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【Abstract】Nowadays， many students in this fiercely competitive society feel stressed in their academic process. A portion of them suffer from a negative psychological symptom called learned helplessness， thus they are impeded by their attitude and mind state. This article aims to learn more about learned helplessness， and illustrate its impacts on the learning process. At the last part of this article， it will discuss the ways to prevent learned helplessness in academic process.
【Key words】learned helplessness; academic performance; attribution; negative emotion
【作者簡介】王佳音，福建师范大学外国语学院。
1.Background
In this modern society， people attach more and more significance to their psychological states. With more and more people having a tight schedule， people suffer from anxiety， depression and so on. Many people may have such experience that we have made a lot of efforts， but it seems that we can never achieve the result we expect. Therefore， we hold a pessimistic attitude towards life. Such symptom may have a bad impact on our learning process.
Learning is a complicated process which is closely connected with emotion， so it is impossible to learn something well without a good emotion control.
Nowadays， we can find that quantities of students who suffer from some negative emotions cannot do well in their studies. Highschool learning is one of the most important stages in people’s life. However， many mental problems would arise in students’ learning process， such as learned helplessness， low self-efficiency and negative attribution in their academic achievements. Learned helplessness is the most influential one which may trap students in vicious circle of learning.
Researches about learned helpless is quite important in learning process. In our country， the related researches are mainly theoretical ones introduced from abroad， and the researches are still not complete.
2. Introduction of learned helplessness
2.1 Definition of Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness is behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. It is characterized by the subjects’ acceptance of their powerlessness： discounting attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus， even when such alternatives are unambiguously presented. Upon exhibiting such behavior， the subject is said to have acquired learned helplessness.
2.2 Researches on Learned Helplessness “Learned helplessness” was first proposed by American psychologist Marty Seligman. In 1967， the psychologist and his colleagues conducted an experiment on dogs. He put dogs in the cage. The cage was connected with electricity， and there is a bell in the cage. When the bell was rang， the dogs would get electric shock. They couldn’t predict the electric shocks and they weren’t able to avoid it. After several times electric shocks， the dogs didn’t try to escape from the cage even if they could， and they just moaned until the electric shocks ended.
Later， Seligman and his colleagues conducted another experiment. The dogs were placed into a room with a short board in the middle to train their ability to avoid the electric shocking. In 10 seconds before the shocking was given， they can avoid the electric shocking.
The experiment results showed that it was easier for dogs in the controlled group to escape from the electric shocking， while the dogs in experimental group chose to bear the shocking and didn’t do anything to react to it. After doing the experiment， Seligman named this phenomenon as “learning helplessness”.
After the theory of “learned helplessness” was proposed， there is a popular trend in psychological field. Many psychologists had begun to study the causes and generation mechanism of learned helplessness. A lot of scholars also put forward plenty of hypothesis， which is practical in education field.
2.3 The Theories of Learned Helplessness
The generation mechanism is the focus of the researches on learned helplessness. There are four theories related to this phenomenon. In previous researches， some behaviorists held that learned helplessness is result from uncontrollable consequences led by environments. Attribution theory proposed that negative attribution method is the cause of learned helplessness. Cognition theory proposed that learned helplessness is caused by inconsistent information feedbacks with the solutions to the problems， and this may make people believe that their efforts are futile. The last one is achievement goal theory， this theory holds that individuals’ excessively pursuing high achievements can cause learned helplessness.
2.3.1 The Early Hypothesis of Learned Helplessness—Non-controllability of The Behavior Result
The early theories about learned helplessness is based on controllability. Participants know that the results cannot controlled by themselves， and this non-controllability will reduce their motivation greatly. In other word， the participants will gradually lose their motivation to make efforts because they know the result is out of control. When Seligman accounted for this phenomenon， he focused on the non-controllability and illustrated that learned helplessness is made of three connected aspects： first is the uncontrollable environment， second is adjoint cognition with which people view anything negatively， and third is self-abandon reactivity. When people come to this stage， they always hold a negative attitude towards everything and stay low self-esteemed and disappointed. Worse still， they have no desire and courage to change the current situation. In early researches， scientists also study the relationship between the learned helplessness and depression. Researches showed that when people suffer from something out of their control， they would become anxious， helpless. As a consequence， they begin to absorb in pessimism. However， people’s controllability can resumed by making efforts.
In addition， the researches of learned helpless add a new variable—expectance. The adjoint cognition have an impact on people’s opinion to their situation. The learned helplessness can damage people’s behavior， emotion and cognition. Nonetheless， with the development of psychology， this theory saw some limitations， and it couldn’t account for all psychological reactions under the uncontrollable situations.
2.3.2 The Attribution Theory of Learned Helplessness
In 1978， the psychologist Abramson and Seligman borrowed Wiener’s attribution theory， and revise the model of learned helplessness. This theory holds that the cause of learned helplessness is the wrong attribution of the bad result.
The scientists point out that the generation of learned helplessness is not the incident itself， but people’s attribution to the negative consequences. The attribution theory of learned helplessness has three dimensions： stable and unstable， internal and external， general and specific. If people attribute their failure to unstable factors， then they suffer from helplessness temporarily. But if people attribute their failure to some stable factors， such as personal abilities， then they may suffer from helplessness for quite a long time. The internal and specific attribution makes people feel helpless to one certain incident， while the external and general attribution makes people feel helpless to all the things to be done. If people always attribute their failure to the stable， internal and general factors， they can be helpless in most of situations. So to prevent and to adjust learned helplessness needs people have a proper attribution to the results of things they have done.
2.3.3 The cognition theory of learned helplessness
The cognition theory of learned helplessness is proposed by Sedek and Kofta. In the process of solving problems， if the task information is inconsistent with the result， then the problem-solving process will be viewed as invalid. The repeated invalid activities may exhaust people’s cognition， accompanied with the flaws of manipulation， people would lessen their motivation to a large extent. Thus， the generation of learned helplessness is companied with negative subjective perception. Sedek and Kofta discovered that the non-controllability of subjective cognition is more influential to people than the non-controllability of behaviors. The cognition theory of learned helplessness holds that the generation of learned helplessness is resulted from the failure to have a cognition schema of future behaviors， and this theory also proposed that the inconsistency of task information and the results is a key element of uncontrollable situation， and this element would lead to all of the symptoms of learned helpless. Chronical inconsistency of task information and the results can also cause deficiency of the emotion， such as depression， anxiety and so on.
2.3.4 The Achievement Goal Theory of Learned Helplessness
In 1986， the psychologist Dweck did a research and found that children with equal ability had different reaction when they were taking challenges. One group showed autonomy and the other showed a tendency of learned helplessness. When children with learned helplessness face difficulties or challenges， they tend to underestimate their abilities and showed negative attitudes towards the tasks. By contrast， children with autonomy behave more confidently than those with learned helplessness and low self-efficiency. This group of children believe that through their efforts， they can get success and solve the problems eventually.
The two different behaviors of children demonstrated that their motivations are different. Children with learned helplessness have a psychological mode of adapting low-leveled motivation， While the children with autonomy tend to pursue a learning goal and try to make progress. When they have tasks， their goal is not avoiding failure but learning something new and succeeding. They are not so afraid of failures like those with learned helplessness， because failures can help adjust learning strategies and make a new breakthrough in their problem-solving process.
3.The Relationship between Learned Helplessness and Academic Performance
Many psychologists devoted themselves to the researches of learned helplessness after Seligman proposed this psychological symptom. In recent years， more and more psychologists also combined learned helplessness with academic performance. Psychologists Sutherland and Singh focus their researches on the relationship between students’ negative learning habits and their academic failure. They deduced that learned helplessness play a role as intermedia in this vicious circle. Therefore， it is necessary to learn more about how is the learned helplessness formed in the learning process.
3.1 Causes of Learned Helplessness in Learning Process 3.1.1 Negative Evaluation of Teachers and Peers
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs， everyone needs love， affection， and also wants to gain a sense of belonging. So does every student. Students need teachers’ praises and recognition as well as their peer’s positive evaluation. Learned helplessness is caused by repeated failures， and teachers and peers’ negative evaluations may be viewed as the students’ failures. As time goes by， students may think that no matter how hard they try， they would never get any positive responses. This is a external cause of learned helplessness in students’ academic performance.
3.1.2 Inappropriate Attribution
In 1970s， Seligman and combined Winner’s attribution theory and the theory of learned helplessness. Students’ failures in their academic performance are linked with their inappropriate attribution. When people analyze their results of their behaviors， there are six factors affecting the results—ability， degree of efforts， task difficulties， fortune， physical conditions and others’ reactions. Winner divided these six factors into three dimensions—source of attribution， stability， controllability. Among the six factors， the level of efforts is controllable， and the other five factors are uncontrollable. So if students attribute their failed results to the efforts they made， they may feel guilty and try harder next time in order to get some progress. If students attribute their failure to other external causes， they would feel frustrated towards this accident and this negative emotion would not affect their attitude to the next task. However， if students attribute their failures to some internal reasons such as their ability or their intelligence， they would feel very helpless and frustrated all the time. This negative attitude is very bad for them to deal with every task both in their study and in their life. If the students suffer from failure from time to time， they would lose confidence and stay low self-esteemed.
3.1.3 Negative Parenting
Zhang Wenxin （1999） considered parenting styles as a combination of parenting ideas， behaviors， children’s emotional performance and reflection. All in all， parenting also refers to the children-rearing practices and interactive behaviors which have been developed and implemented by parents.
Both the laxity or excessive expectance of parenting are likely to cause learned helplessness. If parents pose excessive expectance to their children， they would give children too much stress. If children are always in a anxious state when they are studying， they may not get a satisfying results. When children fail in their academic performance， they would be very sensitive to the negative evaluation and lose their confidence. Likewise， if parents do not pay much attention to their children’s education， the children would feel lost in their study process. Not knowing what to do， the children’s academic performance would not make much progress and in this case， it is possible for them to suffer from learned helplessness. 3.2 The Consequences of Learned Helplessness in Academic Process
All of the previous researches showed that learned helplessness would pose some problems and trouble in students’ academic achievements. The impact is long-standing and deserve our attention. The salient negative impacts are as follows.
3.2.1 Low Achievement Motive
According to the David C McClelland， the professor in Harvard University， he studied the relationship between people’s needs and motivation， and then he proposed the theory of Achievement Motive. His researches illustrated that there are three significant motives in a task situation， and achievement motive is one of them. Achievement motive can be divided into two parts， that is the motivation to achieve success and the motivation to avoid failure. Students who suffered from bad results in their exams for many times may have a much lower achievement motivation than those normal students.
Since they don’t try to achieve a higher goal， they may not feel like making more efforts to make their academic performance better. When dealing with their study tasks， they tend to avoid difficult challenges， and thus， their capacity would not improve greatly.
3.2.2 Low Self-efficiency
In the1970s， the psychologist Bandura proposed the theory of self-efficiency. The self-efficiency refers to the prediction of oneself ’s ability to finish a particular task. Different people have different self-efficiency degree and the degrees of self-efficiency are different in various situations. If students have symptoms of learned helplessness， their confidence is impinged to a large degree， they may not believe they can finish their academic tasks well.
With the suspicion of their abilities， students tend to have low achievement motivation in mind. If they stay low self-efficient for a long time， they would be struck in the sad and disappointed emotion which impair their enthusiasm in task-finishing process.
3.2.3 Negative Emotions
Due to the repeated failures and negative evaluation from others， the students would develop a negative thinking pattern and negative attitude. They regard themselves as a loser forever and no matter how hard they try， they will never get any improvement. When students have this thought， they tend to feel disappointed and hold a negative attitude towards everything. If students suffer from this symptom chronically， they may get a sense of anxiety， despair and so on， which is very bad for their mental health. 3.3 Methods to Prevent Learned Helplessness in Academic Process
3.3.1 Change the Teaching approaches
As we know， the traditional teaching methods focus on imposing knowledges to students. Some theories are too abstract for students to absorb. Students tend to get a feeling of helplessness and depression when their difficulties remain unsolved for a long time. Therefore， teachers should change their ways of teaching. To begin with， teachers can demonstrate the knowledges vividly and clearly. They can use pictures， videos or others forms of teaching tools to lower the difficulty level. When students find the knowledges is easy for them to learn， they would gain confidence and hold a positive towards their academic process.
In addition， making the class interesting is also significant. If students find the class boring， they would lose interest and desire to learn new things. If they are forced to learn what teachers teach， the study effects will be not so good. Thus， when teachers make the class interesting， students will be ready to absorb new knowledges and have strong desire to explore what they don’t understand clearly. In this way， students’ motivation would be improved greatly， and feel less helpless.
3.3.2 Encourage Students More
As mentioned above， others’ evaluation has great impact on students. Positive evaluation can bring students confidence， and higher motivations. Thus， when students get any improvement， no matter how small it is， teachers and parents should praise them， and make them feel the pleasure of making progress. There are many effective ways of praising and encouraging. For example， teachers can say something to recognize students’ improvements and they can also have an eye contact with the student to show their satisfaction to the students’ behaviors. On one hand， students’ enthusiasm and motivation to study will be ignited， on the other hand， students can stay in a good mental state when they are trying to achieve academic progress.
What’s more， students who are encouraged more can develop their self-learning capacity. When students are in a positive atmosphere of learning， they would do an overall preparation and treat their study tasks carefully. These students have lower possibilities to suffer from learned helplessness.
3.3.3 Set Appropriate Goals
According to the theories of achievement motivation， the strength of motivation has some relations with the difficulty level of the tasks. Therefore， students should set a goal according to their capacity. If a task is too easy or too difficult， people tend to avoid such a task， because if the task is too easy， they would not make efforts and devote their energy to the task. If the task is too difficult， people would not like to take such a trouble and just escape from it. Accordingly， students should set an appropriate goal for their academic process. If the goal is far beyond their capacity， it would be very hard to achieve their goal. When their goal is not achieved for a long time， the feeling of learned helplessness comes. However， if students can set a proper goal， they are more likely to make efforts and get improved step by step. 4. Conclusion
As mentioned above， learned helplessness can be generated because of inappropriate attribution， wrong cognition and so on. It is important to prevent learned helplessness and its negative impacts. In the learning process， students should be encouraged more rather than be negatively evaluated. Looking deeper in the symptoms of learned helplessness in academic process enable us to help students with learned obstacles overcome the difficulties and help them make progress gradually.
References：
[1]Abramson. L. Y. Seligman. M. E. P.
【Key words】learned helplessness; academic performance; attribution; negative emotion
【作者簡介】王佳音，福建师范大学外国语学院。
1.Background
In this modern society， people attach more and more significance to their psychological states. With more and more people having a tight schedule， people suffer from anxiety， depression and so on. Many people may have such experience that we have made a lot of efforts， but it seems that we can never achieve the result we expect. Therefore， we hold a pessimistic attitude towards life. Such symptom may have a bad impact on our learning process.
Learning is a complicated process which is closely connected with emotion， so it is impossible to learn something well without a good emotion control.
Nowadays， we can find that quantities of students who suffer from some negative emotions cannot do well in their studies. Highschool learning is one of the most important stages in people’s life. However， many mental problems would arise in students’ learning process， such as learned helplessness， low self-efficiency and negative attribution in their academic achievements. Learned helplessness is the most influential one which may trap students in vicious circle of learning.
Researches about learned helpless is quite important in learning process. In our country， the related researches are mainly theoretical ones introduced from abroad， and the researches are still not complete.
2. Introduction of learned helplessness
2.1 Definition of Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness is behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. It is characterized by the subjects’ acceptance of their powerlessness： discounting attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus， even when such alternatives are unambiguously presented. Upon exhibiting such behavior， the subject is said to have acquired learned helplessness.
2.2 Researches on Learned Helplessness “Learned helplessness” was first proposed by American psychologist Marty Seligman. In 1967， the psychologist and his colleagues conducted an experiment on dogs. He put dogs in the cage. The cage was connected with electricity， and there is a bell in the cage. When the bell was rang， the dogs would get electric shock. They couldn’t predict the electric shocks and they weren’t able to avoid it. After several times electric shocks， the dogs didn’t try to escape from the cage even if they could， and they just moaned until the electric shocks ended.
Later， Seligman and his colleagues conducted another experiment. The dogs were placed into a room with a short board in the middle to train their ability to avoid the electric shocking. In 10 seconds before the shocking was given， they can avoid the electric shocking.
The experiment results showed that it was easier for dogs in the controlled group to escape from the electric shocking， while the dogs in experimental group chose to bear the shocking and didn’t do anything to react to it. After doing the experiment， Seligman named this phenomenon as “learning helplessness”.
After the theory of “learned helplessness” was proposed， there is a popular trend in psychological field. Many psychologists had begun to study the causes and generation mechanism of learned helplessness. A lot of scholars also put forward plenty of hypothesis， which is practical in education field.
2.3 The Theories of Learned Helplessness
The generation mechanism is the focus of the researches on learned helplessness. There are four theories related to this phenomenon. In previous researches， some behaviorists held that learned helplessness is result from uncontrollable consequences led by environments. Attribution theory proposed that negative attribution method is the cause of learned helplessness. Cognition theory proposed that learned helplessness is caused by inconsistent information feedbacks with the solutions to the problems， and this may make people believe that their efforts are futile. The last one is achievement goal theory， this theory holds that individuals’ excessively pursuing high achievements can cause learned helplessness.
2.3.1 The Early Hypothesis of Learned Helplessness—Non-controllability of The Behavior Result
The early theories about learned helplessness is based on controllability. Participants know that the results cannot controlled by themselves， and this non-controllability will reduce their motivation greatly. In other word， the participants will gradually lose their motivation to make efforts because they know the result is out of control. When Seligman accounted for this phenomenon， he focused on the non-controllability and illustrated that learned helplessness is made of three connected aspects： first is the uncontrollable environment， second is adjoint cognition with which people view anything negatively， and third is self-abandon reactivity. When people come to this stage， they always hold a negative attitude towards everything and stay low self-esteemed and disappointed. Worse still， they have no desire and courage to change the current situation. In early researches， scientists also study the relationship between the learned helplessness and depression. Researches showed that when people suffer from something out of their control， they would become anxious， helpless. As a consequence， they begin to absorb in pessimism. However， people’s controllability can resumed by making efforts.
In addition， the researches of learned helpless add a new variable—expectance. The adjoint cognition have an impact on people’s opinion to their situation. The learned helplessness can damage people’s behavior， emotion and cognition. Nonetheless， with the development of psychology， this theory saw some limitations， and it couldn’t account for all psychological reactions under the uncontrollable situations.
2.3.2 The Attribution Theory of Learned Helplessness
In 1978， the psychologist Abramson and Seligman borrowed Wiener’s attribution theory， and revise the model of learned helplessness. This theory holds that the cause of learned helplessness is the wrong attribution of the bad result.
The scientists point out that the generation of learned helplessness is not the incident itself， but people’s attribution to the negative consequences. The attribution theory of learned helplessness has three dimensions： stable and unstable， internal and external， general and specific. If people attribute their failure to unstable factors， then they suffer from helplessness temporarily. But if people attribute their failure to some stable factors， such as personal abilities， then they may suffer from helplessness for quite a long time. The internal and specific attribution makes people feel helpless to one certain incident， while the external and general attribution makes people feel helpless to all the things to be done. If people always attribute their failure to the stable， internal and general factors， they can be helpless in most of situations. So to prevent and to adjust learned helplessness needs people have a proper attribution to the results of things they have done.
2.3.3 The cognition theory of learned helplessness
The cognition theory of learned helplessness is proposed by Sedek and Kofta. In the process of solving problems， if the task information is inconsistent with the result， then the problem-solving process will be viewed as invalid. The repeated invalid activities may exhaust people’s cognition， accompanied with the flaws of manipulation， people would lessen their motivation to a large extent. Thus， the generation of learned helplessness is companied with negative subjective perception. Sedek and Kofta discovered that the non-controllability of subjective cognition is more influential to people than the non-controllability of behaviors. The cognition theory of learned helplessness holds that the generation of learned helplessness is resulted from the failure to have a cognition schema of future behaviors， and this theory also proposed that the inconsistency of task information and the results is a key element of uncontrollable situation， and this element would lead to all of the symptoms of learned helpless. Chronical inconsistency of task information and the results can also cause deficiency of the emotion， such as depression， anxiety and so on.
2.3.4 The Achievement Goal Theory of Learned Helplessness
In 1986， the psychologist Dweck did a research and found that children with equal ability had different reaction when they were taking challenges. One group showed autonomy and the other showed a tendency of learned helplessness. When children with learned helplessness face difficulties or challenges， they tend to underestimate their abilities and showed negative attitudes towards the tasks. By contrast， children with autonomy behave more confidently than those with learned helplessness and low self-efficiency. This group of children believe that through their efforts， they can get success and solve the problems eventually.
The two different behaviors of children demonstrated that their motivations are different. Children with learned helplessness have a psychological mode of adapting low-leveled motivation， While the children with autonomy tend to pursue a learning goal and try to make progress. When they have tasks， their goal is not avoiding failure but learning something new and succeeding. They are not so afraid of failures like those with learned helplessness， because failures can help adjust learning strategies and make a new breakthrough in their problem-solving process.
3.The Relationship between Learned Helplessness and Academic Performance
Many psychologists devoted themselves to the researches of learned helplessness after Seligman proposed this psychological symptom. In recent years， more and more psychologists also combined learned helplessness with academic performance. Psychologists Sutherland and Singh focus their researches on the relationship between students’ negative learning habits and their academic failure. They deduced that learned helplessness play a role as intermedia in this vicious circle. Therefore， it is necessary to learn more about how is the learned helplessness formed in the learning process.
3.1 Causes of Learned Helplessness in Learning Process 3.1.1 Negative Evaluation of Teachers and Peers
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs， everyone needs love， affection， and also wants to gain a sense of belonging. So does every student. Students need teachers’ praises and recognition as well as their peer’s positive evaluation. Learned helplessness is caused by repeated failures， and teachers and peers’ negative evaluations may be viewed as the students’ failures. As time goes by， students may think that no matter how hard they try， they would never get any positive responses. This is a external cause of learned helplessness in students’ academic performance.
3.1.2 Inappropriate Attribution
In 1970s， Seligman and combined Winner’s attribution theory and the theory of learned helplessness. Students’ failures in their academic performance are linked with their inappropriate attribution. When people analyze their results of their behaviors， there are six factors affecting the results—ability， degree of efforts， task difficulties， fortune， physical conditions and others’ reactions. Winner divided these six factors into three dimensions—source of attribution， stability， controllability. Among the six factors， the level of efforts is controllable， and the other five factors are uncontrollable. So if students attribute their failed results to the efforts they made， they may feel guilty and try harder next time in order to get some progress. If students attribute their failure to other external causes， they would feel frustrated towards this accident and this negative emotion would not affect their attitude to the next task. However， if students attribute their failures to some internal reasons such as their ability or their intelligence， they would feel very helpless and frustrated all the time. This negative attitude is very bad for them to deal with every task both in their study and in their life. If the students suffer from failure from time to time， they would lose confidence and stay low self-esteemed.
3.1.3 Negative Parenting
Zhang Wenxin （1999） considered parenting styles as a combination of parenting ideas， behaviors， children’s emotional performance and reflection. All in all， parenting also refers to the children-rearing practices and interactive behaviors which have been developed and implemented by parents.
Both the laxity or excessive expectance of parenting are likely to cause learned helplessness. If parents pose excessive expectance to their children， they would give children too much stress. If children are always in a anxious state when they are studying， they may not get a satisfying results. When children fail in their academic performance， they would be very sensitive to the negative evaluation and lose their confidence. Likewise， if parents do not pay much attention to their children’s education， the children would feel lost in their study process. Not knowing what to do， the children’s academic performance would not make much progress and in this case， it is possible for them to suffer from learned helplessness. 3.2 The Consequences of Learned Helplessness in Academic Process
All of the previous researches showed that learned helplessness would pose some problems and trouble in students’ academic achievements. The impact is long-standing and deserve our attention. The salient negative impacts are as follows.
3.2.1 Low Achievement Motive
According to the David C McClelland， the professor in Harvard University， he studied the relationship between people’s needs and motivation， and then he proposed the theory of Achievement Motive. His researches illustrated that there are three significant motives in a task situation， and achievement motive is one of them. Achievement motive can be divided into two parts， that is the motivation to achieve success and the motivation to avoid failure. Students who suffered from bad results in their exams for many times may have a much lower achievement motivation than those normal students.
Since they don’t try to achieve a higher goal， they may not feel like making more efforts to make their academic performance better. When dealing with their study tasks， they tend to avoid difficult challenges， and thus， their capacity would not improve greatly.
3.2.2 Low Self-efficiency
In the1970s， the psychologist Bandura proposed the theory of self-efficiency. The self-efficiency refers to the prediction of oneself ’s ability to finish a particular task. Different people have different self-efficiency degree and the degrees of self-efficiency are different in various situations. If students have symptoms of learned helplessness， their confidence is impinged to a large degree， they may not believe they can finish their academic tasks well.
With the suspicion of their abilities， students tend to have low achievement motivation in mind. If they stay low self-efficient for a long time， they would be struck in the sad and disappointed emotion which impair their enthusiasm in task-finishing process.
3.2.3 Negative Emotions
Due to the repeated failures and negative evaluation from others， the students would develop a negative thinking pattern and negative attitude. They regard themselves as a loser forever and no matter how hard they try， they will never get any improvement. When students have this thought， they tend to feel disappointed and hold a negative attitude towards everything. If students suffer from this symptom chronically， they may get a sense of anxiety， despair and so on， which is very bad for their mental health. 3.3 Methods to Prevent Learned Helplessness in Academic Process
3.3.1 Change the Teaching approaches
As we know， the traditional teaching methods focus on imposing knowledges to students. Some theories are too abstract for students to absorb. Students tend to get a feeling of helplessness and depression when their difficulties remain unsolved for a long time. Therefore， teachers should change their ways of teaching. To begin with， teachers can demonstrate the knowledges vividly and clearly. They can use pictures， videos or others forms of teaching tools to lower the difficulty level. When students find the knowledges is easy for them to learn， they would gain confidence and hold a positive towards their academic process.
In addition， making the class interesting is also significant. If students find the class boring， they would lose interest and desire to learn new things. If they are forced to learn what teachers teach， the study effects will be not so good. Thus， when teachers make the class interesting， students will be ready to absorb new knowledges and have strong desire to explore what they don’t understand clearly. In this way， students’ motivation would be improved greatly， and feel less helpless.
3.3.2 Encourage Students More
As mentioned above， others’ evaluation has great impact on students. Positive evaluation can bring students confidence， and higher motivations. Thus， when students get any improvement， no matter how small it is， teachers and parents should praise them， and make them feel the pleasure of making progress. There are many effective ways of praising and encouraging. For example， teachers can say something to recognize students’ improvements and they can also have an eye contact with the student to show their satisfaction to the students’ behaviors. On one hand， students’ enthusiasm and motivation to study will be ignited， on the other hand， students can stay in a good mental state when they are trying to achieve academic progress.
What’s more， students who are encouraged more can develop their self-learning capacity. When students are in a positive atmosphere of learning， they would do an overall preparation and treat their study tasks carefully. These students have lower possibilities to suffer from learned helplessness.
3.3.3 Set Appropriate Goals
According to the theories of achievement motivation， the strength of motivation has some relations with the difficulty level of the tasks. Therefore， students should set a goal according to their capacity. If a task is too easy or too difficult， people tend to avoid such a task， because if the task is too easy， they would not make efforts and devote their energy to the task. If the task is too difficult， people would not like to take such a trouble and just escape from it. Accordingly， students should set an appropriate goal for their academic process. If the goal is far beyond their capacity， it would be very hard to achieve their goal. When their goal is not achieved for a long time， the feeling of learned helplessness comes. However， if students can set a proper goal， they are more likely to make efforts and get improved step by step. 4. Conclusion
As mentioned above， learned helplessness can be generated because of inappropriate attribution， wrong cognition and so on. It is important to prevent learned helplessness and its negative impacts. In the learning process， students should be encouraged more rather than be negatively evaluated. Looking deeper in the symptoms of learned helplessness in academic process enable us to help students with learned obstacles overcome the difficulties and help them make progress gradually.
References：
[1]Abramson. L. Y. Seligman. M. E. P.