Learned helplessness and attribution retraining

Overview

General and specific learned helplessness and their causes, effects on performance and young people's disaffection, attribution retraining for failure and success, other strategies and mastery orientation.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is learned helplessness?

   Model answer

   Learned helplessness is the belief that failure is inevitable and beyond one's control. The performer stops trying.

2. 2

   What causes learned helplessness?

   Model answer

   Repeated failure attributed to internal, stable causes such as lack of ability causes it. The performer feels effort makes no difference.

3. 3

   What is general learned helplessness?

   Model answer

   General learned helplessness is believing you will fail at all sports. A child may say they are useless at sport.

4. 4

   What is specific learned helplessness?

   Model answer

   Specific learned helplessness is believing you will fail at one activity. A player may believe they can never take a penalty.

5. 5

   How does learned helplessness affect performance?

   Model answer

   A performer with learned helplessness gives up quickly and avoids challenges. Performance and participation both fall.

6. 6

   How can learned helplessness lead to disaffection with sport in young people?

   Model answer

   Repeated failure in PE or games can make young people believe sport is not for them. Many then drop out of physical activity.

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