This research demonstrates that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, here defined as continuous non-contingent positive feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, fails to produce the proactive interference phenomenon, learned helplessness, while uncontrollable aversive events, here defined as negative feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, produces that phenomenon. These results partially support the "learned helplessness" hypothesis of Seligman (1975) which predicts that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, the offset of negative events or the onset of positive ones, results in learning that responding is independent of reinforcement and that learning transfers to subsequent situations. This research further demonstrates that experience with controllability, here defined as solubility, results in enhanced competence.

The present research has focused on an often-neglected segment of society—the aged. A number of phenomena which appear relevant to a study of aging have been discussed and the pertinent literature reviewed. Specifically, learned helplessness, depression, internal-external locus of control, and disengagement versus activity have been examined. The present research was divided into two studies. Study Number 1 has investigated internal-external locus of control in an elderly sample and related it to indices of activity and morale. Study Number 2 has extended Seligman's (1975) theory of learned helplessness to an elderly population and investigated the phenomenon in individuals with either an internal or an external locus of control. The locus of control construct (Rotter, 1966) and the theory of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) appear to have immediate relevance for the treatment of aging individuals. The present study suggests that exposure to controllable reinforcement may break-up or alleviate learned helplessness in elderly individuals.

This study was designed to compare the effects of exposure to two different sets of soluble discrimination problems, an easy set composed of only two- and three-dimensional problems and a more difficult set composed of problems ranging from two to seven dimensions, both immediately after training and at a 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The subjects were 32 depressed male inmates of a federal correctional institution. It was hypothesized that as a result of meeting and mastering progressively more difficult problems, the group given progressively more difficult problems would show a greater reduction in depression and a greater enhancement of performance on a variety of cognitive measures, both immediately after treatment and at the 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The results failed to support these hypotheses. Depression scores decreased significantly from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did so equally for the two groups. One of the cognitive measures, the WAIS Digit-Symbol subtest, showed significant improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did equally for the two groups. Significant relationships were found between the subjects' performances on the cognitive tasks, and measures of their tendencies to attribute successes and failures to stable or unstable factors. Unexpected significant positive relationships were found between depression and performance on the cognitive tasks. The differential effect of the prison environment upon people differing in their intelligence was discussed as a possible explanation of these findings.

Ninety undergraduate students who scored as high or low on the Snyder Self-monitoring Scale participated in an experiment designed to determine the joint effects of self-monitoring and controllable or uncontrollable outcomes upon subsequent performance on three short-term memory tests. High and low self-monitoring subjects were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) controllable feedback, in which subjects received response contingent positive, "correct," and negative, "incorrect," feedback on a word association task; (2) uncontrollable feedback, in which subjects were given noncontingent feedback (70% negative and 30% positive); and (3) no-treatment. Measures of attentional focus were included in order to examine the role of attentional processes in the obtained results. In addition, the joint effects of treatment and self-monitoring on subjects' attributions were investigated. As predicted, the performance of high selfmonitors was significantly impaired by uncontrollability (learned helplessness), while that of low self-monitors was facilitated by controllability (learned competence). Results were discussed as supporting the contention that high self-monitors rely heavily on knowledge of environmental contingencies in order to control their environment. When their typically effective strategy is unsuccessful, "helplessness" is induced. Low self-monitors, who are less concerned with exercising control over environmental events, evidence diminished attention to and utilization of external stimuli. However, when these stimuli are made salient and the low self-monitor is positively reinforced for processing these stimuli, "competence" is induced. Results also suggest that high self-monitors, as compared with low self-monitors, are more likely to employ self-enhancing, defensive strategies. Such strategies may protect self-esteem and decrease the likelihood of long term negative effects.

The relationship between learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) and dependence on the judgment of others, as measured by an Asch-type conformity task, was investigated. Relevant constructs were reviewed: helplessness, locus of control, depression, self-esteem, dependency, and Campbell's (1961) epistemological weighting hypothesis. It was reasoned that experience with uncontrollable outcomes would not only result in learned helplessness, but also subjects' confidence in their own ability to control outcomes would be undermined so that they would rely heavily on the judgments of others as opposed to their own. Anxiety, psychological reactance, frustration, anger, or some combination of these resulting in a facilitation of performance was offered as a possible explanation for the unexpected results. Most plausible was that subjects' resulting performance deficits may have represented loss of initiative to control social reinforcers. It this is so, the deficits seen in helplessness experiments should be greater when test tasks involving social reinforcers are utilized. Further research is needed to clarify the interrelationship of helplessness, depression, and conformity/anti-conformity.

This study evaluated the efficacy of hypnoticallyinduced mood elevation techniques for individuals exposed previously to an experimental learned helplessness condition. The treatment conditions in this investigation included the mood elevation with hypnotic induction group as well as a mood elevation group without the benefit of hypnotic induction. As experimental controls, a group was exposed to hypnotic relaxation and an attention-only treatment group was used. Measures of treatment success included the administration of•the Depression Adjective Checklist, backward digit span, and five—letter anagrams. In a series of factorial analysis of variance procedures no significant interaction was noted although the main effect for the presence of hypnotic induction was significant with the Depression Adjective Checklist. Post hoc analysis to examine gender differences demonstrated no significant performance discrepancy between the sexes. Limitations of the study were explored and avenues of further research discussed.

Tidigare studier visar att arbetslöshet har negativ påverkan på individens hälsa och välbefinnande och att en minskning av ekonomin är en av de starkaste orsakerna som kan leda till isolering, stress och frustration. Syftet med denna studie var att få en djupare förståelse om hur individens upplever arbetslöshet och hur detta påverkar deras hälsa och välbefinnande. Undersökningen utgick utifrån en kvalitativ studie där respondenterna var 11 individer både män och kvinnor mellan 25-55 år, och arbetslöshetsperioden varierade mellan 1 till 9 månader. Respondenterna intervjuades ca 20 minuter med semistrukturerade frågor. Den fyra temana som var centrala i denna undersökning var: negativ påverkan på familj och hem, känsla av utanförskap, känsla av maktlöshet och psykisk ohälsa. Resultaten visade att respondenterna lever i en konstant osäkerhet på grund av minskning av ekonomi, känslan av hopplöshet dyker upp bland sysslolösa och att familjemedlemmar drabbas. De olika undertemana gav bättre förståelse kring respondenternas vardagssituationer.

[pt] O presente estudo aborda o pensamento de Winnicott, buscando nele uma outra concepção da relação indivíduo/ sociedade distinta daquela que predomina hoje em nosso cenário social. A sua idéia de uma vitalidade espontânea e das condições necessárias para sua plena expressão contrasta com os dispositivos do biopoder descritos por Foucault que se apropriam da vida de modo a maximizar sua utilidade econômica. Ao mesmo tempo, a sua suposição de uma subjetividade que só pode emergir e diferenciar-se a partir da consistência do ambiente contrasta com a experiência de desamparo e vulnerabilidade descrita por Castel como característica do homem contemporâneo. Além disso, a noção winnicottiana de uma capacidade de preocupação com o outro que não depende de coerções e controles, mas de um ambiente cuidadoso internalizado, muito se aproxima das últimas análises de Foucault que tratam do cuidado de si antigo. Em tais análises, a ética greco-romana é entendida como expressão de liberdade, sendo retomada no presente sob a forma da amizade. Tanto Winnicott quanto Foucault sustentam a idéia de uma abertura potencial do indivíduo para o outro, mas é o primeiro autor quem, reconhecendo claramente as necessidades e tendências naturais da vida criativa, sem fechá-la em padrões normativos, nos permite criticar, por outro lado, o novo ideal de um sujeito totalmente aberto às demandas externas. / [en] The current study deals with Winnicott`s thought, searching in it another conception of the individual/society relationship, different from the one that prevails today in the social scenario. His idea of a spontaneous vitality, and the necessary conditions for its full expression, opposes the biopower mechanisms described by Foucault that take life in a way to maximize its economic use. At the same time, his assumption of a subjectivity that can only emerge and differentiate itself supported by a consistent environment opposes the helplessness and vulnerability experience described by Castel as characteristic of the contemporaneous man. Besides that, Winnicott´s notion of a capacity of concern with the other that does not depend on coercion and controls, but on an internalized careful environment, seems very close to Foucault latest analysis that deals with the concern of self in antiquity. In such analysis, the Greek-Roman ethics is understood as the expression of freedom, being recovered to the present in the form of friendship. Both Winninicott and Foucault support an idea of a potential openess of the individual to the other, but the former is the one who, clearly recognizing the needs and natural trends of creative life, without closing it in normative standards, allows us to criticize the new ideal of a subject completely open to the external demands.

O presente estudo objetiva uma leitura da obra Perto do coração selvagem, de Clarice Lispector, a partir do percurso da protagonista Joana para desentranhar a análise em direção ao estilo da autora. No primeiro plano, vislumbra-se o desamparo humano sendo revelado na história da personagem; no segundo, o drama clariceano em relação ao desamparo da linguagem/escrita. Solidão, liberdade, felicidade e desamparo definem o que se poderia chamar de tom da obra, construindo uma trama por vezes paradoxal e conflitosa. A leitura será norteada, para tanto, pela noção de desamparo sistematizada pela psicanálise. / This paper aims at a reading of the work Perto do coração selvagem of Clarice Lispector, from the journey of protagonist Joan, to unravel the analysis toward the style of the author. In the foreground, we conjecture about human helplessness being revealed in the story of the character, in the background, the clariceano drama in relation to the language/writing helplessness. Loneliness, freedom, happiness and helplessness define what might be called \"tone\" of the work, building a story thats sometimes paradoxical and conflicting. The reading will be guided, for that, by the notion of helplessness systematized by psychoanalysis.

Across any group of gifted students in any school there will always be a range of academic and other achievements. It is when these achievements are compared with measures of potential and the expectations of teachers and parents that a gifted child can sometimes be declared an underachiever. The 37 gifted students taking part in this study ranged in academic achievement from high achievers to underachievers. In part one of the study a questionnaire approach was used to measure their locus of control (LOC) and learned helplessness (LH) orientations and their tendency towards resilience or vulnerability. These students were also assessed as to their choice of performance or learning goals; effort or ability attributions for success; and the fixed or flexible nature of intelligence. The results of these investigations were then compared with the expectations of their teachers and their academic performance in recent examinations. None of the factors were found to yield consistent correlation with either expectations or academic achievements. Both high achievers and underachievers were found at all measures of all variables. In part two, a phenomenographic enquiry was undertaken by interview, to investigate the students' reactions to the twin phenomena of success and failure. LOC, LH and resilience/vulnerability were controlled for in this part of the study and the sample group chosen for interview (10 students) included both high achievers and underachievers. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed one characteristic which consistently differentiated between the underachievers and the high achievers. This was the reaction to failure. Consistently across the sample, irrespective of their LOC, LH and resilience orientations, the students achieving at the highest level were found to display an efficacious, learn-from-mistakes attitude to failure and the underachieving students displayed unhelpful reactions to failure ranging from denial to avoidance to helplessness. The terms failing well and failing badly were used to describe these two clusters of reactions. Learning to fail well, is proposed as one mechanism to help gifted underachievers improve their academic performance. This study adds to existing understandings in that its findings are contrary to much published literature and its conclusions appears to provide a new perspective on the characteristics of the gifted underachiever.