19

Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from such real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.

^^^ This sums up my last year as a systems engineer perfectly

Comments
  • 6
    Some real world examples include fleas and elephants.

    When you put jumping fleas into a glass far with a lid on it, they'll continue to jump and hit the lid for a while, but soon enough they stop jumping to hit the lid, they jump lower.
    After a couple days, take the lid off. No fleas will jump higher than the lip if the jar, they've learned escape is pointless.

    When elephants are young, they're tied to a tree. They can pull as hard as they want, but they learn the tree is strong and they are stuck. They associate the rope tied to the tree with being trapped to the tree.

    Later, when they're strong adults, they can easily uproot the tree from the ground, but they have learned the tree is immovable and they never try, often even when they are terrified.

    It's really sad.
  • 1
    Last years for me
  • 0
    @M1sf3t I was referring to the op. I would have mentioned you if not.
Add Comment