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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper. The theory of learned helplessness was developed by Seligman in the 1960s. This paper presents how this theory came to be, what Seligman and his cohorts did to dogs and how it was transferred to humans. The writer reports the correlations between depression and learned helplessness and also comments on how this theory is applied in other venues. 1 Table is included. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: ME12_PGlrnhl9.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
was so abusive and disgusting that it is a theory that was best left undiscovered. Thankfully, psychologists are held to a higher standard today that prevents any type of
abuse of animals or humans although in all probability there are still unethical psychologists and scientists that severely abuse their subjects, whether they be dogs, monkeys or even humans.
It is true that Pavlovs experiments are questionable but he at least did not commit painful abusive acts on his dogs. Seligman did! Heres the story, if you can stomach
it. Seligman put dogs in harnesses basically preventing their movements, administered electric shocks to dogs, not short low voltage electricity intended to spur the animal to action but rather, painful
shocks (Changing Minds, 2009; AllPsych, 2003; Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, 2001). Seligman and his colleagues set up a situation where dogs received electric shocks from which they could not
escape and for which they received nothing pleasant (Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, 2001). He should have been drummed out of the field and prohibited from all future experimenting.
First, Seligman administered shocks to the dogs who were harnessed. They had no escape and there was nothing the could do to prevent the shocks (Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence,
2001). Later, he placed new dogs with no harnesses in and unharnessed the original dogs and provided an escape. The new dogs looked for and found an escape as
soon as they were shocked but the dogs who had been harnessed not try to escape because they had knowledge that there was nothing they could do so they
did not even try to escape (AllPsych, 2003; Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, 2001). They had learned they were helpless to control their environment and they just stayed their getting
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