The concept of learned helplessness is one of the most widely studied constructs due to its decisive influence on a multitude of psychosocial processes.
It has its origin in 1975, when Martin Seligman and his collaborators observed that the animals in their research suffered depression in certain situations.
To find out the reasons for this depression that they noticed in dogs, Seligman carried out the following experiment. He placed several dogs in cages from which they could not escape, administering electric shocks at variable and random time intervals, so that they could not predict the next shock or the pattern of the same, since none existed.
After several trials administering shocks, and although at first the dogs made various attempts to escape, it was observed that in the end they abandoned any voluntary escape activity. When the researchers modified the procedure and taught the dogs to escape, They remained still, refusing to leave or make any attempt to avoid the discharges, even lying down on their own excrement.
Given these results, Seligman discovered that the animals’ response was not totally passive, but that lying on their own excrement was, in fact, a coping strategy (adaptation), since by lying on them they minimized the pain and were placed in a part of the cage where the least amount of electric shocks were perceived. He called this effect learned helplessness.
Learned helplessness: a psychological phenomenon also present in humans
Learned helplessness produces a modification of escape responses with unpredictable consequences for more predictable coping strategies. At the same time, Seligman discovered that it is possible to unlearn learned helplessness since when they taught the dogs with repeated trials that they could escape from the cage, the learned helplessness response eventually disappeared.
This experiment has been replicated in humans, concluding that the important aspects of the learned helplessness syndrome focus on the cognitive aspect, that is, on thoughts. When people have lost the ability to believe that their responses will help them escape the situation, they modify their flight responses to submissive behaviors, as a coping strategy.
The presence of learned helplessness in victims of violence
This modification of flight responses to submissive behaviors has been observed in victims of abuse with learned helplessness. Lenore Walker conducted this study on victims of intimate partner abuse, conducting a similar assessment of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning.
The results showed that at the beginning of the abuse their responses or behaviors were evasion or flight. However, continued exposure to violence caused a modification of these responses they had learned that could reduce the intensity of the abuse through various coping strategies such as pleasing the aggressor, doing what he wants, keeping him calm, etc.
Thus, the theory of learned helplessness applied to victims of abuse describes how a woman can learn to be unable to predict the effect that her behavior will have on the abuser. This lack of ability to predict how effective her own behavior will be in avoiding abuse modifies the origin or nature of the victim’s response to different situations
If you want to delve deeper into this topic, I recommend the interview that Bertrand Regader conducted with Patricia Ríos: “Interview with a psychologist who is an expert in gender violence”
Signs that indicate that someone is a victim of abuse and has developed learned helplessness
When women victims of abuse by their partner suffer learned helplessness, they will choose, in a familiar or familiar situation, those behaviors that produce a more predictable effect and will avoid behaviors that imply a less predictable effect, such as escape or flight responses..
This research also allowed us to propose certain factors that allow us to identify learned helplessness in victims of abuse The factors are:
Alcohol or drug abuse by the man or the woman.
Last but not least, this study has allowed it to be used for the psychological treatment of victims of abuse.
Unlearning learned helplessness
The process of unlearning learned helplessness It is characterized by the power of these women within the relationship which will allow abused women to understand and get out of the cycle of violence, guiding them on how the escalation of violence can be predicted, through the distinction of the different phases of the cycle and the understanding that the phases of love and Repentance is a way of reinforcing the cycle and teaching them different skills to escape.
However, it is important to consider that there are differences between laboratory studies and real life and it is necessary to keep in mind that in real life the abuser can become more violent when the woman confronts him and/or when she tries to separate.
