diminished locomotion and coping, reduced measures of anxiety, and resulted in dexamethasone nonsuppression of the brain-hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis--all characteristic of learned helplessness. In contrast, KLA rats demonstrated the same responses upon exposure to both escapable and inescapable stresses. While learned helplessness occurred in KHA rats, it appears that KLA rats exposed to inescapable stress demonstrated learned inactivity based upon the nondifference between effects of escapable and inescapable shocks. Relationships between coping styles and social ranks are discussed. Our and other's results with genetically selected strains suggest active coping in dominant and subordinate subjects, and passive coping in subdominant animals confirm the importance of coping style and its relation to health under stress.     

Bubbles in the brain?

How does the brain learn to control motor actions? 'Bubbles' of activity might exist in the cortex, as implied by a simplified model of the cortical sheet. New results show how these bubbles could enable motor actions to be especially efficient, and that they can be used with little difficulty in decoding them.     

Ethics in the Pulpit?

Abstract: What is the place of ethics and politics in the pulpit—especially in the post September 11th United States? This article argues that preachers must learn to bring the deepest wisdom of the biblical texts to bear on the most intractable issues of the present. Scripture gives preachers insight into the “ethics of God” and empowers them to step beyond a hermeneutics of narcissism. Silence and Attention prepare the preacher to hear the Word of God, and prayerful listening is crucial to seeing and hearing where God may be working in the present moment. In this way preachers help facilitate the conversation between the congregation and God and this conversation continues after the sermon. Politics should not take over the pulpit or be entirely absent from it. Discernment is the key. Regardless of political standing, all preachers have the obligation to bring the Word of God to bear on the problems of the world.     

Is logic in the mind or in the world?

The paper presents an outline of a unified answer to five questions concerning logic: (1) Is logic in the mind or in the world? (2) Does logic need a foundation? What is the main obstacle to a foundation for logic? Can it be overcome? (3) How does logic work? What does logical form represent? Are logical constants referential? (4) Is there a criterion of logicality? (5) What is the relation between logic and mathematics?     

Where in the brain is the self?

Localizing the self in the brain has been the goal of consciousness research for centuries. Recently, there has been an increase in attention to the localization of the self. Here we present data from patients suffering from a loss of self in an attempt to understand the neural correlates of consciousness. Focusing on delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS), we find that frontal regions, as well as the right hemisphere appear to play a significant role in DMS and DMS related disorders. These data are placed in the context of neuroimaging findings.     

Is the Rorschach Welcome in the Courtroom?

A survey of 7,934. recent federal and state court cases in which psychologists presented Rorschach testimony revealed only 6 in which the appropriateness of the Rorschach was challenged and just one in which the testimony was not admitted into evidence. There is accordingly good reason to believe that, despite occasionally voiced concerns to the contrary, the Rorschach is welcome in the courtroom.