Learned Helplessness
The Psych Central Blog brings up recent research which may point the way toward a simple method for unlearning “learned helplessness“.
The researcher began with the hypothesis that rats would learn to be more adaptable in social situations, or in pairs, however, the research results revealed a very different picture. Rats that were exposed to uncontrollable conditions in pairs coped less well when they were no longer in uncontrollable situations than rats that were exposed to these situations alone.
The article goes on to say that all the researchers had to do was pair up one “learned helpless” rat with one that had never learned to be helpless, and the pair of them were able to cope with difficult situations as if the helpless little guy had never had any trouble before.