How you perceive yourself and others have a significant impact on your behavior– for better or for worse. Unfortunately, managing and changing your thoughts and beliefs are easier said than done. Inevitably, optimism can raise your sense of motivation and influence your behavior in a positive direction whereas struggling with learned helplessness can lead to negative behavior and outcomes. Keep reading to learn more about how learned helplessness and optimism influence behavior below.
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What is Learned Helplessness?
Before understanding how learned helplessness influences behavior, it’s first critical to understand what learned helplessness is. Learned helplessness is a condition when you believe you are helpless or have no control over your outcome or situation. Oftentimes, learned helplessness develops from one’s past childhood where they felt like they were unable to control negative situations occurring in their life.
Learned helplessness can inevitably influence your behavior for the worse. From a lack of motivation to make positive changes in your life to feeling like you’ll never achieve anything, all these feelings can stem from learned helplessness and result in an inability for you to take action toward changing your life for the better.
3 Ways Learned Helplessness Influences Behavior
Learned helplessness can hurt behavior and lead to negative outcomes because you act in a way that essentially sabotages your life.
Lack of Motivation
First, learned helplessness can lead to a lack of motivation to create positive change in your life because you feel like you don’t have control over your life.
Raises Stress Levels
Learned helplessness can also lead to a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety because even if you don’t like your current situation, you may feel unable and stuck to change your life situation.
Avoid Situations
Additionally, learned helplessness can make you avoid situations entirely for fear or anxiety that you think you will automatically fail.
3 Ways Optimism Influences Behavior
Meanwhile, optimism can influence your behavior for the better and lead to typically more positive outcomes.
Increase a Sense of Motivation
Unlike learned helplessness, optimism can increase your sense of motivation and thus cause you to act and behave in a way to create more positive change in your life.
Improve Mental Well-Being
Optimism in general also helps improve your mental well-being and thus can lead you to act and go after more healthy behaviors that uplift your quality of life.
Increases Persistence and Coping Skills
Finally, optimism increases your sense of persistence by enabling you to feel like you can work through challenges that come your way in life. For example, if you experience a roadblock in trying to make a positive change in your life, optimism often allows you to keep working on the challenge despite the obstacles in your path.
Help Is Available
Now you know more about how learned helplessness and optimism influence behavior. Learned helplessness can influence your behavior for the worse, whereas optimism can improve your behavior for the better.
If you are struggling with learned helplessness, know that support is available. The Bridge to Recovery offers a unique workshop program designed to help people gain a deeper sense of self and improved well-being. Our workshop model gives people the perspective and tools they need to work toward healing from mental health struggles. Ready to start your recovery? Contact us today!