Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation.

1978/02/01 by Lyn Y. Abramson, Martin E. P. Seligman, Martin E. Seligman +1 · 6,946 citations
Psychology · #Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Cognitive psychology #Developmental psychology #Learned helplessness #Mental Health Research Topics #Psychology #Psychotherapist #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.87.1.49

published in Journal of Abnormal Psychology 87(1), 49-74 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 1978/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The learned helplessness hypothesis is criticized and reformulated. The old hypothesis, when applied to learned helplessness in humans, has two major problems: (a) It does not distinguish between cases in which outcomes are uncontrollable for all people and cases in which they are uncontrollable only for some people (univervsal vs. personal helplessness), and (b) it does not explain when helplessness is general and when specific, or when chronic and when acute. A reformulation based on a revision of attribution theory is proposed to resolve these inadequacies. According to the reformulation, once people perceive noncontingency, they attribute their helplessness to a cause. This cause can be stable or unstable, global or specific, and internal or external. The attribution chosen influences whether expectation of future helplessness will be chronic or acute, broad or narrow, and whether helplessness will lower self-esteem or not. The implications of this reformulation of human helplessness for the learned helplessness model of depression are outlined.

Citations

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