Learned Helplessness
Mind Matters by Gordon Bruin
Gordon Bruin | Rating 0 (0) (0) |
gordonbruin.com | Launched: Dec 05, 2023 |
Season: 1 Episode: 20 | |
Podcast ShowNotes: Learned Helplessness and the Power of Change
In this insightful episode, we delve into the concept of learned helplessness, first identified by psychologist Martin Seligman in 1965. We explore how our environment can condition us to feel helpless and discuss its implications on human psychology.
Key Discussion Points:
Explanation of Seligman's experiment with dogs that led to the discovery of learned helplessness.
The impact of negative conditioning on individuals - especially those who have experienced trauma or abuse.
Therapeutic techniques like EMDR therapy for overcoming past traumatic experiences.
The significance of personal beliefs in shaping our responses and behaviors.
Role of faith as a driving force towards change - citing examples from Steve Jobs' creation of Apple and Phil Knight's founding Nike.
The podcast concludes with an empowering message about harnessing your internal power to change your life course, refusing victimhood, addressing issues immediately, maintaining a healthy sense-of-humor, asking positive questions about yourself & envisioning a brighter future.
Inspiring quotes from Helen Keller remind listeners that life is meant to be an adventure filled with risks rather than seeking safety which doesn't naturally exist.
This episode serves as both an educational exploration into learned helplessness and an inspirational guide for anyone looking to overcome their past negatives and embrace potential future successes.
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Podcast ShowNotes: Learned Helplessness and the Power of Change
In this insightful episode, we delve into the concept of learned helplessness, first identified by psychologist Martin Seligman in 1965. We explore how our environment can condition us to feel helpless and discuss its implications on human psychology.
Key Discussion Points:
Explanation of Seligman's experiment with dogs that led to the discovery of learned helplessness.
The impact of negative conditioning on individuals - especially those who have experienced trauma or abuse.
Therapeutic techniques like EMDR therapy for overcoming past traumatic experiences.
The significance of personal beliefs in shaping our responses and behaviors.
Role of faith as a driving force towards change - citing examples from Steve Jobs' creation of Apple and Phil Knight's founding Nike.
The podcast concludes with an empowering message about harnessing your internal power to change your life course, refusing victimhood, addressing issues immediately, maintaining a healthy sense-of-humor, asking positive questions about yourself & envisioning a brighter future.
Inspiring quotes from Helen Keller remind listeners that life is meant to be an adventure filled with risks rather than seeking safety which doesn't naturally exist.
This episode serves as both an educational exploration into learned helplessness and an inspirational guide for anyone looking to overcome their past negatives and embrace potential future successes.
In this podcast, we'll discuss learned helplessness, a concept coined by psychologist Martin Seligman in 1965. Through his research with dogs, Seligman discovered that conditioning can lead to a sense of helplessness.
Seligman conducted experiments with three dogs. The first dog was mildly shocked but could escape the shock. The second dog received the same shock but was confined and couldn't escape it. The third dog wasn't shocked at all.
Afterward, these dogs were placed in a shuttle box with an easily crossed barrier and given shocks again. Expectedly, both the first and third dogs jumped over the barrier to escape when shocked while surprisingly, the second dog did not attempt to flee despite having an opportunity to do so.
This experiment was replicated eight times yielding similar results: six out of eight times; conditioned helpless dogs chose not to escape even when they could.
The implications of this study extend into human psychology too - how might our environment condition us into believing we're helpless? For instance, if you've grown up being told you're worthless or experienced betrayal or abuse early on?
As a therapist working with survivors of childhood trauma often stuck in their pasts' pain I want such individuals listening today to know they don't have to remain trapped by their past experiences. There are powerful techniques like EMDR therapy which has shown promising results for many clients I've worked with.
Remember every situation is unique; there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Keep seeking answers and never give up because I firmly believe everyone has within them potential for change regardless of where they currently stand in life's timeline.
Beliefs matter significantly as well since our brains tend to hardwire certain responses based on negative experiences making us feel like nothing will ever change akin to that second dog from Seligman's experiment who didn't try escaping even though he could have done so easily
Faith plays a crucial role here. I define faith as the intelligent force in the universe that makes things happen, similar to how Steve Jobs' strong belief in his vision led him to create Apple.
In conclusion, remember you have the power to change your life's course and don't let past experiences condition you into a state of helplessness.
Tapping into an internal source of power makes anything possible. This is the concept Jesus referred to in the Bible when he said "to him that believeth all things are possible." Some people, like Phil Knight of Nike, have managed to harness this energy. Knight's passion for running and belief in his shoes led him to create one of the world's most influential brands.
I urge you to look within yourself. Envision a brighter future and start living it now by asking positive questions like: Why am I so happy? Why is my life moving forward? How can I let go of past negativity while retaining valuable lessons?
Helen Keller once said "life is either a daring adventure or nothing." She reminds us that safety doesn't exist naturally nor do many ever experience it. Trying to stay safe isn't better than taking risks.
We've all experienced trauma and self-doubt but we should also acknowledge our ability to achieve great things. Develop a healthy sense of humor, learn when it's appropriate to laugh and refuse victimhood.
The key lies in not letting past negatives dictate our future because today is all we truly have. So here’s what you need from this text: If there's something bothering you right now, address it immediately with trust in your capacity for progress.
In this podcast, I wanna talk about and explain the concept of learned helplessness and what we can do to confront that if we're experiencing that in our lives. The term learned helplessness comes from the the psychologist, Martin Seligman, who in 1965 was doing research, with dogs, and let me just try to reader readers digest what he did. It take 3 different dogs. And one dog, they they produce a, a mild shock to the dog, but the dog would have the capacity to when it was was shocked to get a jump away from the shock. I think the original research, actually, they created a tone first and then a shock in, but they they conditioned the dog say you can get away from this, and the dog did.
2nd dog gave him the same shot, but they put him in a confined and confined environment where it was not allowed to free itself. And then the 3rd dog, they just did nothing to. They didn't shock it at all. Then after they conditioned these 3 dogs, they they took them into something called a shuttle box which had a low barrier on one side. So they placed them in the in one end of the box, and there was a low barrier and then they were given a shock.
And the idea of the researchers is that all of these dogs would just jump over to freedom, so to speak. The first dog, the dog that was conditioned to get away from the shock originally, when the shock happened. It did. It jumped over. It got out.
The the 3rd dog who had no conditioning at all, but was placed in a box and was given a shock. It could see that it could get away from it. It jumped over and got away from it. Here's the stunning part of the research. The second dog, the one that was originally conditioned to to to see that no matter what it did, it couldn't get away from it when it was a place in an environment where it could get away, it didn't.
It just sat there. And so they watch this, then they go, alright. Let's test that this out a little further. So they got 8 triads of dogs. That means they did this same exact experiment 8 different times and 6 of the 8, experiments with the second dog just sat there.
So 22 of them apparently learned on their own to jump out even at when they were conditioned to be helpless, but that's pretty a stunning, statistic that 6 of the 8 who were free to escape a shock didn't. They just sat there. And the the implication of this research was drawn to human psychology wondering, well, how does that apply to us? What if your race in an environment where you're told that nothing you do will ever amount to anything? That you're worthless or that you're abused or you're taught that are you've learned from experience not to trust those whom you should trust that you've been betrayed, early childhood trauma, as a as a therapist who has worked with many survivors of early childhood trauma, I have seen a common theme that many stay in the stuck and frozen state.
The work, the the idea behind even starting these podcasts is that if any such person is listening to the sound of my voice, I want them to know that they do not have to stay stuck. They can find ways out of this, and it's it's, there's many powerful techniques of processing past trauma. There's new therapies that have come online recently. EMDR is 1. The clients that I worked with with EMDR, I've seen amazing results with many of them.
I would say 8 out of 10. And that's why I say every single situation is different. There's not one thing that works for everybody. But what I would encourage you to do is to keep asking questions, keep striving to learn. Don't give up I 100% believe that no matter where you are, in the process of time, There is power within you to change the course of your life.
If you do not like the direction which you're heading, you can change it by what you choose to believe. Believing certain things is a choice But because of the way and I explained this a little more in the mind and brain podcast because of the way our physical brain works, When negative things happen to us, we, in a sense, become like the dog in the shuttle box, we shuttle box, we become hardwired to respond to feeling It just doesn't matter what I do. Nothing is going to change. That is not a good state to be in. Because you do have the power to change things.
It it takes I don't even know how you can go forward in life without and moving passes without the concept of faith. Yes. Faith, f a I t h means, and I look at it I heard a wonderful definition of faith. It is the intelligent force in the universe that causes things to happen. I believe this is what Steve Jobs tapped into when people with the founder of Apple, when people say that he had this thing called the reality to stortion field about him.
And when they when his bi biographer, Walter I Isaacson talked about this and He said he just had this this, it chosen belief, a vision inside of himself of what he wanted to create He chose to believe in that so powerfully that he influenced other people. That's faith. It's like it's like electricity. And when you tap into this source, it's like anything becomes possible. I believe that's what in the Bible what Jesus was talking about when he says to him that believeth all things are possible.
Some seem to have found the capacity to actually tap in to that source to make things happen. Phil Knight did the same thing with with the Nike. He just he had an absolute passion and belief about shoes. He in reading his his bio autobiography. It's like, I just believe everyone would be better healthier if they were running, and I wanted to make a and I thought our shoes were the best.
That's what led his life to creating one of the most powerful brands in the world. And overcoming naysayers overcoming those who say you can't do things. I I so encourage you to look inside yourself wherever you are right now. To create a better future for yourself. To live it right now in your mind's eye, even by asking yourself certain questions, Why am I so happy right now?
Why is my life moving in a positive direction? Why am I, letting all these negative past influences just evaporate from my from my life. Although maintaining the positive learning experiences so that I can be safe in the future, I mean, I'm not saying negate the past completely because we learn from it, but I love something that Helen Keller said. Helen Keller to me is such an inspiring individual, you know, deaf and blind and learn to speak and learn to to read braille and to be a great communicator. She says life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
And and and part of her quote, I don't have it before me right now, but it says something to the effect of Security does not exist in nature nor do the bulk of children of men ever experience it? Trying to stay safe is no better than outright exposure. So it's kind of like, you know, the dog in the shuttle box. That if bad things using a metaphor for us as humans, if bad things happen to us, we have trauma in our life every one of us experienced that stuff. Every one of us come across negative things.
Every one of us have self doubt. Well, give equal time to the other part of yourself that says I can. I can achieve. I have a a and develop a healthy sense of humor, learn, When it's appropriate to laugh, get out of victim, any victim mentality, just refuse to be a victim. And and the work is not allowing the negative things in the past to control our future.
Now is the only thing we ever have? Where are you right now? Right day? Right today? If there's issues, So here's the takeaway from this podcast.
If there's something you know you need to do, if there's something you know you need to say to deal with other issue right now in a healthy manner that's really bothering you. Take care of it. Take care of it and do it. Trust yourself that you have the capacity to move forward in a positive way.