Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence.
Steven Maier and Martin Seligman review the first decade of work on learned helplessness. The paper describes the 1967 dog experiments with escapable, yoked inescapable and unshocked groups, and the 1975 study in which college students given noise they could not stop mostly failed to escape a noise they could stop. It sets out the theory that the animal learns that outcomes are independent of its behaviour, and considers evidence for and against it.
Steven Maier and Martin Seligman review the first decade of work on learned helplessness. The paper describes the 1967 dog experiments with escapable, yoked inescapable and unshocked groups, and the 1975 study in which college students given noise they could not stop mostly failed to escape a noise they could stop. It sets out the theory that the animal learns that outcomes are independent of its behaviour, and considers evidence for and against it.
Written from the text of the paper as hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, read 2026-10-25.
What our sources record
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Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105(1), 3-46. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.105.1.3