LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

If you had the power to change everything, how much would you have changed? What if I told you that in your entire life you have unknowingly been taught to not to take control. This is called learned helplessness and was given by Martin E.P. Seligman in the 1960s. It is a psychological phenomenon that basically trains your mind to accept things as they are even when you have the power to change them for the better. A sense of being powerless against the tide even when you have the power to control it.

Process of Learned Helplessness

As usual, the phenomenon of learned helplessness was best explored by scientists/researchers from the past and their studies which could genuinely be regarded as cruel if I am being completely honest. These studies had experiments that included testing the effects of learned helplessness on dogs. All the dogs were divided into two separate groups and dogs from both groups were treated with electric shocks individually. Basically, in the first group, a lever was attached which could stop the electric shock when pulled. In the second group, there was no lever whatsoever which meant that the dogs who were unlucky enough to be put into the second group had no control over the shock that was being administered to them and were completely at the mercy of the researcher. What they found was that the dogs from both groups initially looked for a way to stop the electric shocks. In the first group, the dogs moved their heads here and there, jumped up and down, and ultimately found the lever which stopped the electric shocks. In the second group, the dogs did the exact same thing but there was no way for them to stop the shocks. The ability to stop the shocks lied outside of their control.

The researchers then installed the same lever in the second group as well which meant that now the dogs could stop the shocks by pulling it. The cycle began once again and the first group of dogs performed exactly as they did in the previous round. They learned that they could stop the shock by pulling the lever and when the shock was administered this time, the dogs instantly went for the lever and stopped their torture. But, in the second group, which now had the same lever installed, none of the dogs tried to stop the shock and just accepted the shock even after they had the power to stop it if they tried. The dogs from this group learned that they can't do anything to stop the electric shock because they had no control over it earlier. The dogs from the second group couldn't help themselves because they were taught that they had no control over their stimuli. The conclusion that was derived was that both the groups initially tried to control their environment but only the first group was given an option to do so. The second group acclimatized with their lack of control and learned to remain helpless even when they were given the power to help themselves.

This is the phenomenon of learned helplessness. A way to snatch the control away from you by making you believe that you are not in control. Up to some extent, I believe our entire life to be revolving around the same phenomenon. Take school for example, don't you think it's all about taking control away from students. You are taught to do things a specific way and no other way is right. For years and years, students are taught to follow the rules without questioning them. They are unknowingly taught to accept things as they are and then sent out in the unpredictable world to be "dynamic." The red-tapism of almost every bureaucratic society compels you to adhere to the ways of the system and anything directed towards changing it is regarded as one futile attempt.

Another way to look at this phenomenon is to approach it from the perspective of the neurosciences. According to the studies of neurosciences in discovering the reasons for learned helplessness, it is actually stated that the natural state of mind is helpfulness which is transformed into helplessness when a repeated stimulus is present that lies beyond the control of an individual. Meaning, that a person generally looks for a way to exert control over a situation but is taught to lose it by his/her surrounding environment. Hence, natural helpfulness is unlearned and becomes learned helplessness.

I heard a line a long time ago in an animated movie called "The Flashpoint Paradox" and it went something like this;

"Accept the things you can't change, have the courage to change the things you can, and have the wisdom to know the difference."

But what if our wisdom to know such a difference is shunned at every point? Could we ever have the courage to change the things which we actually can? 

Why do you think, "one man can make a difference" is such a popular statement? One of the reasons could be that all other men are unaware and helpless to even realize that they can make a difference in the first place. Because that is what they have been taught... to accept and maintain the status quo.

Maybe in today's world of outsourcing and delegation of authority, we have also started to delegate the sense of control. And maybe it is about time for us to take it back. Maybe that is how we can learn to know the difference between things we can change and things that we can't. So, here's one for taking back control and unlearning learned helplessness to remain helpful. 

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