Date of Award

Summer 1983

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Elaine M. Justice

Committee Member

Raymond H. Kirby

Committee Member

Kathleen C. Kirasic

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 S35

Abstract

Studies have suggested that, when mental ages are equal, mentally retarded children exhibit more symptoms of learned helplessness following experience with failure than do non-retarded children, i.e., low IQ, leads to helplessness. The present study hypothesized that IQ alone did not lead to helplessness, but that chronological age played an important role in its development. It was thought that perhaps the different levels of helplessness present in the two populations was due to the age difference necessary to make their mental ages equivalent. To test this possibility, l05 retarded, average and bright children (MA= 5.25 - 17.33 years; CA= 6.25 - 13.00 years) were given success or failure experience. Performance was then measured on a persistence and a transfer task designed to assess helplessness. Subjects were al so asked to make attributions for their success or failure. The persistence and transfer tasks showed little evidence of helplessness in any group. Subjects' attributions, however, showed marked changes with age. As subjects increased in age, they more frequently attributed their outcomes (whether success or failure) to ability. When the older subjects had experienced failure, their attributions for ability were even more frequent. This suggests the possibility that older children make inappropriate attributions for success/failure and are, therefore, more susceptible to learned helplessness.

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DOI

10.25777/1y2d-kd68

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