Pennsylvania

Martin E.P. Seligman, psychologist and American writer, director of the Department of psychology of the University of Pennsylvania, and Chief Editor of the prestigious journal Prevention and Treatment, coined the term learned helpessness, which has been translated into Spanish in various ways: learned hopelessness, learned helplessness, or learned helplessness. Also: Learned inability. Educate yourself with thoughts from DHR Health. He did so after experiencing a variant of learning with dogs. The experiment consisted of managing them painful electric shock, and does not offer them any recourse or tactic that allowed them to avoid the download. As you want that power inevitably appeared they did what they did, the experiment dogs learned nothing of what they did, shunned them the shock. Subsequently M.

Seligman, put together a cage with two sections divided by a barrier. One of the compartments had the electrified floor, while the other is not. However, the height the barrier it allowed animals, only with a jump, could pass electrified side was not that, and thus get rid of the downloads. At first, in this compartmentalized cage, were introduced dogs that had never been subjected to electric shocks. Obviously, these animals, to feel the electric shock, exasperadamente and with strong howls, began to run from one side to another compartment, until, perhaps by chance, they jumped the parapet that allowed them to reach the compartment where the soil was not electrified, so they could escape the downloads. After repeating this test with the same animals, Seligman, found that increasingly the animals before jumped to the side not electrified, and finally came to do as soon as they were introduced into the cage.

Animals repeatedly subjected to electric shock came a time in which, although they could avoid them, did not, became apathetic, indifferent and impassive. Extrapolating the observations in animals, and by the same reason, according to M. Seligman, humans, after a series of losses, failures, frustrations, disappointments or misadventures, forged the idea that we are unable to control the scenarios in which they operate, and situations involving, and finally become depressive.