Episode 43: How Learned Helplessness Puts Deal-Making Out of Reach

Kelli Confidential: Negotiation Essentials Empowering Extraordinary Women

What if your belief system was so deeply wired to a frequency of “incapable or incompetent, or not good enough” that you gave-up early in the fight - or worse - you didn’t even try?
Women who have internalised subconscious beliefs that they are "no good" at math, or that they lack numerical or technical skills are largely taught this belief system, one that blossoms with age into something so fundamentally flawed in their identity that most can't see past the conditioned "deficiency", ultimately perpetuating women's avoidance of careers in business, science, or math.
Current research by the OECD and the UN shows us year-on-year the double-digit academic delta between boys and girls that forks in grade school and, for most countries, never recovers. And this avoidant behaviour means also that women often lose out on opportunities for advancement and higher compensation in their chosen careers at the same pace as their male counterparts simply because they have subscribed to dated/gendered belief systems where being 'nice' - or being in service to others - is better and carries more worth than the qualities instilled in boys (of being competitive, ambitious, technically able).
Does this sound familiar? You're not alone. This is a known psychological phenomena called 'Learned Helplessness', and we're covering that in today's episode together with six strategies to tackle it. Let's jump in!
Citations and Resources: ✨ ✨
✅ Classroom video example: Nixon, Charisse Ph.D Developmental Psychologist at Penn State Erie.Nov 2007. https://youtu.be/gFmFOmprTt0?si=KAFhTy3yRxGd6d3L.

✅ Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87(1), 49-74. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.87.1.49

✅ Facing History and Ourselves. "Why Must We Remember the Holocaust? Because Democracy Is Precious." Facing Today, 27 Jan. 2023. Online. facingtoday.facinghistory.org/why-must-we-remember-the-holocaust-because-democracy-is-precious.

✅ Dweck, C. S., & Reppucci, N. D. (1973). Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25(1), 109-116. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034248

✅ Hennessey, Bridget. "The Effect of Vicarious Learned Helplessness on Critical Thinking." Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2007, Online. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=mako.

✅ Maier, Steven F., and Martin E. P. Seligman. "Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 105, no. 1, 1976, pp. 3–46, ppc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/lhtheoryevidence.pdf.

✅ Maier, Steven F., and Martin E. P. Seligman. "Learned Helplessness at Fifty: Insights from Neuroscience." Psychological Review, vol. 123, no. 4, 2016, pp. 349–367, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4920136/.

✅ McLeod, Saul. "Learned Helplessness." Simply Psychology, 17 Feb. 2023, www.simplypsychology.org/learned-helplessness.html.

✅ National Lottery Statistics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery_jackpot_records

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