Learned Helplessness and Masculinity in Women: Performance Effects and Attributions About Success and Failure

The present study attempted to examine the relationships among learned helplessness, masculinity, and attributions about success and failure. The Bern Sex Role Inventory was used to generate a masculinity score for 120 college women. Learned helplessness was induced by exposure to problems that had no solution. Subjects in the experimental conditions were asked to solve one, two, or three different types of problems, seventy-five percent of which were unsolvable. Subjects in the control condition were given three types of solvable problems. After each set of tasks, subjects completed an attributional questionnaire and were asked to rate how well they perceived they had done on the task just completed. The performance on two posttests was measured. No interaction between masculinity and learned helplessness on subsequent performance was obtained. No relationship among masculinity, learned helplessness, and attributions for success and failure emerged. The findings did, however, support the learned helplessness model in that exposure to unsolvable tasks was related to decreased levels of performance.