Psychology
Resilience: what it really means and how to build it
Resilience is not a rare personality trait. It is a common process of adapting to hardship, built from relationships, skills and resources — not willpower alone.
27 Sept 20267 min read
Learned helplessness
Giving up trying to change a bad situation after repeatedly having no control over it. The theory has since been revised: passivity is the default, and learning that you have control is what overcomes it.
In Psychology
Learned helplessness describes giving up — no longer trying to escape or improve a bad situation — after repeated experiences in which nothing you did made a difference. Martin Seligman and Steven Maier described it in the late 1960s in experiments in which dogs received shocks they could not escape, and it became an influential model of : people who come to believe their actions do not matter stop trying.
In 2016 the same two researchers published a major revision. Decades of brain research showed the original theory "got it backward": passivity in the face of prolonged, uncontrollable stress is not learned but is the brain's default response. What is learned is control: when a person or animal discovers that their actions work, the switches that default off.
The practical message is hopeful. Experiences of mastery, even small ones, push back against giving up — which fits with treatments such as that start with small, achievable steps.
Where this comes up
Related terms
- DepressionClinical depression, Major depressive disorderA medical condition in which low mood or loss of interest lasts most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, and affects sleep, energy and daily life.
- Behavioural activationBA, Behavioral activationA structured therapy for depression that gets you back into rewarding and meaningful activities in small, planned steps, rather than waiting until you feel like it.
- Prefrontal cortexPFC, Frontal lobeThe front part of the brain, behind the forehead, responsible for planning, decision-making, self-control and weighing consequences. It is one of the last areas to mature, in the mid-to-late 20s.
- ResilienceResilient, Psychological resilienceThe ability to adapt and recover after hardship, loss or stress. It is not a fixed trait you either have or lack; it grows from relationships, habits and support.