Showing items 1 - 5 of 5

Your selections:

Learned helpnessness, depression and self-esteem in mothers of children with specific learning disabilities

  • Authors: Abrams, Greta Barbara
  • Date: 2014-08-27
  • Subjects: Helplessness (Psychology) , Mother and child - Psychological aspects , Learning disabilities , Depression, Mental
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:12137 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11881
  • Description: M.A. (Clinical Psychology) , This study was conducted to ascertain whether the mothers of children with psychoneurological learning disabilities were more depressed, helpless due to a particular attributional style, and had a lower self-concept, than the mothers of children with anxiety disorders. The Beck Depression Inventory, (Beck, Ward, Mendelson & Erbaugh, 1961), the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Abramson, Seligman &Teasdale, 1978), and the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965) were completed by the mothers of 20 boys with psychoneurological learning .disabilities and the mothers of 20 boys with anxiety disorders, aged 6-12 years. Significant results were obtained contrary to expectations, in that the mothers of children with anxiety disorders, were in fact more depressed, helpless and had a lower self-concept than the mothers of children with psycho- neurological disabilities. The conclusion was drawn that the nature of the psychopathology did not depend as much on one factor such as a specific learning disability or an anxiety disorder, but was rather a manifestation of the functioning of the family system. Further research seems indicated to investigate the strengths and vulnerabilities in the family system as a whole, in terms of the reciprocal influence of the learning disabled child and his family...
  • Full Text:

The effects of diazepam on the development of learned helplessness and depression

  • Authors: Van Breda, Theo Kenneth
  • Date: 2015-02-12
  • Subjects: Drugs - Effectiveness , Depression, Mental , Helplessness (Psychology)
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:13318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13334
  • Description: M.A. (Clinical Psychology) , This study was undertaken in an attempt to validate the hypothesis that anxious subjects who ingested diazepam (Valium) and were subjected to a helplessness inducing situation,would become more depressed and more hopeless than people who were subjected to the same situation and obtained anxiety relief by means of a response-contingent behaviour - a muscle relaxation exercise. Twenty-nine male and female students were selected from the undergraduate and post-graduate student population at the Rand Afrikaans University on the basis of scores on the IPAT Anxiety Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental groups and the one control group and were subjected to the helplessness inducing situation. A wide spectrum of measures were performed and the results subjected to analyses of variance. The results indicated support for the hypothesis that people who received response contingent anxiety relief became less depressed than people who obtained non-response-contingent anxiety relief. No support was found for the hopelessness construct. The lack of results of this were discussed in terms of the effectiveness of the measuring instruments and that hopelessness and helplessness might be different concepts.
  • Full Text:

Learned helplessness, cognitive errors and perfectionism in depressed and non-depressed chronic pain patients

  • Authors: Gultig, Renee Jeanne
  • Date: 2014-07-23
  • Subjects: Chronic diseases - Psychological aspects , Pain - Psychological aspects , Depression, Mental , Helplessness (Psychology)
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:11761 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11488
  • Description: M.A. (Clinical Psychology) , The increasing interest in cognitive factors both in the literature on pain and in developments in research on depression has led to the present study, where cognitive factors associated with depression were investigated in clinical groups of chroni c pa in patients. The cognitive factors studied were learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975), cognitive errors and distortions (Beck, 1976), perfectionism (Bums, 19800 1980b), as well as hopelessness (Beck, 1974). It was hypothesised that these factors would occur in definite patterns in relation to each other, in groups of pain patients categorised into four groups on the basis of raised or lowered levels of both depression and a subjective pain rating. It was hypothesised that learned helplessness would vary in direct relationship to depression but that simultaneously increased levels of pain would elevate helplessness further. It was also hypothesised that perfectionism and cognitive errors and distortions would vary inversely with helplessness and that amongst pain patients with high levels of pain and low levels of depression, raised scores on measures of perfectionism and cognitive errors may indicate the presence of a 'masked' depression. Some evidence was found to suggest that cognitive factors do play an important role in pain, although no significant results were found to support the specific hypotheses of this study. The need for finer discrimination in the type' of pain patient selected, particularly in regard to ·the diagnosis of the pain syndrome, as well as the inclusion of cognitive factors other than those presently considered, is indicated for future research.
  • Full Text:

Die invloed van probleemoplossingsvaardighede op die ontwikkeling van aangeleerde hulpeloosheid en depressie

Die invloed van perfeksionisme op aangeleerde hulpeloosheid en depressie

  • Authors: Beuster, Johannes Traugott Reinhold
  • Date: 2015-02-12
  • Subjects: Perfection , Helplessness (Psychology) , Depression, Mental
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:13295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13313
  • Description: M.A. (Psychology) , Both the theories of Seligman (1975) and Beck (1976) provide an explanation of depression as a cognitive phenomenon. These theories are inadequate in the sense that no provision is made for individual differences and personality factors in the development of depression. This study postulates that perfectionism is related to learned helplessness and depression, with the intention of understanding mild depression. Forty first year students at the Rand Afrikaans University were selected on the basis of exceptionally high or exceptionally low scores on the P.Hs. (Perfectionistic Attitude Scale). The subjects were further divided into helpless and non-helpless groups. Helplessness was induced by confronting the subjects with a cognitive task which was impossible to execute. Hereafter, among other things, the subjects' attributions and level of depression (Beck Depression Inventory) were measured. The findings indicate that perfectionism is significantly related to depression, but not to learned helplessness. Furthermore, it was found that helplessness is not necessarily related to depression. It is suggested that helplessness in a laboratory situation is not aversive or important enough to cause depression. The recommendation is made that future helplessness studies Should preferably concentrate on actual life situations. Perfectionism was found to be an important factor in the development of depression, and it was found that perfectionists are essentially underachievers. The implications of these findings were briefly discussed.
  • Full Text:
  • 1
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact