AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness is composed of three components: contingency, cognition, and behavior. Contingency is the outcome of a person’s actions; that is the result experienced due to a person’s behavior.

Detailed explanation-2: -Learned helplessness, the failure to escape shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events, was discovered half a century ago. Seligman and Maier (1967) theorized that animals learned that outcomes were independent of their responses-that nothing they did mattered – and that this learning undermined trying to escape.

Detailed explanation-3: -According to Seligman (2002), the three pillars of study of positive psychology are: positive emotions, positive traits (virtues, personal strengths and skills) and the positive institutions that facilitate the development of these emotions and traits.

Detailed explanation-4: -Martin Seligman’s most famous work may be his research on the theory of learned helplessness. “Learned helplessness is a term specifying an organism learning to accept and endure unpleasant stimuli, and unwilling to avoid them, even when it is avoidable.” (Seligman & Maier, 1967)