Annotated Links
Definition and references.
Depression A transcript of the ABC Radio International program recorded in 1994 in which: respected American Psychologist Martin Seligman discussed the rise in the rate of depression in the last 30 years. He blames among other things the rise in individualism in our society and the self esteem movement. He discusses various treatments, including the selective use of optimism as a form of psychological immunisation.
Overview Brief overview of learned helplessness research and applications.
The Penn Resiliency Program Based on Ellis' Adversity-Consequences-Beliefs (ABC) model and the cognitive-behavioral theories of depression by Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis, and Martin Seligman, elementary and middle school children learn to detect automatic thoughts, evaluate the accuracy of these thoughts, and to consider alternatives to challenge negative beliefs. Includes an overview of the program, references, current projects, and a summary of research findings using the program.
Assignments, Exercises, and Activities
Electronic Texts
Examples and Illustrations
Displaced Gulf Oil Workers: Learned Helplessness, Stress, and Depression Michael Britt, of ``The Psych Files'', found and annotated this article from the New York Times, June 16, 2010, on how the oil spill in the Gulf is taking a toll on the psyches of the workers.
Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes Extensive overview of learned helplessness, depression, and related theories including graphs and charts from the University of Plymouth, U.K.
Slide Presentations
Tests, Measures, and Scales
What’s Your Explanatory Style? The ASQ and other measures of Explanatory Style are not freely available to use with your class, but Oprah magazine ran this 12-item quiz to give readers a sense of their attributional style in August of 2004. Each of the possible responses tap the three dimensions of internal-external, stable-unstable, and global-specific. While not a psychometrically sound measure of explanatory style, it will give students a sense of their own tendencies and a concrete illustration of optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles.
Audio and Video
Learned Helplessness In this video clip Charisse Nixon, Developmental Psychologist at Penn State Erie, discusses the phenomenon of learned helplessness and applies it to the social realm of teenagers. (Shot by Mark Steensland) (6 minutes, 55 seconds).