以往关于习得性无助感的研究存在三个局限：一是习得性无助感是在没有实质性求助行为下诱发的,忽视人类普遍存在的求助动机;二是没有关注人类的习得性无助感获得后的行为倾向及其传播现象,缺乏社会心理视角;三是简单将动物的无助感延伸至人类,而人类的无助感有着更复杂的心理机制。为弥补上述局限,研究1采用无助感诱发求助任务,研究发现被试被熟人拒绝后产生的无助感体验更深刻,悲观归因的个体无助感体验更高。研究2采用无助感干预实验,研究发现习得性无助感会极大地减少乐观归因的个体的助人行为倾向,而对悲观归因的个体影响却不大,无助感干预能提高助人行为倾向。研究3采用结构方程模型构建了助人行为的心理学模型。研究表明人类的无助感与获助感不同于动物,有着独特的心理模型,获助感会转化为爱心,无助感会转化为冷漠,两者均可以习得与传递。
Abstract
Learned helplessness has become a popular topic in motivation studies. However, previous research on learned helplessness has three major shortcomings. First, when animals or humans were used as experimental subjects, they were usually kept in isolation and lacked the experience of seeking help from their peers. In other words, research on learned helplessness only describes the psychological state of individuals after repeated failures of self-help, without considering actual help-seeking behavior. Second, prior studies failed to address the behavioral tendencies of humans after acquiring learned helplessness, ignoring the perspective of social psychology. Learned helplessness, as a motivation theory, has predominantly been confined to individual psychological analysis, with the explanatory unit being the “individual” rather than the “interpersonal.” Third, the helplessness observed in animals has been directly extended to explain human behavior after failed self-help attempts. However, humans experience more complex psychological processes before seeking help, involving various factors such as psychological distance and attributional style, which modulate learned helplessness in humans.
In Experiment 1, we investigated how interpersonal psychological distance (familiarity vs. strangeness) and attributional style (optimism vs. pessimism) regulate learned helplessness. This experiment employed a two-factor experimental design, adopted an adapted version of the human Learned-Helplessness-Induced task paradigm, and collected participants’ physiological indices using a biofeedback instrument. Experiment 2 compared the differences in helping behavior among individuals who experienced learned helplessness (following repeated help-seeking failures), those who received help (following repeated help-seeking successes), those with no experience of help-seeking. The interaction effect of group and attributional style on helping tendencies was also examined. This experiment employed a 3×2 mixed design with three groups (learned helplessness, learned help, control group) and two attributional styles (optimistic vs. pessimistic), with helping others answer questions as an indicator of helping behavior. In Experiment 3, we constructed a psychological model of helping behavior based on learned helplessness, psychological distance, and attributional style.
The findings revealed that: (1) Participants quickly developed a feeling of learned helplessness after multiple failures in seeking help, with a stronger sense of learned helplessness observed when failing to seek help from acquaintances compared to strangers. Individuals with a pessimistic attributional style exhibited greater learned helplessness than those with an optimistic style after repeated failures in seeking help. (2) Learned helplessness and help-receiving could change participants’ tendencies to help others. Those with an optimistic attributional style who received help displayed the highest level of willingness to help others, while individuals with a pessimistic attributional style who experienced learned helplessness exhibited the lowest level of helping behavior. (3) Learned helplessness reduced the helping tendencies of individuals with an optimistic attributional style but had minimal effects on those with a pessimistic attributional style. However, learned help enhanced the inclination to assist others, regardless of attributional style. (4) Learned helplessness and interpersonal psychological distance mediated the relationship between attributional style and helping behavior. While attributional style did not directly influence helping tendencies, learned helplessness and interpersonal psychological distance exerted a negative regulatory effect on the inclination to help others.
In conclusion, the results suggest that learned helplessness emerges quickly after repeated failures in seeking help, with stronger effects observed when failing to seek help from acquaintances rather than strangers. Learned helplessness, psychological distance, and attributional style significantly influence individuals' helping tendencies. The sense of being helped transforms into love, whereas the sense of helplessness translates into indifference, both of which can be acquired and transmitted. Individuals with a pessimistic attributional style experience stronger learned helplessness compared to those with an optimistic style after repeated failures in seeking help. While attributional style does not directly influence helping tendencies, learned helplessness and interpersonal psychological distance negatively regulate such tendencies. The psychological model of helping behavior based on learned helplessness provides valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying helping behavior and highlights the importance of considering individual differences in attributional style and psychological distance when studying learned helplessness.
关键词
习得性无助感 /
人际心理距离 /
归因风格 /
助人行为倾向
Key words
learned helplessness /
interpersonal psychological distance /
attributional style /
helping behavior
{{custom_sec.title}}
{{custom_sec.title}}
{{custom_sec.content}}
参考文献
[1] 丁玉婷, 张畅, 李冉冉, 丁文宇, 朱静, 刘伟, 陈宁. (2023) .积极共同经历促进师生关系的机制: 情感联结的中介作用. 心理学报, 55(5), 726-739.
[2] 高娟, 王鹏, 王晓田, 孙倩, 刘永芳. (2020). 得失情境下他人参照点及心理距离对自我-他人利益权衡的影响. 心理学报, 52(5), 633-644.
[3] 吴三美, 王敬欣, 何先友, 田良苏, 赵雪汝, 陈广耀. (2019). 心理距离概念水平上的趋利避害相容效应.心理与行为研究, 17(4), 488-495.
[4] 曾碧琪, 朱海燕. (2022). 不同类型社会排斥中归因诱导对攻击性的影响.心理科学, 45(4), 960-965.
[5] 张大均. (1999). 教育心理学. 人民教育出版社..
[6] 张奇勇, 卢家楣, 闫志英, 陈成辉. (2016). 情绪感染的发生机制.心理学报, 48(11), 1423-1433.
[7] 左有霞, 赵玉芳, 陈冰. (2019). 内部竞争环境下内群体偏好的维持:群体认同和心理距离的影响. 心理学探新, 39(3), 264-271.
[8] Alatorre A. I., DePaola R. V., & Haeffel G. J. (2020). Academic achievement and depressive symptoms: Are fixed mindsets distinct from negative attributional style? Learning and Individual Differences, 77, 1-8.
[9] Alloy L. B., Peterson C., Abramson L. Y., & Seligman M. E. (1984). Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(3), 681-687.
[10] Asghari, A., & Moshkani, M. (2023). The model of tendency towards risky behaviors based on family emotional climate and interpersonal reactivity: The mediator of moral indifference. Quarterly Journal of Applied Psychology, 17(3), 77-95.
[11] Bakhti R., Woltin K. A., Sassenberg K., & Rae J. (2022). Testing the impact of interpersonal regulatory fit on empathy, helping intentions, and prosocial behaviour. PLoS ONE, 17(7), 1-23.
[12] Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193-209.
[13] Bar-Tal D., Raviv A., & Goldberg M. (1982). Helping behavior among preschool children: An observational study. Child Development, 53(2), 396-402.
[14] Cleland, J., & Fahey, P. T. (2018). Aspirations of people who come from state education are different: How language reflects social exclusion in medical education. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 23(3), 513-531.
[15] Eskelinen M., Korhonen R., Selander T., & Ollonen P. (2015). Suicidal ideation versus hopelessness/helplessness in healthy individuals and in patients with benign breast disease and breast cancer: A prospective case-control study in Finland. Anticancer Research, 35(6), 3543-3551.
[16] Grimes, L. (1981). Learned helplessness and attribution theory: Redefining children' s learning problems. Learning Disability Quarterly, 4(1), 91-100.
[17] Hiroto, D. S., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Generality of learned helplessness in man. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(2), 311-327.
[18] Huo B., Liu X., & Li S. (2023). The impact of justice on information sharing and innovation performance: A social exchange theory perspective. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 38(11), 2519-2532.
[19] Iversen, C., & Kevoe-Feldman, H. (2024). The subjective and objective side of helplessness: Navigating between reassurance and risk management when people seek help for suicidal others. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 63(4), 1608-1624.
[20] Jeong S. S., Gong Y., & Henderson A. (2022). Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 5, 1-30.
[21] Joshi J., Wang K., & Cho Y. (2023). PhysioKit: An open-source, low-cost physiological computing toolkit for single- and multi-user studies. Sensors , 23(19), 8244.
[22] Kim M., Shin K., & Park S. (2023). Academic helplessness and life satisfaction in Korean adolescents: The moderated mediation effects of leisure time physical activity. Healthcare, 11(3), 298.
[23] Krol, S. A., & Bartz, J. A. (2022). The self and empathy: Lacking a clear and stable sense of self undermines empathy and helping behavior. Emotion, 22(7), 1554-1571.
[24] Kumar, K. B., & Karanth, K. S. (1991). Enhanced retrieval of unpleasant memory in helpless rats. Biological Psychiatry, 30(5), 493-501.
[25] Kuriakose, V., & Sreejesh, S. (2023). Co-worker and customer incivility on employee well-being: Roles of helplessness, social support at work and psychological detachment - a study among frontline hotel employees. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 56, 443-453.
[26] Lester, D. (2012). Defeat and entrapment as predictors of depression and suicidal ideation versus hopelessness and helplessness. Psychological Reports, 111(2), 498-501.
[27] Maglio, S. J. (2020). Psychological distance in consumer psychology: Consequences and antecedents. Consumer Psychology Review, 3(1), 108-125.
[28] Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105(1), 3-46.
[29] Maymon R., Hall N. C., Goetz T., Chiarella A., & Rahimi S. (2018). Technology, attributions, and emotions in post-secondary education: An application of Weiner' s attribution theory to academic computing problems. PLoS ONE, 13(3), e0193443.
[30] Nagai Y., Jones C. I., & Sen A. (2019). Galvanic skin response (GSR)/electrodermal/skin conductance biofeedback on epilepsy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Neurology, 10, 377.
[31] Overmier, J. B., & Wielkiewicz, R. M. (1983). On unpredictability as a causal factor in "learned helplessness". Learning and Motivation, 14(3), 324-337.
[32] Peterson, C. (1991). On shortening the expanded attributional style questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 56(1), 179-183.
[33] Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). Psychiatry-influence of labeling. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 6(6), 366-367.
[34] Rozell E. J., Gundersen D. E., & Terpstra D. E. (1998). Gender differences in the factors affecting helpless behavior and performance. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 13(2), 265-280.
[35] Sammer, G., & Ruprecht, C. (2023). No faces, just body movements—Effects of perceived emotional valence of body kinetics and psychological factors on interpersonal distance behavior within an immersive virtual environment. Current Psychology, 42(23), 19486-19502.
[36] Trump R. K., Finkelstein S. R., & Connell P. M. (2014). I will risk a stranger' s money, but not my own or my friend' s money: Effect of proximity of the money source to the self on financial risk-taking. Marketing Letter, 26(4), 501-512.
[37] Turgeon J., Milot T., St-Laurent D., & Dubois-Comtois K. (2022). Hostile-helpless states of mind: A scoping review of risk factors, correlates, and consequences. Infant Mental Health Journal, 43(4), 597-623.
[38] Uliana D. L., Gomes F. V., & Grace A. A. (2020). Prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex disruption during adolescence increases susceptibility to helpless behavior in adult rats. European Neuropsychopharmacology , 35,111-125.
[39] Wells J., Knoll M. A., Lyons-Ruth K., & Obsuth I. (2023). History of abuse and adolescent hostile-helpless attachment: The mediating role of mother-adolescent punitive interactions. Child Abuse and Neglect, 140, 106190.
[40] Wood, C. J. (1991). Are students and school personnel learning to be helpless-oriented or resourceful-oriented? Part 1: Focus on Students. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 2(1), 15.
基金
*本研究得到国家社科基金后期资助项目（19FJKB016）的资助
PDF(1449 KB)
