Psychiatry and Psychology

Learned Helplessness

Learned expectation that one's responses are independent of reward and, hence, do not predict or control the occurrence of rewards. Learned helplessness derives from a history, experimentally induced or naturally occurring, of having received punishment/aversive stimulation regardless of responses made. Such circumstances result in an impaired ability to learn. Used for human or animal populations. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994)

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

Learned expectation that one's responses are independent of reward and, hence, do not predict or control the occurrence of rewards. Learned helplessness derives from a history, experimentally induced or naturally occurring, of having received punishment/aversive stimulation regardless of responses made. Such circumstances result in an impaired ability to learn. Used for human or animal populations. (APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 1994)

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Synonyms

1 entry terms
  • Helplessness, Learned

MeSH Record

History Note

83

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Numbers

  1. F01.393w.398w
  2. F02w.463w.425w.420w

MeSH Record

NLM Classification

WM 193

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Learned Helplessness. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D006380. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D006380
  2. Learned Helplessness. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
  3. Learned Helplessness. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q618018