Learned helplessness as experimenter-induced failure and its alleviation with attentional redeployment.

When it is recognized that laboratory studies of with huma n subjects are basically studies of experimenter-induced failure, the relevance of numerous previous studies of failure induction and of the theoretical models that generated them becomes apparent. The present study adopted the assump tion that cognitive interference associated wit h anxiety is the source of the performance decrement s observe d i n studies . For susceptibl e subjects, failure experiences elicit a task-irrelevant, negative focus on self. As predicted from such a model, attentional redeployment in the form of an imagin ation exercise eliminated the impairment o f performance that typically follow s a induction. However, it was found that the effectiveness of the exercise depended on provision of a rationale to the subjects. As predicted, it was also found that subjects who received the exercise and rationale in the absence of a failure induction became debilitated, although this effect wa s only marginally significant. The results are discussed in terms of a cognitiveattentional interpretation of studies, and the likely role of demand characteristics i s noted. The experimental manipulations typically employed i n helplessnes s studie s with human subjects reliably produce impairment of subsequent task performanc e (Abramson, Seligman , & Teasdale, 1978) . However, Buchwald , Coyne , an d Col e (1978) argued that multiple meanings given to the term learned helplessness hav e obscured problems in the model's explanation for this impairment. The term has been simultaneously applie d t o (a) any demonstration o f impaired performance by subjects exposed to such a manipulation, (b) the specific underlying cognitive and motivational deficits postulated by the model, and (c ) the hypothetical expectation tha t reinforcement i s not contingen t upon response. Consequently , investigators have