Learned Helplessness and C-PTSD

In 1967, Martin Seligman, one of the founders of Positive Psychology and his research group carried out a fascinating, if somewhat morally dubious experiment in his quest to understand the origins of depression. In this experiment, three groups of dogs were confined in harnesses. The dogs in group 1 were simply placed in their harnesses then released after a period of time, but the dogs in groups 2 and 3 did not have it so easy. Instead they were subjected to electric shocks that could only be stopped by pulling a lever. The difference was that the the dogs in group 2 had access to the lever, whereas the dogs in group 3 did not. Instead, the dogs in group 3 would only receive relief from the shocks when their pair in group 2 pressed the lever, with the result that they experienced the shocks as random events. The results were revelatory. In the second part of the experiment, the dogs were placed in a cage and again subjected to electric shocks, which they could escape by jumping over a low partition. The dogs from groups 1 and 2 did what any dog would be expected to do and searched for an escape root, but the dogs in group 3 did not, despite no other obstacles being placed in their way. Instead, they simply lay down and whined in a passive fashion. Because they had been habituated to thinking of the electric shocks as something over which they had no control, they did not even try to escape in the way they would have done without this acquired “training”. Indeed, ...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Bullying Psychology Psychotherapy PTSD Trauma Treatment C-PTSD complex post-traumatic stress disorder learned helplessness Martin Seligman Source Type: news