学習性無力感形成過程における随伴性認知の強度と判断の確実さ

抄録

When a person experiences repeatedly a noncontingency between his/her behavior and outcome,learned helplessness (LH) is formed. Past studies have predicted that LH is not formed in a straight formed manner, but rather the behavioral inclination drops down after it has once gone up the first stage. The purpose of study I was to positively ascertain the process of the formation of LH by way of making subjects (Ss) perform over a long period a pursuit and shooting task that had been programmed into a computer so as not to allow Ss to be successful.In addition, the cognitive style of these Ss that had been exposed to noncontingency was examined in terms of the following two factors. One was "the strength of a perceived contingency"-(a); a probability of his/her success. The other was "the certainty of judgement"-(b); the certainty of the judgement for (a). Based of this; the cognitive style in the case of being exposed to the noncontingency was examined. As a result, it was proved that the process of the formation of LH made an inverted U-shaped curve, and it became clear that the strength of the perceived contingency was low and its judgement was very certain for the occurring of LH. Moreover, it was though that if the cognitive style of Ss were changed, it might be possible to delay the occurring of LH. With that in mind, in study II, an experimental situation was set up so as to cause in Ss an exploratory behavior with regard to the task. The effects of being given much information to perform the task were than examined. The results supported the hypothesis. A decline in the behavioral inclination was not observed even in the latter term after being exposed to much noncontingency. As a result then, one clue to restrain and prevent LH was given.