Learned Helplessness: Performance as a Function of Task Significance

Summary In a study based on the contention that response decrement may be interpreted in terms of learned helplessness only if Ss are aware that their poor performance is due to factors beyond their control (N = 60 male and female high school students), awareness was manipulated by varying “task significance” within the learned helplessness paradigm. Evidence was provided for the hypothesis that Test Task performance would vary inversely with task significance: i. e., the degree to which Ss perceived their competence to be reflected in low scores on the (unsolvable) Training Task. Compared to the Control group, Experimental; (a) solved significantly fewer Test Task anagrams of moderate difficulty, and (b) showed markedly decreased confidence and increased anxiety about their performance, which they attributed to uncontrollable personal characteristics. These findings supported the assertion that learned helplessness has been inadequately substantiated as the explanation of the results of several previous studies.