Earned helplessness is the erroneous idea that something is unattainable due to personal experience. The following are some examples to get you started.
Self-Efficacy
The degree to which a person believes they can handle a certain scenario is self-efficacy. Low self-efficacy can be taught—for example, a person who has lost faith in their driving ability due to an accident.
Sense of Control
The extent to which a person believes they have control over or affect outcomes. For instance, a person who believes they have little power over politics fails to utilize their right to vote and engage in political processes.
Assumptions that aren’t true
Invalid assumptions, such as the false perception that something is impossible, frequently lead to learned helplessness. For example, a software developer who believes mid-sized modifications couldn’t be completed in less than six months may feel helpless if they join a company that can do it in a few days.
Imaginative Deficit
The false belief that the future will be similar to the past is a failure of imagination. A teacher, for example, believes that a student who has not excelled in a class would never excel. This can be interpreted as a teacher’s acquired helplessness in terms of imagining strategies to help the pupil improve.
Manipulation
Learned helplessness is frequently depicted as the product of malice, in which a person tries to undermine the self-efficacy of others. For instance, a manager who perceives a talented team member as a threat may set them up to fail by assigning them unreasonable work projects.
Dependency
Individuals become so reliant on another person that they begin to doubt their ability to handle things independently. For example, someone who has always had their meals prepared for them by their parents may develop to assume they are unable to cook when, in fact, they can learn to cook within minutes of self-study.
Reasoning with a Purpose
The process of finding logic to support what you want to accomplish is known as motivated reasoning. This can take the shape of claims that you aren’t gifted in a field that you don’t care about. Consider a student who claims to dislike science because it bores them.
Failure With A Purpose
Failing at something to get away from it or gain pity from others. For instance, a child learns that if they perform poorly in a family choir, their parent will take over.
Self-handicapping
The use of motivated reasoning to avert self-esteem loss is known as self-handicapping. For example, a person who gets invited to dance but convinces themselves that they cannot dance to escape rejection or disgrace.
Pessimism
Pessimism is characterized by overestimating danger and a general attitude that things are difficult. This could be a learned response to a set of circumstances. For example, someone who has worked on various failed IT projects and felt that IT projects are destined to fail.
Defeatism
When someone permits pessimism to affect their performance, they are defeated. For instance, a person fails to deliver on a project because they believe it would fail anyway.
Victim Mentality
The irrational assumption that one is a victim is known as victim mentality. For instance, a student who does not try in class because they assume the teacher is biased against them because of scathing criticism meant to help them better.
If you’re interested in learning more about society, culture, and norms, here’s an article on why social norms exist.
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Brian formed Living By Examplealongside Cynthia after working for two decades alongside international institutions for humanitarian aids and other efforts worldwide, may it be catastrophes made by men or nature. Brian built Living By Examplewith the hopes of bringing more cultural diversity across the internet.
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