Paddy McAbrahams
Nov 6 · 5 min read

DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, AND THE SELIGMAN THEORY OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS: The Mental Health Series 3

Photo Credit: Mathew Henry on Unsplash

Zik’s Story:
Zik was born in the suburbs of the oil rich Rivers state in south-south Nigeria. He was the first child of a couple who had tried many years in futility to birth a child; his eventual arrival broke the spell of their many years of waiting. Once his parents got their first break at child bearing, Zik’s mother, feeling pressed for time on the biological clock, would not wait long before bearing Zik’s younger sister- Agnes; who was an exact pregnancy term younger than Zik.

Naturally, the younger and tenderer Agnes began getting all the attention and doting of both parents, this meant Zik waiting long moments before being tended to. He began reacting to this neglect by frequent cries, and throwing infant tantrums during the stretch of his waiting, yet the situation got no better. So, at the inchoate stage of life, Zik had adapted and adopted a mechanism to cope with his fate- he had early on learnt to do without; the need for warmth and attention, necessary for the balance and growth of an infant.

The downside of this trend his family had begun to commend as a virtue, thinking; “Zik is such a cute boy, he is not needy,” started to play out when from elementary school his tutors began decrying his docility and lack of enthusiasm. This report lingered for practically the whole of his schooling years, and it was not until his first failed suicide attempt upon crashing several business ventures at 33 that diagnosis began digging up his history, and revealing a condition of learned helplessness.
The Concept: But what is learned helplessness?

As published by Saul Mcleod on https://www.simplypsychology.org/depression , we see that Learned Helplessness is one of the Psychological theories of depression. According to American Psychologist and father of Positive Psychology, Professor Martin Seligman, Learned helplessness is an acquired sense that one can no longer control one’s environment so that such person gives up trying. And, the American Psychological Association says, learned helplessness occurs when someone repeatedly faces uncontrollable, stressful situations, then does not exercise control when it becomes available.
The Experiment:
The classic experiment on learned helplessness conducted by Professors Martin Seligman et al., starting around 1967, involved two groups of dogs A and B, both groups received strong electric shocks while strapped in a Hammock. The dogs in group A were able to exert some control over the situation by turning off the shock whenever it began when they pushed a panel close to their nose. The dogs in group B however had not such power as the shocks were inescapable for them, although the number and duration of these shocks remained exactly the same. According to the experiment, each dog in group A corresponded with another animal in group B, and was “yoked” to the first dog such that, whenever the group A dog was shocked, so was the group B dog. Whenever the group A dog turned off the shock, the shock was turned off for the group B dog. The design of the experiment guaranteed that the actual physical stimulus exposure of both groups were precisely the same. The difference however was the option of response at their disposal.

The intent of the experiment was to elicit how the group B dogs would fare when presented with a new situation that provided them with an opportunity to help themselves. In this light, both group of dogs were involved in a standard avoidance learning task in a shuttle box. The dogs in group A learned just as quickly as did the naïve dogs who had no prior experimental experience. During the first trials it was reported that they waited until the shock began and they scrambled over the hurdle; later on, they jumped before their grace period was up thus avoided the shocks entirely. But the dogs in group B, who had previously suffered inescapable shocks in the hammock, it is said behaved differently. Initially, they behaved much like other dogs; running about frantically, barking, and howling. Soon however, they became much more passive. They lay down, whined quietly and took whatever shocks came to them. Neither attempting to avoid nor escape; they simply gave up on trying!

Note that, in the Hammock setup they were objectively helpless; having no means of escaping the shock. However, in the shuttle box, their helplessness was only subjective, for although there was now a way of escaping the unpleasant stimulus, they never attempted it, neither discovered it. They had learned to be helpless (Seligman and Maier, 1967).
The Correlation: Learned Helplessness, Depression, and Suicide

The photo above is classic example of learned helplessness as it plays out in domesticating an elephant; while the calves are tender and not so strong, the young elephants are tied to not so strong poles or pegs that restrain their movement, when they grow older and stronger their subconscious are already programmed to keep within those limits, although they can now break the restraint.
3 Key Features of Learned Helplessness

  • Becoming passive in the face of trauma
  • Difficulty learning that response can control trauma, and
  • Can increase in stress levels.

By the experiment, Seligman argued that learned helplessness in animals is in many ways connected to some forms of depression. He ascribed the common denominator between the helpless dogs and depressed people as the resolve that one’s own acts are of no avail; In the dogs, a series of inescapable shocks that the animals could do nothing about. While in the humans the precipitating factors may include personal catastrophes like- rejection, bankruptcy, physical disease, the demise of loved ones etc. which may serve as build up to a generalized sense of impotence, a belief that there is nothing one can do about one’s own destiny; a passive victim mentality with no control over ensuing life events. A sort of helplessness inertia.

The beauty of Seligmnan’s research is that it did not end with eliciting the problem, he went further to discover a way out of the state of learned helplessness; which often is a build up to depression then suicide, join me on the next volume of the Mental Health Series as we explore the flipside of learned helplessness.

Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.
#ExecutiveHealth #ProHealthCampaigner #SDG3Collaborator
#LearnedHelplessness #Depression #Suicide #TheMentalHealthSeries


Paddy McAbrahams Ugbechie is a ProHealth Campaigner, SDG3 Collaborator, and Host- Executive Health with Paddy.

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    Paddy McAbrahams

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    Paddy McAbrahams Ugbechie is a pro health campaigner, SDG3 collaborator, and the host of Executive Health with Paddy

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