Acquired impotence is a relatively new concept in psychology. However, because of its importance in epidemics as relevant as depression, more and more is cited, but what do you learn about impotence?In fact, it’s a learning experience, what? That there’s no way to defend yourself. The person who is governed by the impotence learned in a field, or in general, understands that he does not have sufficient tools to be competent in this field.
Yes, I left a little trap at the exhibition. Are you defending?” Competent, and they’re both not the same. In fact, we can understand the perceived ability to defend ourselves as one of the many skills we can have. Why did I start with the defense? Because this is the context in which the impotence learned has been studied the most.
- Let’s see how these beginnings went.
- Overmier and Seligman were the first to see some of this concept.
- His studies have focused on the study of the relationship between classical conditioning and instrumental winter conditioning.
- With their experiments.
- They realized that dogs could not learn a simple avoidance response after a specific condition.
- This condition was nothing more than being discharged from which they could not escape.
So, in the first phase of the experiment, they learned that they had no control over the releases and turned their attention to other elements Why would they keep trying to escape if they had already learned that they could not?Jorge Bucay, in one of his most famous stories, that of the chained elephant, also captures this idea: how past learning determines our present and future behaviors.
The impotence learned has the advantage of being relatively simple to present to people, in the context of ethically acceptable experiences, this allowed us to study it in a controlled context, for example, we know that if we give two groups several lists of letters to Forman meaningful words, they will work very differently if one of the groups has already faced the same task and , because of his difficulty, he has not been able to solve it. unlisted.
In this case, there are no downloads, no aversive stimulus, but we still see how a previous experience can get rid of a future challenge that, without prior learning, we could face. Going back to our example, people who take half an hour to find a word on different lists end up learning that they are facing a challenge they cannot overcome, so they will start saving resources to invest in future tasks.
In this position of minimal investment of resources, they will not be able to solve even the simple words to find, in fact they were a while out of the task, without moving, in a helpless position, like the dogs that did. Do not escape from landfills.
On the other hand, we see how we can get the discouraged group out of this position of helplessness. For example, telling them that the difficulty of exercising has decreased. We can also say that we have seen how other groups have arrived in time to find the words, so outside of this position of helplessness, people will try to regain control.
Except for exceptions, in many cases of depression something similar happens, the person stops looking for work after months behind closed doors, stops dating his friends after accumulating several negative experiences in the social context, does the person stop?because he saw, because he learned, because he could not change the situation, he understood that the result of the work and the effort is the same as standing still, doing nothing.
This learning has altered his image of himself, understanding that what happens to him is stable, he began to think that his inefficiency is related to a characteristic (internal): he is not intelligent, he is not attractive, he has no value. In addition to no longer implementing measures to change the situation, he began to feel very unwell, that is, his self-esteem also began to be damaged.
From that moment on he also began to lose natural reinforcements: he no longer feels motivated to do anything, he feels that the weight he carries is too heavy and that the lights are going out, the person feels that there is only one way to take refuge in it. The problem is that in doing so, he maintains an internal dialogue that only burys him more and more.
As we see, the impotence acquired is not in itself what makes us fall, what ends in our mood, on the other hand, is the poison that attacks our organs, our mental pillars, causing their collapse and, consequently, sinking. Because of the complexity of the factors involved and the particular way of acting of each person, it is preferable to go to a specialist in the face of suspected depression.