Question

Experience with unavoidable negative stimuli can lead to a particular deficit in avoidance learning called ________, in which an organism, exposed to uncontrollable aversive stimuli, learns that it has no control over negative outcomes.

Answer 1

Answer:

The given blank can be filled with learned helplessness.

Explanation:

In psychology, a mental state known as learned helplessness refers to a condition in which an individual is forced to cope with aversive stimuli, that is, the stimuli, which are unpleasant or painful. The individual becomes unwilling or loses the tendency to avoid succeeding encounters with those stimuli, even if they are escapable, generally because of the fact that he or she has learned that the situation cannot be controlled.  

Loneliness, depression, phobias, anxiety, and shyness all can be exacerbated by learned helplessness. For example, an individual who feels shy in social conditions may ultimately start to assume that there is nothing, which he or she can do to suppress the symptoms.  

Answer 2

Answer:

Learned helplessness

Explanation:

If one experiences unfavorable situations for a long time, one feels helpless to deal with them. Past experience shows that there is no way to change the situation. Scientists, after a series of laboratory animal studies, subjected to electric shocks from which they could not escape, concluded that they learned that their actions made no difference and were unable to react to escape abuse. After some time, even having escape, the animals became passive because they learned that it was impossible to escape. This passive behavior has become a habit and is known as learned helplessness.

In other words, learned helplessness occurs in a situation in which an organism exposed to uncontrollable aversive stimuli learns that it has no control over negative outcomes.