When Students Stop Trying: Learned Helplessness and Rewards

UPI Study › Courses › Educational Psychology › Free lessons › Lesson 6.11 Free with a free account

When Students Stop Trying: Learned Helplessness and Rewards

Educational Psychology · Chapter 6: Motivation, Goals, and the Drive to LearnSection 6.11 · lesson 58 of 1008 min · free with a free account

← Taking Charge: Self-Regulated Learning and Teacher ExpectationsNext lesson: How Do We Measure How Smart Someone Is? Intelligence Methods →

Earn 3 college credits for Educational PsychologyRecommended for credit by NCCRS · Psychology 120 · self-paced · one payment, lifetime access
Enroll in Educational Psychology · $250 →Download the syllabus (PDF)

In this lesson

A rational adaptation, and the five moves that reverse it.

  • Explain learned helplessness and why it generalizes
  • Identify the attribution pattern underlying helplessness
  • Contrast fixed and growth mindset responses to challenge
  • Apply recovery strategies that restore the action-outcome link

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,057 words). Read along, or search it.

Motivation, Goals, and the Drive to Learn

When Students Stop Trying: Learned Helplessness and Rewards

A student writes I don't know on every problem, without reading them. That looks like the purest form of not trying. It is usually something else, with a name and a research literature. This section covers learned helplessness. We will look at where the concept came from, and how it develops in school. Then at the attribution pattern underneath it. Then Dweck's work on fixed and growth mindsets. And the second hazard in this chapter, over-reliance on extrinsic rewards. We will end with five recovery strategies. All five of which are doing the same underlying thing.

Origins

When Outcomes Stop Tracking Actions

Learned helplessness was first described by Martin Seligman and colleagues. In animal research, during the nineteen sixties and seventies. It refers to a passive, unresponsive state. One that develops after repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events. The mechanism is precise, and it is worth stating carefully. When organisms repeatedly experience outcomes independent of their actions, they develop a generalized expectation of uncontrollability. And then they cease trying. Including in situations where control is now perfectly possible. That last clause is what makes this a psychological phenomenon. The environment has changed. The expectation has not. And the expectation is now doing the deciding.

In Students

What It Looks Like, and Why It Spreads

In students, learned helplessness has a recognizable presentation. Giving up. Declining to attempt problems at all. A pervasive sense of futility. And depression. But the most damaging property is that it generalizes. A student who develops helplessness in mathematics may come to feel helpless in academic domains more broadly. The expectation does not stay where it was formed. Which means an untreated helplessness in one subject is not a contained problem. It is a belief that travels.

How It Develops

Failure Disconnected From Effort

How does it develop in a classroom specifically? It develops when students repeatedly fail on tasks that feel unrelated to their effort or strategy. The failure has to feel disconnected from what they did. Three feedback conditions produce that disconnection. Feedback that is absent. Feedback that is inconsistent. And feedback that is purely evaluative, without being instructive. A grade with no explanation is all three at once. Two groups are at elevated risk. Students from backgrounds of chronic academic failure. And students exposed to overly critical or dismissive feedback.

The Cognitive Part

Attribution Theory Explains the Belief

Attribution theory explains the cognitive part of helplessness. Helpless students make a very specific kind of attribution for failure. Stable. Internal. And uncontrollable. I'm just not smart enough. Look at what that sentence does across all three dimensions. Internal, so it is about me. Stable, so it will still be true next time. Uncontrollable, so there is nothing to do about it. That combination extinguishes motivation before the next opportunity to try even arrives. The decision not to attempt was already made. On evidence the student finds entirely convincing.

Key Idea

A Rational Adaptation

Here is the key idea of this section, and it is a reframe. Learned helplessness is not a character flaw. It is a rational adaptation. An adaptation to an environment where effort has not produced results. Historically, and repeatedly. Given that history, not trying is the correct inference. Which tells you what recovery requires. You must systematically demonstrate that effort does produce outcomes. That effort, strategy and persistence actually work. And that means two things have to change together. Student beliefs, and the instructional environment. Changing the belief alone leaves it to be contradicted next week.

In Practice

The Student Who Writes I Don't Know

Here is a teacher treating helplessness rather than the behavior. A student in a remedial math class writes I don't know on every problem. He does not attempt any of the solutions. She does not accept that as laziness. She identifies learned helplessness. From years of repeated failure, without effective instruction. So she designs a scaffolded curriculum of extremely small success steps. And she celebrates each success verbally, and specifically. She also teaches him an explicit script to use. I don't understand this yet. Let me try a different strategy. Within a grading period, the student attempts every problem. Not solves. Attempts. That was the outcome that mattered.

Dweck

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

Carol Dweck's research addresses the belief underneath helplessness. Her work is on implicit theories of intelligence. Students with a fixed mindset believe intelligence is stable and inherited. You either have it, or you do not. For them, challenges are threatening. Because failure reveals the limit of a fixed ability. Students with a growth mindset believe ability is malleable. It can be developed through effort, strategy and guidance. For them, challenges are opportunities to grow. And the research findings follow directly. Growth mindset students persist longer, and use deeper strategies. They recover more quickly from failure, and achieve more over time.

Mindset Can Change

Brief Interventions, Measurable Effects

Here is the critical finding about mindset. It can be changed. Brief interventions produce measurable improvements. Interventions that teach students about neural plasticity. And about the malleability of intelligence. Measurable improvements in both motivation and achievement. That is an unusual result, and worth appreciating. A short intervention rarely moves achievement at all. This one does, because of what it operates on. It is changing a belief, rather than teaching a skill. The belief was doing a great deal of work, invisibly. Changing it releases capacity that was already there.

The Other Hazard

Over-Reliance on Extrinsic Rewards

The second hazard in this chapter is over-reliance on rewards. Consider what happens when reward and punishment become primary. The primary regulatory mechanism for student behavior. Students develop engagement that is entirely contingent. Contingent on the presence of those rewards. So removing the reward collapses engagement. That is the immediate cost, and it is the visible one. The delayed cost is more serious. Students who develop a reward-seeking orientation may lack something. The intrinsic motivation and self-regulatory capacity for lifelong learning. And the transition from a reward-managed classroom to adult autonomy is especially hard for students who never developed internal reasons.

Recovery

Five Strategies

Five recovery strategies close this chapter. First, redesign tasks to guarantee early success. Then increase the challenge gradually. Second, provide explicit attribution retraining. Link outcomes to effort and strategy, and not to ability. Third, teach growth mindset using neuroscience evidence. Evidence about brain plasticity, which students find persuasive. Fourth, fade external rewards. While building intrinsic interest through relevance and choice. Fifth, fix the feedback. Make it consistent, accurate, and informational. So students can see how their own actions produce outcomes. And notice what all five of those have in common. Each restores the link between action and outcome. That link is what helplessness destroyed, and rebuilding it is the treatment.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) is a self-paced online course of 100 video lessons in 11 chapters, from memory, conditioning and child development to motivation, individual differences, assessment, instruction and educational technology. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.

Every lesson transcript is free on pages like this one, and the videos are free with a free UPI Study account. Enrolling adds a practice quiz after each lesson, the graded work and final exam that earn the credit, lifetime access, and an official transcript on completion. UPI Study has helped over 130,000 students with college credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Enroll now → Course details Download the syllabus All Psychology and social science courses Every course with PRO →

Why take it here

Why students take Educational Psychology with UPI Study

How people learn, and how to teach themEducational Psychology explains how students learn, develop and stay motivated, and how teachers assess and support them. It is a standard course in education and teaching degrees and a common psychology elective.
Credit at a fraction of the priceThe same 3 credits can cost $750 or more at a US college. Here it is one payment, self-paced, with lifetime access.
Finish your degree soonerTransfer credits reduce the courses you still owe, so you can graduate earlier or lighten a heavy semester.
Strengthen an applicationA completed college-level course on an official transcript shows admissions and scholarship committees you can do the work.
Study on your own scheduleNo start dates, no deadlines. Watch the lessons, practice, and take the final when you are ready.
130,000+students helped with college creditsACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Where the credit goes

Universities that work with NCCRS

Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Thomas Edison State UniversityThomas Edison State UniversitySigned partnerUniversity of the PeopleUniversity of the PeopleSigned partnerCharter Oak State CollegeCharter Oak State CollegeSigned partnerStrayer UniversityStrayer UniversitySigned partnerColumbia Southern UniversityColumbia Southern UniversitySigned partnerIndiana TechIndiana TechSigned partnerPenn StatePenn StateWorks with NCCRSSouthern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire UniversityWorks with NCCRSSUNYSUNYWorks with NCCRS +many more cooperating universitiesFind my college →

Find my college → Not listed? Ask Athena in the corner of this page, or book a 15-minute call.

FAQ

Questions students ask us

About When Students Stop Trying: Learned Helplessness and Rewards

What is learned helplessness?
Learned helplessness is a passive state that develops after repeated exposure to uncontrollable negative events, first described by Martin Seligman and colleagues in animal research in the 1960s and 1970s. When outcomes repeatedly seem unrelated to their actions, people come to expect a lack of control and stop trying, even once control is possible. In students it appears as giving up, refusing to attempt problems and a sense of futility.
What causes learned helplessness in students?
It develops when students repeatedly fail on tasks where failure feels unrelated to their effort or strategy. Feedback that is absent, inconsistent or purely evaluative, such as a grade with no explanation, creates that disconnection. Helpless students tend to explain failure as internal, stable and uncontrollable, as in "I'm just not smart enough," which leaves no reason to try again and can spread to other subjects.
What happens when teachers rely too heavily on extrinsic rewards?
Students' engagement becomes contingent on the rewards, so removing the reward collapses engagement. That is the immediate, visible cost. The delayed cost is more serious: students who develop a reward-seeking orientation may lack the intrinsic motivation and self-regulatory capacity needed for lifelong learning, and the move from a reward-managed classroom to adult autonomy is especially hard for students who never developed internal reasons to learn.
How can teachers help a student overcome learned helplessness?
Recovery means restoring the link between action and outcome. Teachers can design tasks that guarantee early success and then raise the challenge gradually, retrain attributions toward effort and strategy, teach growth mindset using evidence about brain plasticity, fade external rewards while building interest, and give consistent, informational feedback. Learned helplessness is a rational adaptation to past failure, not a character flaw.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Educational Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
UPI Study has signed partner agreements with universities such as Thomas Edison State University, University of the People and Charter Oak State College, and works with universities such as Penn State, SNHU and SUNY. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Use "Find my college" on this page to check yours.
How long does Educational Psychology take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 100 lessons total about 15 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
How are the exams done?
Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
How do my credits reach my college?
When the course shows 100% complete, request the official transcript from your dashboard. It is sent to the college you name, and you can send it to more than one. Check your college first with "Find my college" on this page, or ask Athena.

Ready for the full course? Earn 3 credits in Educational Psychology.

100 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

Enroll in Educational Psychology →Download the syllabusEvery course with PRO →
Educational Psychology
3 credits · NCCRSEnroll →