The effect of subjects' expectancies on the appetitive learned helplessness effect.
Item
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Title
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The effect of subjects' expectancies on the appetitive learned helplessness effect.
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Identifier
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AAI9207118
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identifier
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9207118
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Creator
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Rosenblum, Jan Lee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Glen Hass
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Behavioral | Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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Over the last few years, theorizing in the area of learned helplessness has been dominated by an attributional approach, most notably the reformulated Learned Helplessness Theory of Seligman and his collaborators. This approach emphasizes the subjects' phenomenal experiences as determinants of helplessness symptoms. More recently, evidence has been presented (Oakes and Curtis, 1982) that the learned helplessness effect can occur independently of subjects' phenomenal experiences, thus contradicting the attributional approach. However, this research has been criticized for not addressing the "fundamental premise" of Learned Helplessness Theory, that it is the expectancy of future noncontingency that is responsible for helplessness symptoms (Alloy, 1982). The present investigation was an attempt to test this latter Learned Helplessness Theory premise.;Subjects played a computer game in which their feedback was either contingent or noncontingent upon their responses. Half of the subjects from each group were led to believe that their responses might be noncontingently related to the outcome on a subsequent target-shooting task. No significant effects of the expectancy manipulation were obtained. Correlational evidence was obtained supportive of the Learned Helplessness Theory premise that subjects' expectancies of future noncontingency is related to subsequent performance.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
