The Learned Helplessness Forum

Note: This page is a continual work in progress!!

CAVE Software now available for download!!

Last Modified: 10 March 1998

The Learned Helplessness Home Page

This page is intended to help orient members (current & new) to various topical and logistic aspects of this forum.

This list provides a forum for scholarly discussion of learned helplessness and explanatory style. Individuals doing research or scholarship within this domain, broadly construed, are welcome.

Faculty, graduate students and undergraduate researchers are especially invited.

WHAT TOPICS ARE DISCUSSED HERE?

Depression	Academic and business achievement	Development of helplessness and pessimism
Uncontrollability and Unpredictability	Sports and optimism	Sudden death
Learned helplessness in animals and humans	Rumination and automatic thoughts	Psychohistory and content analysis
Immune response to helplessness and pessimism	Political and Military Action and pessimism	Victimology and explanatory style
Analgesia, endorphins, and helplessness	Content Analysis (CAVE and related schemes)	Sex, cultural, and race differences
Pharmacology of learned helplessness	Choice, Character, and Circumstance as explanations	Depressive Realism
Unsolvable problems	Health and Longevity	Hopelessness and Hopelessness theory
CNS correlates, and substrata	Aging	PTSD
Prevention programs in children and adolescents	Elections	Bereavement
Optimism and Pessimism	Fundamentalism and Optimism	Self-efficacy and personal control
Self-handicapping	Psychological factors in cancer and coronary heart disease

Like any discussion group, the quality of the forum will depend on developing a core group of individuals who will share their research and thinking. Communication and discussion of new findings, well before journal publication, and feedback from group members regarding directions for future research are especially welcome.

WHAT TOPICS ARE NOT HANDLED HERE?

As noted above, this forum was created for the scholarly discussion of the Learned Helplessness Theory. With regrets, we cannot be a forum for discussion of personal problems or a place for supportive discussion. The re are a number of sources for support on the Internet. I recommend the Internet site created and maintained by John Grohol.

WHERE TO SEND MESSAGES:

LISTSERV COMMANDS

The learned helplessness discussion list has been moved to a new server--same forum leader, topics, and membership, just a new location. The following message contains information about forum topics, use of the software, and conditions of membe rship. Please read through all sections. If you are subscribed in error, please see the second section for instructions on how to unsubscribe. Above all, DO NOT ISSUE LISTSERV COMMANDS OR REQUESTS TO LEAVE THIS FORUM TO THE ENTIRE LIST!!!!

THE ADDRESS FOR MESSAGES INTENDED FOR THE FORUM IS:

helplessness@listp.apa.org

THE ADDRESS FOR LISTSERVER REQUEST MESSAGES IS:

listserv@listp.apa.org

AVAILABLE REQUEST MESSAGES INCLUDE:

help	sends standard help file
rev helplessness	to see the addresses on this list
subscribe helplessness YourFirstName YourLastName	Join the forum
signoff helplessness	we hope not, but just in case
info helplessness	this provides the how-to-join instructions and is the request that should be used by someone who is not on the list and wants to subscribe
index helplessness	retrieves a list of archive files and other files available to members by e-mail request
get helplessness <file name>	requests a file in the index list

For requests to be processed by a human, send mail to:

helplessness-request@listp.apa.org

beverly@freud.apa.org

If you have any questions about the content of this forum, please write to your forum leader, David Fresco.

The American Psychological Association provides the computer and communications equipment for this forum as a public service.

If you subscribed to this forum and especially if you send messages to the forum, you are agreeing to two rules. These rules, by the way, apply to members of nearly any Internet news or interest group. The rules are:

Rule 1: Do not use the forum for illegal purposes, including but not limited to defamation, violation of intellectual property laws, violation of antitrust or unfair competition laws or violation of criminal laws.

Rule 2: Do not intentionally interfere with or disrupt other forum members, network services, or network equipment. This includes distribution of unsolicited advertisement or chain letters, any commercial use, propagation of computer worms and v iruses, and use of the network to make unauthorized entry to any other machine accessible via the Forum.

If you break these rules then you will be unsubscribed because the rules govern the very heart of our arrangements with our service provider--or any other service provider for Internet.

ACADEMIC POSTINGS TO LISTOWNERS

Martin Seligman

David Fresco

PROCEDURAL POSTINGS TO LISTOWNERS

David Fresco

INTERNET SUPPORT RESOURCES

If you have a WWW Browser, you can view these files at the source by visiting

Psych Central: Dr. John Grohol's Mental Health Page

I would like to compliment John Grohol for his excellent Psychology Website.

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) also maintains an informative site on Depression:

Depression: Quick Reference Guide

SOLUTION is an open, unmoderated support and self-help mailing lis t for creating life changes. Virtually any topic related to making changes in any area of life is permitted.

ACADEMIC PSYCHOLOGY WEBSITES

Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP)

Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT)

American Psychological Society (APS)

American Psychological Association (APA)

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS ON THE WEB

The Consumer Report Study by M. E. P. Seligman

Learned Optimism" yields health benefits

HELPLESSNESS FORUM ARCHIVES

The Helplessness Forum originated in 1994 on a UK-based server called Mailbase. For the entire calendar year 1995, we existed on a machine of the US Internet provider, Netcom. Finally, we have found a stable home tha nks to the American Psychological Association. Many of the listserv features we enjoyed at Mailbase have been restored! For these reaso ns, there is a gap in the available archives of the Helplessness Forum. The available archives can be viewed below:

January 1997 (4K, Text)

December 1996 (12K, Text)

October 1996 (23K, Text)

September 1996 (28K, Text)

Summer 1996 (6K, Text)

April 1996(75K, Text)

December 1994 (25K, Text)

November 1994 (71K, Text)

October 1994 (93K, Text)

September 1994 (25K, Text)

August 1994 (14K, Text)

July 1994 (70K, Text)