Learned Helplessness in Shuttlebox-Avoidance Behavior

Three groups of rats ( n = 6) were given prior experience in a Skinner box before being trained in a two-way shuttlebox-avoidance task. Subjects experiencing controllable shock (avoidable or escapable) performed significantly better than a yoked control group which had no control over shocks in the Skinner box and better than a control group which experienced no shock in the Skinner box. Results can be interpreted adequately in terms of the learned helplessness hypothesis proposed by Maier, Seligman, and Solomon.

Aggression during Learned-Helplessness Pretraining as a Coping Response

This study examined the effects of the opportunity to aggress during pretraining for learned helplessness. While rats individually given inescapable shock showed deficits in subsequent chain-pull escape, the performance of rats given inescapable shock in pairs did not differ from that of animals exposed to escapable shock or no shock. These results are interpreted as contrary to the prediction of the learned-helplessness hypothesis and are consistent with the notion that shock-induced aggression serves an adaptive function.