ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the aspects of learned helplessness that were important for the psychology of learning and that are topics of study. It describes learned helplessness and learned helplessness theory and discusses the relationship between the assertions of learned helplessness theory and the principles of the psychology of learning current at the time it was proposed. The chapter explains the status of these assertions in the context of modern learning theory. It reviews the manner in which learned helplessness theory and research has related to the general field of animal learning and motivation and evaluates the status of those parts relevant to learning theory. The chapter argues that exposure to inescapable shock produces a cognitive deficit in addition to alterations in response initiation processes. The strengthening effect of reinforcement or contiguity was seen as being direct, inevitable, and independent of the cognitive processes of the organism.
