Learned Helplessness

A framework is proposed for a more systematic understanding of the effects of child sexual abuse. Four traumagenic dynamics -traumatic sexualization, betrayal, stigmatization, and powerlessness -are identified as the core of the psychological injury inflicted by abuse. These dynamics can be used to make assessments of victimized children and to anticipate problems to which these children may be vulnerable subsequently. Implications for research are also considered.

Based on self-determination theory , an experimental study with middle school students participating in a physical education task and a correlational study with highly talented sport students investigated the motivating role of positive competence feedback on participants' well-being, performance, and intention to participate. In Study 1, structural equation modeling favored the hypothesized motivational model, in which, after controlling for pretask perceived competence and competence valuation, feedback positively predicted competence satisfaction, which in turn predicted higher levels of vitality and greater intentions to participate, through the mediation of autonomous motivation. No effects on performance were found. Study 2 further showed that autonomous motivation mediated the relation between competence satisfaction and well-being, whereas amotivation mediated the negative relation between competence satisfaction and ill-being and rated performance. The discussion focuses on the motivational role of competence feedback in sports and physical education settings.

Research examining the role of cognition in depression is critically reviewed. Specifically, five broad areas of cognitive functioning are examined: expectations and evaluations of performance, perception of environmental information, recall of information, cognitive biases, and attributional processes. The review of the literature suggests that neither Beck's nor the learned helplessness model of depression has a strong empirical base. Depressed persons present themselves negatively on a variety of measures, but less consistently than either model suggests. Differences between depressed and nondepressed persons with respect to extralaboratory experiences and self-presentational strategies remain viable alternative explanations for those results that have been obtained. In addition, specificity to depression has not been demonstrated consistently for any measure of cognitive bias or distortion. Attention is given to conceptual and methodological difficulties in unambiguously establishing what people think, in demonstrating biased or distorted cognitive processes, and in testing hypotheses about the fundamental role of cognition in depression.

Objectives: This study aims to describe and compare the job satisfaction, coping strategies, personal and organizational characteristics among nurses working in a hospital in Turkey. Methods: In this cross-sectional survey design study, 186 nurses from Cumhuriyet University Hospital completed Personal Data Form, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Ways of Coping Inventory. Response rate was 74.4%. Results: In this study, it was found that job satisfaction score of nurses showed moderate (mean: 3.46 AE 0.56) was found. While nurses mostly used to employ self-confident and optimistic approaches that had already being considered as positive coping strategies with stress, yielding and helpless approaches were employed less than that. While a statistically significant positive relation ( p < 0.05) was found between job satisfaction and dimensions of Ways of Coping Inventory ''self-confident approach'' and ''optimistic approach'', negative relation ( p < 0.01) was found between job satisfaction and dimensions of the ''helpless approach''. Organizational and individual nurse characteristics were not found to be associated with job satisfaction. But, job satisfaction of the nurses who is bounded by a contract was found higher than that of permanent staff nurses ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: The job satisfaction of Turkish hospital nurses was at a moderate and that of the nurses who succeeded to coping with the stress was heightened. Higher levels of job satisfaction were associated with positive coping strategies. This study contributes to a growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of coping strategies to nurses' job satisfaction. #

This qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of highly sensitive persons (HSPs) to better understand the way they experience careers.  Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is the underlying personality trait and is present in approximately 20 percent of the population, equally distributed across gender and racial lines.  SPS is considered a non-normative personality trait in some Western societies and subcultures.  Thus, many HSPs experience difficulty finding an appropriate match between innate temperament and career.   
This qualitative research perspective employed semi-structured interviews with 35 participants recruited through social media web sites and snowball sampling.  Participants in the study were primarily from the U.S., but also from five foreign countries.  Participants were chosen based on answers to a recruitment questionnaire and Elaine Aron’s HSP Self-Test.  Major findings reveal a complex, interwoven dynamic interplay between nine major themes: (1) empathy, (2) childhood’s influence, (3) self-care, (4) a rich inner life, (5) creativity, (6) high sensation-seeking, (7) the sociological perspective, (8) the experience of work, and (9) the integral being.  The significance of this study is that it is the first of its kind to investigate this topic in a systematic, scientific manner.

Most mental health literature on homelessness has focused on characteristics that may be risk factors for homeless° ness. The authors of this article argue that homelessness itself is a risk factor for emotional disorder and use the construct of psychological trauma--focusing on social disaffiliation and learned helplessness--to understand the potential effects of homelessness. Psychological trauma is likely among homeless individuals and families for three reasons. (a) The sudden or gradual loss of one's home can be a stressor of sufficient severity to produce symptoms of psychological trauma. (b) The conditions of shelter life may produce trauma symptoms. (c) Many homeless peppie--particularly womenJbecome homeless after experiencing physical and sexual abuse and consequent psychological trauma. Research suggests that negative psychological responses to traumatic events can be prevented or mitigated by a supportive and empowering posttrauma environment. The implications of trauma theory for improving the psychosocial conditions of homeless people are discussed.

and SANDERS, RELIFORD, JR. Leamed Helplessness, Test Anxiety, and Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Analysis. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1989, 60, 138-145. The stability of individual differences in test anxiety and leamed helplessness over a 2year period and their relation to concurrent and friture school achievement were examined. Several issues regarding the assessment of leamed helplessness are also addressed. 82 children were administered measures of test anxiety and helplessness in the third grade and again in the fifth grade. Teachers also provided reports of leamed helpless and mastery-oriented behaviors at these 2 grade levels. It was found that: (a) both self-report and teacher-report measures of helplessness were stable over the 2-year period; (b) helplessness in the third grade was related to achievement test scores in the fifth grade; and (c) teacher reports may be a viable means of identifying helplessness. These findings are discussed in terms of cognitive developmental changes in children's understanding of effort and ability, and their implications for the assessment of leamed helplessness are outlined.

s Abstract Helplessness and hopelessness are central aspects of cognitive-behavioural explanations for the development and persistence of depression. In this article a general overview concerning the evolution of those approaches to depression is provided.

The recent increased productivity of researchers in the area of depression has been accompanied by a greater reliance on student samples A number of these investigations, however, have incidentally reported significant correlations between measures of depression and several other forms of psychopathology The present study was designed to examine explicitly the relationship between self-reported depression and a number of self-report measures of other forms of maladaptive functioning in a subclimcal population. Seven questionnaires completed by 443 undergraduate students yielded 17 different pathology scales. All of the scales were found to be significantly mtercorrelated Furthermore, a factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution with the first factor, composed of all but three scales, accounting for 50% of the total variance Chi-square analyses revealed that only 5%-10% of the subjects were cross classified as high on one measure and low on another These results are discussed with reference to the ability of self-report measures to differentiate discrete forms of psychopathology in both subclimcal and psychiatric populations Finally, the present results underscore the need for caution in extrapolating findings from studies with students scoring high on the Beck Depression Inventory

In this article, we clarify, expand and revise the basic postulates of the hopelessness theory of depression (A bramson, Alloy & Metalsky, 1988a;; previousl y referred to as the reformulat ed helplessness theory of depression : and place the theory more explicitly in the context of work in descriptive psychiatry about the heterogeneity among the depressive disorders. We suggest that the hopelessness theory hypothesizes the existence in natu re of an, as yet, unidentified subtype of depression -'hopelessness depression ' -defined, in part, by its cause. We then give a critique of work conducted to test the hopelessness theory and explicate the limitations in research strategy associated with this line of work. Our critique includes a logical analysis that deduces the conceptual and methodological inadequacies of the research strategies used to test the theory. Finally, we suggest more adequate research strategies for testing the hopelessness theory and discuss conceptual and assessment issues that will arise in cond ucting such tests with special emphasis on attribuional styles. proposed a reformulated theory of human helplessness and depression that attempted to resolve a number of inadequacies associated with the original hypothesis . For reasons that soon will become clear, we refer to the reformulated theory as the hopelessness theory of depression (A bramson et al., 1987; 1988a, b). The hopelessness theory captured the attention of many depression researchers and has generated a considerable amount of empirical work. In evaluating work on the theory, we have arrived at a very disturbing conclusion : the various resea rch strategies utilized over the course of the past decade

This study examined the relationship between two variable sets: (a) epistemological beliefs (quick learning, simple knowledge, certain knowledge, and innate ability) and learned helplessness and (b) conceptual understanding and application reasoning in conceptual change learning (CCL). Hypothetical dimensions underlying the Epistemological Belief Questionnaire and effects of different kinds of prior knowledge on CCL were explored with 212 students in Grades 9-12 in 13 science classes at a rural public high school in Georgia.

The Milgram and other situationist experiments support the real-life evidence that most of us are highly akratic and heteronomous, and that Aristototelian virtue is not global. Indeed, like global theoretical knowledge, global virtue is psychologically impossible because it requires too much of finite human beings with finite powers in a finite life; virtue can only be domain-specific. But unlike local, situation-specific virtues, domain-specific virtues entail some general understanding of what matters in life, and are connected conceptually and causally to our traits in other domains. The experiments also make us aware of how easily unobtrusive situational factors can tap our susceptibilities to obedience, conformity, irresponsibility, cruelty, or indifference to others' welfare, thereby empowering us to change ourselves for the better. Thus, they advance the Socratic project of living the examined life. I note a remarkable parallel between the results of the baseline Milgram experiments and the results of the learned helplessness experiments by Martin Seligman et al. This provides fresh insight into the psychology and character of the obedient Milgram subjects, and I use this insight to argue that pusillanimity, as Aristotle conceives of it, is part of a complete explanation of the behavior of the obedient Milgram subjects.

There are growing levels of chaos in the lives of American children, youth, and families. Increasingly, children grow up in households lacking in structure and routine, inundated by background stimulation from noise and crowding, and forced to contend with the frenetic pace of modern life. Although widespread, chaos does not occur randomly in the population. We document that low-income adolescents face higher levels of chaos than their more affluent counterparts and provide longitudinal evidence that some of the adverse effects of poverty on socioemotional adjustment are mediated by exposure to chaotic living conditions.

Pierre Janet's therapeutic approach to traumatized patients was the first attempt to create a systematic, phase-oriented treatment of post-traumatic stress. Janet viewed the trauma response basically as a disorder of memory which interfered with effective action. Relying heavily on the use of hypnosis, he taught that the treatment of post-traumatic psychopathology consisted of forming a stable therapeutic relationship; retrieving and transforming traumatic memories into meaningful experiences; and taking effective action to overcome learned helplessness. Most of his observations and recommendations are as challenging today as when he first made them, starting a century ago.

This paper presents a cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS), with a formal system of systematic definitions. The term &quot;stress&quot; is used for four aspects of &quot;stress&quot;, stress stimuli, stress experience, the non-specific, general stress response, and experience of the stress response. These four meanings may be measured separately. The stress response is a general alarm in a homeostatic system, producing general and unspecific neurophysiological activation from one level of arousal to more arousal. The stress response occurs whenever there is something missing, for instance a homeostatic imbalance, or a threat to homeostasis and life of the organism. Formally, the alarm occurs when there is a discrepancy between what should be and what is-between the value a variable should have (set value (SV)), and the real value (actual value (AV)) of the same variable. The stress response, therefore, is an essential and necessary physiological response. The unpleasantness ...

Objective: It has been shown that distress suppresses eating in nondieters (unrestrained eaters), but increases it in chronic dieters (restrained eaters). This study attempted to investigate several possible explanations for this phenomenon, in particular, the "masking hypothesis." This hypothesis states that dieters use overeating to mask their distress in other areas of their lives by eating when distressed so that they can attribute their distress to their overeating rather than to more uncontrollable aspects of themselves or their lives. In addition, comfort, learned helplessness, and distraction explanations were investigated. Method: Female college student subjects were led to believe that they had or had not failed at a cognitive task, then were either given ad libitum or just three small spoonfuls of ice cream to taste and rate. Results: It was predicted that restrained subjects who ate ad libitum following failure would attribute more of their distress to their eating than would those who were allowed only a taste of ice cream. The results were more complicated than predicted. They indicated that the masking, distraction, and helplessness hypotheses all received some support in the present study and that they may work in tandem with each other. Discussion: The results suggest that distress-induced overeating in restrained eaters may serve psychological functions for the individual, allowing for distraction from the distress or masking of the source of dysphoria. The possible relevance of these results to bulimic patients who may use their binges to mask the true source of their distress is discussed.

This is the penultimate draft of a paper accepted for publication in conference proceedings. It is also one part of a longer project combining modern psychology and the Odyssey. Any comments or suggestions for this specific paper or the larger project are gladly welcomed.

After a traumatic event, people often report using alcohol to relieve their symptoms of anxiety, irritability, and depression. Alcohol may relieve these symptoms because drinking compensates for deficiencies in endorphin activity following a traumatic experience. Within minutes of exposure to a traumatic event there is an increase in the level of endorphins in the brain. During the time of the trauma, endorphin levels remain elevated and help numb the emotional and physical pain of the trauma. However, after the trauma is over, endorphin levels gradually decrease and this may lead to a period of endorphin withdrawal that can last from hours to days. This period of endorphin withdrawal may produce emotional distress and contribute to other symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because alcohol use increases endorphin activity, drinking following trauma may be used to compensate this endorphin withdrawal and thus avoid the associated emotional distress. This model has impor...

The objective of this paper was to evaluate the Cry of Pain model of suicide behaviour as applied to psychosis and to derive theoretically driven guidelines for prevention. Suicide risk in psychotic patients is a serious but poorly understood clinical and social problem. There is a dearth of psychological models to explain suicidal behaviour and to guide effective preventative clinical interventions. Understanding suicidal behaviour in psychosis may be facilitated by utilizing models from depression. The &#39;Cry of Pain&#39; model of suicide is founded on an evolutionary approach to understanding suicidal behaviour in depression. The model was critically evaluated and relevant literature reviewed. Although strengths of the model were identified, lack of clarity regarding the concepts of defeat, entrapment, and lack of rescue appeared to limit its theoretical and clinical utility. We suggest a modification to this model which replaces concepts of defeat, entrapment, and lack of resc...

Although the development of theoretically based and empirically verified practice guidelines is now possible, some health education practice still remains uninformed by this research-based knowledge. This article describes four psychosocial theories that have been useful in our practices: self-efficacy, stress and coping, learned helplessness, and social support. The theories are introduced and compared; practical suggestions for their use in the development of health education interventions are then discussed. Skills mastery, modeling, reinterpretation of physical signs and symptoms, and persuasion are presented as ways of enhancing self-efficacy. Some similar strategies are presented as examples of coping techniques, including positive reappraisal or reinterpretation. Other coping strategies such as confronting, distancing, self-care, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, escape avoidance or ignoring, problem solving, activity, distraction, self-talk, and prayer are also introduced. Cognitive restructuring is examined most fully as an example of an intervention strategy derived from learned helplessness theory. And finally, five strategies for fostering positive social support are presented: enhancing personal networks, linking volunteers, establishing mutual aid networks, identifying and supporting neighborhood helpers, and community empowerment.

An exploratory study examined the origins of children's motivational patterns in the family by observing 3rd-grade children (10 helpless and 11 mastery-oriented) and their mothers performing a series of solvable and insolvable problem-solving tasks. Mothers of mastery children appeared to show sensitivity and responsiveness to their children's ability perceptions and requests for help. They also appeared to support mastery behaviors in their children by increasing task-focused teaching behaviors and maintaining high-positive affect during the insolvable puzzles. Furthermore, in the face of failures, they retrained their children's low-ability attributions and performance-goal statements, while promoting mastery or taskfocused behaviors. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that mothers of mastery children may socialize their children's achievement motivation. However, because of the small sample size and other limitations, the results should be interpreted with caution. Several directions are outlined for future research on the familial origins of helpless and mastery patterns in children.

This article provides an overview of the emerging literature on biopsychosocial assessment and treatment for two of the most common forms of arthritis: osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The article is divided into 3 parts. In the 1st part, the basic elements of the biopsychosocial approach to assessing and treating persons having arthritis is described. In the 2nd part, the authors evaluate studies of biopsychosocial approaches to the assessment of arthritis pain and disability. Six research areas are reviewed: learned helplessness, depression, stress, pain coping, self-efficacy, and the social context of arthritis. The 3rd part of the article reviews studies that testing the efficacy of biopsychosocial treatment approaches for persons having osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The authors investigated 3 aspects of the learned helplessness (LH) phenomenon: the induction of helplessness in humans by a new instrumental task, the effects of a therapy technique that relies on direct retroactive reevaluation of the helplessness experience, and the role of personality characteristics in both helplessness induction and therapy. The sample consisted of 92 Turkish Bogazifi University undergraduates, 42 men and 50 women. The authors exposed 2 experimental groups to an LH induction by presenting them with an unsolvable maze task; 1 group received therapy afterward, and the other group did not. There were also 2 control groups: a group that received only a solvable version of 'he maze and another group that received no treatment. Before the experimental procedure, all participants completed the Turkish version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (FFI). The authors evaluated picture-rating and anagram-solving performances to differentiate the cognitive and emotional deficits of LH. Results of the factorial analyses of variance and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test supported the success of both the helplessness induction and the therapy technique. Although no significant gender differences were found in the effects of the helplessness-induction and therapy procedures, correlation analyses revealed that individual differences, particularly in the interaction between gender and personality characteristics, can have an important impact on LH and on the capacity to benefit from therapy.

To compare psychological, medical, and trauma-related variables in veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (CR-PTSD) comorbid with depression and veterans with CR-PTSD only. Method. Out of 402 Croatian veterans recruited during expert evaluation for war-related compensation claims, 346 met the criteria for CR-PTSD: 97 for CR-PTSD only and 249 for PTSD comorbid with other diagnoses (77 comorbid with depression). To reach diagnosis, psychiatrists used clinical interview based on DSM-IV criteria, interview with family and friends, previous medical documentation, and Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety. An independent psychologist used a structured psychological interview, Mississippi CR-PTSD scale, Watson's PTSD criteria, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-version 201, and trauma questionnaire based on the Harvard Questionnaire. Results. Out of 402 soldiers, 13.9% did not meet the criteria for PTSD or other psychiatric diagnosis, 61.9% met the criteria for comorbid diagnoses, and 24.2% for PTSD only. The PTSD group with depression did not differ from PTSD-only group in combat experience, number of traumatic events, age, length of employment, sick leave, education, or marital status (chi-square test, p=0.121-0.672). The two groups differed in pre-trauma factors, such as mental disturbances before combat experiences (p=0.003), positive family history of psychiatric illness (p=0.008), primary major depression (p=0.012), and the number of hospital admissions (p=0.002). Conclusion. Different assessment methods in expert examination of combat-experienced soldiers with PTSD for compensation-related purposes are needed to establish the final diagnosis and avoid possibility of factitious disorder or malingering. Combat ability assessment should include assessment of previous psychiatric disturbances of soldiers and their families.

Peer victimization in the form of bullying is a chronic social stressor experienced by many humans during development. Exposure to bullying has been associated with a variety of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Participants pre-selected for the presence or absence of a history of being bullied were brought into a laboratory and placed in a stressful situation. Blood pressure, heart rate, and salivary cortisol levels were measured before the introduction of the stressor (Time 1), at the end of the stressor (Time 2), and after its removal (Time 3). Men with a history of exposure to frequent bullying showed blunted blood pressure responses at Time 2 compared to control men. Bullied and Non-bullied women did not show any differences in any of the measures. Men and women in both groups showed an increase in heart rate in response to the stressor. There were no significant differences in salivary cortisol levels between Bullied and Non-bullied participants. However, salivary cortisol levels and systolic blood pressure were lower in Bullied male participants who reported having no feelings of anger about their experience compared to controls and those who did report anger. These data show altered sympathetic responses to stress in men with a history of victimization as well as suggesting long-term effects on the HPA axis in the most affected individuals.

The authors investigated 3 aspects of the learned helplessness (LH) phenomenon: the induction of helplessness in humans by a new instrumental task, the effects of a therapy technique that relies on direct retroactive reevaluation of the helplessness experience, and the role of personality characteristics in both helplessness induction and therapy. The sample consisted of 92 Turkish Bogazifi University undergraduates, 42 men and 50 women. The authors exposed 2 experimental groups to an LH induction by presenting them with an unsolvable maze task; 1 group received therapy afterward, and the other group did not. There were also 2 control groups: a group that received only a solvable version of 'he maze and another group that received no treatment. Before the experimental procedure, all participants completed the Turkish version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (FFI). The authors evaluated picture-rating and anagram-solving performances to differentiate the cognitive and emotional deficits of LH. Results of the factorial analyses of variance and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test supported the success of both the helplessness induction and the therapy technique. Although no significant gender differences were found in the effects of the helplessness-induction and therapy procedures, correlation analyses revealed that individual differences, particularly in the interaction between gender and personality characteristics, can have an important impact on LH and on the capacity to benefit from therapy.

The psychoanalytic understanding of suicide has greatly expanded in the past 30 years, and the older therapeutic approach has been modified. Although the turning of murder on the self inferred by Freud 90 years ago remains a cornerstone, current practice concentrates on the identification of a precipitating event, the escalation of intolerable painful affect that the patient cannot moderate, the self-perception of helplessness, the evolution of hopelessness as a secondary affect, increasing fantasies of suicide as a means of escape, and ego regression (self-deconstruction), leading progressively to suicide. Recent clinical research, advances in the study of cognition, and neurobiological studies have contributed to the reorientation and enrichment of the psychoanalytic perspective on suicide. The treatment of a university student who had fallen into a suicide crisis is discussed from the psychoanalytic point of view, and evidence for the efficacy of this treatment is reviewed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 62: 223–234, 2006.

The aim of this study was to investigate how individuals;who had been victims of school bullying;perceived their bullying experiences and how these had affected them;and to generate a grounded theory of being a victim of bullying at school. Twenty-one individuals;who all had prior experiences of being bullied in school for more than one year;were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by methods from grounded theory. The research identified a basic process of victimising in school bullying;which consisted of four phases: (a) initial attacks;(b) double victimising;(c) bullying exit and (d) after-effects of bullying. Double victimising refers to a process in which there was an interplay between external victimising and internal victimising. Acts of harassment were repeatedly directed at the victims from their social environment at school – a social process that constructed and repeatedly confirmed their victim role in the class or the group. This external victimising affected the victims and initiated an internal victimising;which meant that they internalised the socially constructed victim-image and acted upon this image;which in turn often supported the bullies’ agenda and confirmed the socially constructed victim-image. The findings also indicate the possible positive effect of changing the social environment.

Nondepressed and depressed university students and nondepressed and depressed university students being treated at a university counseling service were administered the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Subjects were then tested on the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Procedure (a measure of interpersonal problem-solving ability) and the anagram task used in the investigations of learned helplessness (a measure of impersonal problem-solving ability). All subjects were administered the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry version of the Vocabulary subscale of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. A significant negative correlation was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability, while only anxiety was correlated with anagram performance. Differences between groups were found only in interpersonal problem-solving performance. Nondepressed students performed significantly better than the other three groups, while depressed counselees obtained the lowest scores on the interpersonal measures. Finally, no relationship was found between performance on the anagram task and performance on the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Procedure. The results are consistent with predictions generated by interpersonal theories of depression, but they raise questions about the validity of the learned helplessness model as an analogue of clinical depression.

Dogs which had 1st learned to panel press in a harness in order to escape shock subsequently showed normal acquisition of escape/ avoidance behavior in a shuttle box. In contrast, yoked, inescapable shock in the harness produced profound interference with subsequent escape responding in the shuttle box. Initial experience with escape in the shuttle box led to enhanced panel pressing during inescapable shock in the harness and prevented interference with later responding in the shuttle box. Inescapable shock in the harness and failure to escape in the shuttle box produced interference with escape responding after a 7-day rest. These results were interpreted as supporting a learned "helplessness" explanation of interference with escape responding: Ss failed to escape shock in the shuttle box following inescapable shock in the harness because they had learned that shock termination was independent of responding.

Overshadowing: a silver lining to a dark cloud in horse 9 training McLean A How can we use learning theory for aiding the training of 10 horses: Habituation and Positive Reinforcement Waran NK, Andrews L, Redmund A Addition of positive reinforcement enhances learning a 11 frightening task (but only for the frightened horses) Bauson L, Heleski C Poll-flexion does not induce hypoxia in unridden ponies while 12 trotting De Rantere D, Schauvliege S, Odberg FO, Deprez, P, Gasthuys F An innovative approach to equitation foundation training 13 (backing the horse) within an automated horse walker may reduce conflict behavior in the horse Murphy J Welfare implications for the competition horse outside of the 14 training arena Houpt K Investigating cribbing and weaving behavior in horses in 15 Michigan Wickens C, Heleski C, Bursian S, Clark K Group housing with automatic feeding systems: implications 16 for behavior and horse welfare Gieling E, Cox M, VanDierendonck MC Transfer of nervousness from competition rider to the horse 17 Von Borstel, UU, Ducan IJH, Shoveller AK, Millman ST, Keeling LJ Assessing the rider's seat and horse's behavior: difficulties 18 and perspectives Blokhuis MZ, Hartmann E, Aronsson A, Van Reenen KG, Keeling L Horse temperament and riding performances 19 Visser EK, Zetterqvist-Blokhuis M, Blokhuis HJ, Van Reenen CG Different expectations between producers (vendors) and 20 purchasers may lead to wastage and welfare concerns for the horse Hennessy K, Quinn K, Murphy J Paedomorphosis: a novel explanation of physical and 21 behavioral differences in horses? Goodwin D, Levine M, McGreevy P Tight tendon/brushing boots: Lower limb protection or 22 innovative lower limb sensitization training technique in the show jumping horse? Murphy J Preliminary investigations into the ethological relevance 23 of round-yard training with horses Warren-Smith A, McGreevy P Impact of riding in Rollkür-posture on welfare and fear of 24 performance horses vonBorstel U, Merkies K, Shoveller A, Duncan I, Keeling L, Millman S Posters: Anatomical variation of the equine thoracolumbar dorsal 25 surface makes effective saddle fitting far from simple Murphy J, Hennessy K

Overshadowing: a silver lining to a dark cloud in horse 9 training McLean A How can we use learning theory for aiding the training of 10 horses: Habituation and Positive Reinforcement Waran NK, Andrews L, Redmund A Addition of positive reinforcement enhances learning a 11 frightening task (but only for the frightened horses) Bauson L, Heleski C Poll-flexion does not induce hypoxia in unridden ponies while 12 trotting De Rantere D, Schauvliege S, Odberg FO, Deprez, P, Gasthuys F An innovative approach to equitation foundation training 13 (backing the horse) within an automated horse walker may reduce conflict behavior in the horse Murphy J Welfare implications for the competition horse outside of the 14 training arena Houpt K Investigating cribbing and weaving behavior in horses in 15 Michigan Wickens C, Heleski C, Bursian S, Clark K Group housing with automatic feeding systems: implications 16 for behavior and horse welfare Gieling E, Cox M, VanDierendonck MC Transfer of nervousness from competition rider to the horse 17 Von Borstel, UU, Ducan IJH, Shoveller AK, Millman ST, Keeling LJ Assessing the rider's seat and horse's behavior: difficulties 18 and perspectives Blokhuis MZ, Hartmann E, Aronsson A, Van Reenen KG, Keeling L Horse temperament and riding performances 19 Visser EK, Zetterqvist-Blokhuis M, Blokhuis HJ, Van Reenen CG Different expectations between producers (vendors) and 20 purchasers may lead to wastage and welfare concerns for the horse Hennessy K, Quinn K, Murphy J Paedomorphosis: a novel explanation of physical and 21 behavioral differences in horses? Goodwin D, Levine M, McGreevy P Tight tendon/brushing boots: Lower limb protection or 22 innovative lower limb sensitization training technique in the show jumping horse? Murphy J Preliminary investigations into the ethological relevance 23 of round-yard training with horses Warren-Smith A, McGreevy P Impact of riding in Rollkür-posture on welfare and fear of 24 performance horses vonBorstel U, Merkies K, Shoveller A, Duncan I, Keeling L, Millman S Posters: Anatomical variation of the equine thoracolumbar dorsal 25 surface makes effective saddle fitting far from simple Murphy J, Hennessy K

A community development program was implemented in the communities providing labor to a timber-producing company in a rural area of South Africa. The program was preceded by a survey that compared the life-styles and residential and work histories of residents in the different communities. The survey indicated that the degree of dependency on the company for facilities and services affected labor turnover and job advancement. Furthermore, community affairs were disorganized and, on average, income levels were below the Household Subsistence Level calculated for the area. The community development program was assessed over a 12-month period. Participation in community affairs by the local residents increased considerably during this time. This increased level of participation is interpreted within the framework of an attributional analysis of the learned helplessness theory. Aspects of the theory appear to require modification and reformulation if they are to be applied successfully to a community setting.

Exercise can prevent the development of stressrelated mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect, however, remain unknown. Recently, researchers have used animal models to begin to elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying the protective effects of physical activity. Using the behavioral consequences of uncontrollable stress or ''learned helplessness'' as an animal analog of depression-and anxiety-like behaviors in rats, we are investigating factors that could be important for the antidepressant and anxiolytic properties of exercise (i.e., wheel running). The current review focuses on the following: (1) the effect of exercise on the behavioral consequences of uncontrollable stress and the implications of these effects on the specificity of the ''learned helplessness'' animal model; (2) the neurocircuitry of learned helplessness and the role of serotonin; and (3) exercise-associated neural adaptations and neural plasticity that may contribute to the stress-resistant brain. Identifying the mechanisms by which exercise prevents learned helplessness could shed light on the complex neurobiology of depression and anxiety and potentially lead to novel strategies for the prevention of stress-related mood disorders.

The authors build an integrated model of the process by which academic sexual harassment undermines women's well-being; also examined is harasser power as a potential moderator of this process. Data from 1,455 college women suggest that sexual harassment experiences are associated with increased psychological distress, which then relates to lower academic satisfaction, greater physical illness, and greater disordered eating. The cumulative effect is greater disengagement from the academic environment, which in turn relates to performance decline (i.e., lower grades). Regardless of how frequently the harassment occurred, academic satisfaction was lower when the harassment came from higher-status individuals (i.e., faculty, staff, or administrators). At the same time, harassment was equally detrimental to mental health, regardless of who perpetrated it. The article concludes with implications for theory, research, and intervention.

We present a qualitative study, undertaken over a period of nine months, of older people facing the challenges of learning to use interactive technology, specifically personal computers (PCs) and the internet. We examine the range of causal explanations (attributions) voiced by the group in accounting for their difficulties with it. A discourse analysis of these data reveals some factors (anxiety, age-related issues, being too busy to learn and the need for a purpose for the new tools) that support the work of other researchers, while other themes (issues around alienation, identity and agency) deepen understanding of this domain. The implications of the results for how we approach understanding the difficulties faced by older people in this context are discussed.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether children's achievement strategies would predict the development of their reading and mathematical skills during the first school year, or whether it is rather these skills that predict the changes in their achievement strategies. One-hundred and five 6-to 7-year-old children were examined three times during their first year of primary school: in each measurement, their self-reported achievement strategies were assessed, and their reading and mathematical skills were rated by their classroom teacher. Their overall cognitive competence was also measured before entry into school. The results showed that the use of maladaptive achievement strategies hampered the children's subsequent improvement in reading and mathematical skills. By contrast, children's skills did not have any impact on their subsequent use of achievement strategies. 

We demonstrate that the phloroglucinol derivative hyperforin is not only the major lipophilic chemical constituent of the medicinal plant Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort) but also a potent uptake inhibitor of serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), GABA and L-Glutamate with IC~O values of about 0.05-0.10 &ml (5-HT, NA, DA, GABA) and about 0.5 @nl (L-glutamate) in synaptosomal preparations. Furthermore, potencies of two different hypericum extracts in two conventional pharmacological paradigms useful for the detection of antidepressants (behavioral despair, learned helplessness), closely correlate with their hyperforin contents. In addition, most till now known neuropharmacological properties of the clinically used hypericum extracts can also be demonstrated with pure hyperforin. It appears, therefore, that this non-nitrogenous constituent is a possible major active principle responsible for the observed clinical efficacies of the extract as an antidepressant and that it could also be a starting point for drug discovery projects engaged in the search of psychoactive drugs with novel mode of action.

My commentary takes up two points raised by Drs. Torres and Bergner: first, the social context in which humiliation takes place and the way such behavior is normalized; and second, the question of face, and in this context, the loss of face and its impact on identity. For me, the key concern in relation to humiliation is not so much loss of entitlement status, but a loss of identity. Humiliation is a fundamental attack on narrative identity, but I will make the (perhaps uncomfortable) suggestion that not everyone is humiliate-able and that, to some extent, one may be able to choose the extent of one's injuries through loss of face.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition poorly understood in terms of etiology and treatment by both physicians and patients. This condition of "uncertainty of illness" was examined as a variable involved in the adjustment of FMS patients, relating it to their depression, anxiety, affect, and coping styles. Fifty-one communityresiding FMS patients provided self-report information on subsets of adjustment variables. Both cross-sectional and more dynamic longitudinal analyses showed that illness uncertainty was significantly associated with anxiety, negative affect, and avoidant and passive coping. Its positive relationship with depression was eliminated when a control variable, pain helplessness, was included as a covariate. Longitudinally, illness uncertainty interacted with interpersonally stressful daily events in predicting reports of reduced positive affect, suggesting that illness uncertainty acts as a risk factor for affective disturbances during stressful times. Implications of these results for therapeutic interventions are discussed.

The mechanism of antidepressant action, at the cellular level, is not clearly understood. It has been reported that chronic antidepressant treatment leads to an up-regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA levels in the hippocampus, and that physical activity (voluntary running) enhances this effect. We wished to investigate whether BDNF expression brought about by these interventions may overcome deficits caused by acute stress, and might impact behavior in an animal model. In this report, we have tested the hypothesis that the combination of the antidepressant, tranylcypromine, and physical exercise could lead to decreased neurotrophin deficits and enhanced swimming time in animals that have been forced to swim in an inescapable water tank. Rats were either treated with tranylcypromine, engaged in voluntary running, or both for one week. After these treatments, the animals underwent a two-day forced swimming procedure. BDNF mRNA levels were significantly depressed in untreated animals subjected to forced swimming. Animals that either underwent prior activity or received antidepressant showed BDNF mRNA levels restored to baseline. Animals receiving the combined intervention showed an increase in hippocampal BDNF mRNA well above baseline. Swimming time during a five-minute test was significantly enhanced in animals receiving the combined intervention over untreated animals. Swimming time was not significantly enhanced over that of animals receiving antidepressant alone, however. Enhanced swimming time correlated with increased levels of BDNF mRNA in one hippocampal sub-region (CA4-hilus). These results suggest that the combination of exercise and antidepressant treatment may have significant neurochemical, and possibly behavioral, effects. In addition, these results support the possibility that the enhancement of BDNF expression may be an important element in the clinical response to antidepressant treatment. The induction of BDNF expression by activity/pharmacological treatment combinations could represent an important intervention for further study, to potentially improve depression treatment and management.

This article reviews the course of development of research on a currently popular explanatory approach to dysfunctional behavior, the learned helplessness analysis. The early history is prominent in this review as it reflects the inspirations of Richard L. Solomon, a scholar who fostered the resurgence of psychologists' interests in Pavlovian conditioning in the 1950s and 1960s. Current research is characterized as having four separate themes: elaboration of "symptoms," elucidating the role of fear, explicit modeling, and extensions involving attributional constructs.

Aim of the study: Marsilea minuta Linn. (Marsileaceae) has been referred in Indian traditional medicine system (Ayurveda) for the treatment of insomnia and other mental disorders. Marsiline isolated from Marsilea minuta was reported to have sedative and anticonvulsant property. The ethanol extract of Marsilea minuta was standardised for marsiline (1.15%, w/w) and studied for its antidepressant activity. Materials and methods: Antidepressant activity was studied using forced swimming test (FST), tail suspension test (TST), learned helplessness test (LHT) and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) induced head twitches response in rodents. Standardised extract of Marsilea minuta in doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day were administered orally for three consecutive days and evaluated on day 3, 1 h after the last dose treatment. Imipramine (15 mg/kg/day, i.p.) was used as the standard drug. Neurochemical mechanism of antidepressant activity was elucidated by using radioligand receptor binding assays for 5-HT2A and benzodiazepine receptors in rat frontal cortex. Results: Immobility time in FST and TST was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced by ethanol extract of Marsilea minuta treated animals. A decrease in number of escape failures in LHT was also observed in Marsilea minuta treated rats. Head twitch response induced by 5-HTP was significantly attenuated by Marsilea minuta (400 mg/kg, p.o.) and imipramine showing the involvement of serotonergic system. This effect was corroborated with radioligand receptor binding study where Marsilea minuta (400 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly (P < 0.05) down regulated 5-HT2A receptor in frontal cortex, whereas, no marked effect was observed for benzodiazepine receptor. Conclusion: The antidepressant effect exhibited by Marsilea minuta extract may be due to its effect on 5-HT2A density in rat frontal cortex.