Question

explain how does learned helplessness play a role in the need for control, and “just world” theory

Answer 1

If bad things happen, we want to think we'd do whatever it takes to fix the situation. Research into what is known as learned helplessness has shown that when people believe they have no control over what is happening, they prefer to just give up and embrace their fate.

If people believe they have no power over their situation, they can start behaving in a helpless way. This neglect may lead individuals to ignore opportunities for relief or improvement. The influence of learned helplessness has been seen in various types of animals but its effects can also be seen in humans. Take one example that is frequently used: A child who performs poorly on math tests and assignments will soon start to believe like whatever he does will change his math results. He can feel a sense of helplessness when confronted with some kind of math-related task later.

For example, a woman who feels insecure in social settings will gradually start thinking like she can do nothing to resolve her symptoms. This sense of her symptoms being out of her direct control may cause her to avoid trying to get involved in social situations, making her shyness even more pronounced.

Nevertheless, researchers found that acquired helplessness is not always applicable to all environments and circumstances. A student who experiences learned helplessness with respect to math class does not automatically experience the same ineffectiveness when faced with real-world calculations. People can experience learned helplessness in other cases that generalizes over a wide range of circumstances. Learned helplessness has also been related to numerous psychiatric disorders. This can be compounded by learned helplessness by depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and isolation.

The just-world phenomenon is the propensity to assume that the universe is right and that people are getting what they deserve. Since people tend to believe the world is equal, they're going to look for ways to justify or rationalize injustice away, sometimes accusing the individual in a situation that is actually the victim. The concept of just-world helps to understand why people often blame victims for their own misfortune, sometimes in circumstances where people had little influence over the events that befell them.

The just-world theory presumes that people continue to search for items that could justify their situations when they fall victim to misfortune. In other words, people are likely to immediately search for something or someone to blame for unfortunate incidents. Yet, instead of simply attributing a bad turn of events to bad luck, people prefer to view the actions of the person as a source of blame

Conversely, this belief also leads people to think that it is because those individuals are good and deserving of their happy fortune that good things happen to people. Because of this, those who are exceptionally lucky are also thought to earn their luck most. Individuals prefer to ascribe their wealth to the inherent characteristics of the person, rather than attributing their success to chance or circumstance. These people are also considered to be smarter and more hard-working than the less fortunate.

There are various explications suggested to explain this:

• The fear of coming up against weakness. Many don't want to talk about being victims of violent crime themselves. And when they learn about an incident like an attack or a rape, they may want to fault the victim's actions for the incident. This allows people to think that they can avoid being victims of crime simply by avoiding the behaviors of past victims.
• A willingness to reduce anxiety. Another logical reason for the phenomenon of the just world is that people want to alleviate the distress generated by the injustices of the world. Believing that the victim is solely responsible for their misfortunes, people will continue to believe that the world is just and fair