learned helplessness

Noun

Meaning

learned helplessness (uncountable)

(psychology) a state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try, even when opportunities for change become available.

Source: en.wiktionary.org

Examples

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn't matter. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Something in the back of her head shifted. The serpent of learned helplessness long asleep starting to wake. She pretended it wasn't there, in hopes that if she denied it enough, it wouldn't exist. Daniel Abraham

Close letter words and terms

learned learned borrowing learned food preferences learned one learned people learned person