If you put an animal in an inescapable environment and give it electric shocks with no predictability, it’ll eventually give up trying to escape. Later, take that same animal, put it into a similar environment (but one that’s escapable) and give it electric shocks — it won’t even try to escape.
It’s called "learn helplessness."
When I first read about it, I wondered…
Where in my life I’ve learned to be helpless — to quit trying (or trying, but with little commitment) because of prior repeated failure and a perceived inability to succeed.
At work? At home? With other people? My children? My wife? With myself? With my attitude?
The flip side is "learned optimism."
A psychologist named Martin Seligman appears to be the best known authority on the topics.
When you have a few minutes, learn more about him, his approaches, and his near drowning experience with Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton in Hawaii.
The story about his daughter catching "the world’s preeminent authority on optimism" on his own grouchiness is particularly awakening (last few paragraphs of the first page). I loved it.
It’s from the alumni magazine of The University of Pennsylvania.
