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Control may beat circumstances
The two dogs
In an experiment, two dogs go into a box with an electric floor that delivers a painful shock every now and then. One dog has a small button in its half of the box, and when it nuzzles the button, the shock stops. The other dog has no button.
Both dogs are exposed to exactly the same level of pain. The dog with the button can be relatively content, and the dog without it lapses into complete depression.
Pensioners and the unemployed
Pensioners and the young unemployed are at the same stage of life, with too much time on their hands and not much money, yet pensioners are reportedly very happy and the unemployed extraordinarily unhappy and depressed. One explanation is that pensioners believe they chose to be pensioners, while the young unemployed feel it was thrust upon them.
The year off
In England, the upper-middle classes found a fix: they call unemployment a year off. A son unemployed in Manchester is embarrassing, and a son unemployed in Thailand is quite an accomplishment.
How did the original dog experiments work?
Martin Seligman and Steven Maier ran the best-known version in 1967 at the University of Pennsylvania. One dog could end a shock by pressing a panel, while a second dog received identical shocks with no control over them. Afterward, in a box where escape was easy, many of the dogs that had lacked control sat and took the shocks, a result Seligman named learned helplessness. Seligman later became president of the American Psychological Association in 1998.
How did control change nursing home residents' lives?
In 1976, Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin gave residents on one floor of a Connecticut nursing home choices, such as which night to see a movie, along with a plant to care for. Residents on another floor were told staff would handle those things. Three weeks later, the residents with choices were rated more alert and active. At an 18-month follow-up by Rodin and Langer, 15 percent of that group had died, against 30 percent of the other.
Why do people value choosing their circumstances?
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's self-determination theory names autonomy as one of three basic psychological needs, along with competence and relatedness. In their account, actions people feel they chose produce more lasting motivation than actions imposed on them. Their 1985 book Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior laid out the theory.
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