Helpless means unable to help oneself; weak or dependent, but Learned Helplessness is the act of giving up trying as a result of consistent failure in the past. Martin E. P. Seligman and Steven F. Maier accidently found the shocking discovery of learned helplessness. Seligman first was looking into studying of avoidance learning with dogs, but later found out that there was more than meets the eye and started asking different questions. By creating three groups: escape group, yoked group, and the control group; Seligman and Maier made two trials that focused on what learned helplessness is and how it comes about in their article Failure To Escape Traumatic Shock. Seligman and Maier may have been the first ones to introduce learned helplessness
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Nash et al started with twenty naive goldfish in a ten gallon aquarium while Seligman started with thirty dogs. In the article they said “ Subjects during phase two suggests that freezing, lack of movement or inability to perform the motor response were not the sources of such incompatible responses”( Nash et al 1983). The authors were stating how their observations support Seligman and his theory of learned helplessness because when they first started their experiment they made sure the goldfish had great health and were perfectly normal. A difference from this article is “ a conditioned stimulus(light) preceded presentation of the unconditional stimulus(shock)” (Nash et al 1983). Seligman only had the panels for the dogs to press while the goldfight had a signal when the shock was going to start like a warning. This is important to know because it add to the facts of how learned helplessness works and how it can happen to any animal or …show more content…
In this experiment twenty naive male Swiss Albino mouses from Charles River in France were used and a male and female NH/Rouen and H/Rouen that were selectively bred in their housing facilities. In this article the authors said “ Gender differences in sensitivity to learned helplessness were also found”(Bougarel et al 2011). This was a difference between the Seligman experiment and Bougarel et al because Seligman focused more on the reactions of the dogs than the gender. In their articles the authors also said “ H/Rouen mice display a higher level of helplessness compared to NH/Rouen mice”(Bougarel et al 2011). This was a similarity between Seligman's experiment and Bougarel because both studies show how the animals that were exposed to more shock were the ones with higher levels of learned helplessness. This is significant because theories are important when planning an experiment but the gender also contributes to the result in the
Nash et al started with twenty naive goldfish in a ten gallon aquarium while Seligman started with thirty dogs. In the article they said “ Subjects during phase two suggests that freezing, lack of movement or inability to perform the motor response were not the sources of such incompatible responses”( Nash et al 1983). The authors were stating how their observations support Seligman and his theory of learned helplessness because when they first started their experiment they made sure the goldfish had great health and were perfectly normal. A difference from this article is “ a conditioned stimulus(light) preceded presentation of the unconditional stimulus(shock)” (Nash et al 1983). Seligman only had the panels for the dogs to press while the goldfight had a signal when the shock was going to start like a warning. This is important to know because it add to the facts of how learned helplessness works and how it can happen to any animal or …show more content…
In this experiment twenty naive male Swiss Albino mouses from Charles River in France were used and a male and female NH/Rouen and H/Rouen that were selectively bred in their housing facilities. In this article the authors said “ Gender differences in sensitivity to learned helplessness were also found”(Bougarel et al 2011). This was a difference between the Seligman experiment and Bougarel et al because Seligman focused more on the reactions of the dogs than the gender. In their articles the authors also said “ H/Rouen mice display a higher level of helplessness compared to NH/Rouen mice”(Bougarel et al 2011). This was a similarity between Seligman's experiment and Bougarel because both studies show how the animals that were exposed to more shock were the ones with higher levels of learned helplessness. This is significant because theories are important when planning an experiment but the gender also contributes to the result in the