Learning Not To Be Helpless

By Frank Mulligan, Talent Software

There is evidence that some people do not just believe that they are powerless to affect their own destinies, but that they can actually learn to feel powerless.

Studies done many years ago by Overmeier and Seligman focused on our canine friends but the suggestion is that their work transfers across to humans.

What they did was to put a dog in an apparatus, letís call it an office. No!, sorry, more like a big box with a camera. Then the dogs received electric shocks that could not be avoided, no matter what response was forthcoming from the dog.

When this was completed the researchers placed the dog in another apparatus in which the animal received repeated shocks, but before the shocks were given there was a warning stimulus. You would expect that the dogs would figure this out and would avoid the shocks by reading the warning stimulus.

But they didnít.

In this study all they had to do was to step over a small barrier to avoid the shock, but they never did. Dogs from a control group, who were never introduced to the first apparatus, had no problem figuring out the method that would allow them to avoid the shock.

The phenomenon was named Learned Helplessness and it surely has to have implications for hiring and training. It would tend to explain the inability of some staff members to recognize the advantages of the new culture that they have just joined.

The motivation level of some of these new staff can remain low because they are so heavily conditioned, not because they have a personality or work-related defect. They simply may never understand that the company trusts them and will not castigate or otherwise embarrass them if they make a mistake.

The original researchers suggested that Learned Helplessness is a trait, and as such is not going to go away even when the office environment changes from oppressive to empowered. I canít say I have any great affinity with this idea. So I checked it up a little more.

In fact, later work suggests that people will change their response when it is made clear to them that reinforcement behaviours are no longer valid. We are not dogs and we are not unable to change. But it requires a long investment in time and effort for both parties, employer and employee. This may take more than just 1 training day with a powerpoint presentation.

It will take continuous reinforcement and repetition of empowerment values.

Comments to: frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com