Learned Helplessness and Expectancy Factors: Implications for Research in Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Our understanding of has been enriched in recent years by greater recognition of the problem and commitment to helping this group of handicapped children (CELDIC Report, 1970; Myklebust & Boshes, 1969). There is increasing awareness that the term learning disabilities is inadequate to describe various constellations of childhood perceptual and cognitive disorders (Cruickshank & Hallahan, 1975; Douglas, 1976). With current limited knowledge in this area, the advantage of a global definition has been to insure flexibility while investigating this still largely unknown childhood behavioral syndrome. Therefore, rather than catalog the numerous definitional variations that have developed, the reader is referred to those sources which have discussed the practical necessities and limitations of current definitions of (Gaddes, 1976; Sabatino, 1976; Turton, 1975). While it has been generally acknowledged that the term is too all-encompassing to be of research or treatment benefit, subtypes within this rubric, such as hyperactivity or attentional deficit, continue to note common observations of prolonged experience with failure (Whalen & Henker, 1976). As well, it has been observed that various disability syndromes which have been tentatively identified are usually accompanied by an emotional overlay of frustration and defeat (Minde, Lewin, Weiss, Lavigeur, Douglas, & Sykes, 1971). While this aspect of was recognized early as a significant debilitating factor in the treatment of these children, only recently have the effects of failure together with concomitant expectations and strategies of disabled learners benefited from systematic investigation. Thus, the focus of the present paper is two-fold: first to review some interrelated areas of research on experiences of extensive failure; second to discuss the implications of these investigations in terms of research strategies to be explored.