On p. 48 the scene documents Will's desire to get out of the situation he's in. It's a little like the dog in the box from the famous learned helplessness experiments. He also has certain feelings about Julie which contribute to his dog-in-the-box-ness. The idea "learned helplessness" came into being after an experience in which a dog was put in a box. There were two parts of the box and under each part there was a shocking mechanism that would give the dog a shock whenever the researchers wanted. The dog could not jump out of the box. Pretty grisly. When the researchers shocked the dog, it got up and went over to the other side. When they shocked him on that side, he went back to the other. If they shocked the dog on both sides and he couldn't get out, he'd just lie down and do nothing. Don't we know people like that? When things go bad for them, they just give up. They're exhibiting learned helplessness, just like the dog in the box
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Friday, August 15, 2008
Wills Ambivalence and Learned Helplessness.
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Learned helplessness
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Author Profile:
Tim was a market and survey research consultant from 1983 to 2000 and a smoking cessation researcher from 2000 to 2003. His consulting practice focused primarily on conducting community health needs assessment. He authored hundreds of market research reports and published a number of his assessments in Community Health Needs Assessment published by McGraw Hill in 1996 and in a revised volume published in 1999. In 2000 he joined the staff of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he conducted smoking cessation research. He published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and spoke at national smoking cessation conferences.
In 2003 he moved to Philadelphia and earned his real estate license. He now practices real estate, works on publishing his novels, and studies and teaches entrepreneurship.Tim has written a dozen novel-length stories, a volume of short stories, and about a 3-foot stack of pages poetry. He is currently working on earning his 4th million in real estate sales, publishing his novels, and working on an entrepreneurish handbook as a support for his students.
Tim is a trained violist and an experienced string quartet player. He is an avid listener to classical music and regularly attends classical music concerts. He has two grown children by his first wife and a stepdaughter with his second wife. He likes to cook, read, write, entertain, develop relationships, and help other people. Formerly Tim used to travel frequently. He doesn't so much anymore. Now he regards the combination of real estate practice, writing and publishing, and the teaching and studying of entrepreneurship as enough of a trip.