Learned Helplessness and the Glory of Failure 2009-1-GB2-GRU06-01470 2 Bratislava Conference, April 14th, 2011 Who are we? Associação Humanidades (AH),

Learned Helplessness and the Glory of Failure2009-1-GB2-GRU06-01470 2

Bratislava Conference, April 14th, 2011

Who are we?

Associação Humanidades (AH), a private non profit organization

Where are we?

Portugal, Lisbon city area

What´s our mission?

To promote social inclusion and equal opportunities



How Can we make it possible?

development of empowerment and learning approaches in order to enlarge self-determination, autonomy and citizenship

With whom?

other professionals/organizations Youngsters/families - particulary young pregnant/ mothers and prisoners

specific intervention on disadvantadged

situations

universal prevention perspective



How do we do it?

Person driven integrated services to face early

pregnancy/ motherhood diagnosed needs:

• Personal, social and vocational development centre;• Nursery/crèche• Temporary residence for social emergency situations

Social intervention/ projects that promote youngsters

autonomy and self-responsibility in diverse areas:

• Healthy lifestyles;• Educational/vocational qualification • Prisoners' reintegration• … … …



How do we do it?

Young resident pregnant/mothers and their babies



3rd sector professionals/organizations - Workshop



Young resident pregnant/mothers and their babies



Young prisioners and team project– Poder Caminhar



Young prisioner and his aunt – Poder Caminhar



Nursery/crèche



Nursery/crèche



Tools shared in the project- I

Action Plan/Path

Tool for Person centred planning of disadvantaged groups

Created by J. Pearpoint, M. Forrest and J. O’Brien (disability context)

Focus On a dream and works back from a positive and possible future, mapping out the actions required along the way

Participants Adolescent pregnant/mothers and young prisoners

Facilitators Associação Humanidades staff



Action Plan/Path



Distance Training Resources - EmpowermentTool for Empowerment promotion of disadvantaged youngsters

Created by Associação Humanidades

Focus On the ability to control your own life, self-Knowledge and personal valorisation, ability to communicate, stepping in and taking part in community

Participants Adolescent pregnant/mothers and young prisoners

Facilitators Associação Humanidades staff

Tools shared in the project - II



Distance Training Resources - Empowerment



Tool developed in the project

Learned Helplessness Snapshot (LHS)

Tool for Learned helplessness self-assessment snapshot

Created by Project partnership (adaptation of Learned Helplessness Scale to project goals and partnership organizations/ client-groups/ context specificities)

Focus Description, causes and impact of learned helplessness - perceptions or feelings of not being able to change one’s life direction, as a learning gained from previous failure

Participants All project disadvantaged learners, including adolescent pregnant/ mothers, (ex) offenders, roma, migrant or/and long term sick and unemployed

Facilitators All partners staff



What has been tool’s apllication scope?

Learners involved

Adolescent pregnant/mothers

Young prisioners

Sex Female Male

Age 16-26 19-26

Education Level 2 - 3 Level 1 - 3

Employment No

Acomodation No

Support network Institutional

Finantial status State subsidy

Total number 5 12



What are the preliminary results?

Adolescent pregnant/mothers Young prisioners

Empowerment Skills initial assessment

Skills final assessment

Skills Balance(final-initial)

Skills initial assessment

Skills initial assessment

Skills Balance(final-initial)

Ability to control your own life

3,2 4,1 0,8 3,6 3,7 0,1

Self knowledge and personal valorization

3,4 4,2 0,8 3,9 3,7 -0,2

Ability to communicate

3,5 3,8 0,3 4,0 3,4 -0,6

Stepping in and taking part in community

3,5 4,0 0,5 3,1 3,4 0,3

Average 3,4 4,0 0,7 3,6 3,6 0,0

Scale: 1 – Very low to 5 – Very high

Empowerment Skills Balance



Empowerment Skills Balance

Empowerment Skills Balance - adolescent pregnant/ mothers

1

2

3

4

5

1st 2ndApplications

Inte

nsity

Empowerment Skills Balance - young prisioners

1

2

3

4

5

1st 2ndApplications

Inte

nsity



Adolescent pregnant/mothers Young prisioners

Learned Helplessness

LH initial assessment

LH final assessment

LH evolution(final-initial)

LH initial assessment

LH final assessment

LH evolution(final-initial)

Inabiliy 3,3 4,3 1,0 3,9 3,4 -0,4

Personal Features 4,1 3,9 -0,2 2,8 3,3 5,0

Social Features 2,7 2,8 0,1 3,1 3,0 -0,2

Change Enabler Conditions

5,7 6,8 1,1 6,6 6,9 0,3

Scale: 1 – Very low to 10 - Very high

Learned Helplessness Snapshot

What are the preliminary results?



Learned Helplessness Self-Assessment

WHAT ARE THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS?

Learned Helplessness Self-Assessment - adolescent pregnant/ mothers

0

2

4

6

8

10

1st 2ndApplications

Inte

nsity

Learned Helplessness Self-Assessment - young prisioners

0

2

4

6

8

10

1st 2ndApplications

Inte

nsity



Some notes

Higher intensity and duration of work with learners improves the outcomes

AH methodologies and tools have been giving way to “change enabler conditions”

LHSA improvement for a clearer snapshoot of a given moment



THE END

http://www.humanus.pt




4 DIMENSIONS

Inability

Personal features

Social features

Change enabler conditions



INABILITY - feelings and perceptions of not being able

When something doesn’t happen as I planned, it’s always my fault

I feel that my inability to solve problems is the cause of my lack of success

I am incapable of finding solutions for problems

No matter how much I try, things will never be as I want them to be

I feel that anyone does better than me in most tasks

Other people have more control over their lives than I do

Even though I spend large amounts of energy in a task, I feel I don’t have any control on the outcomes

If I do a task and I achieve success, it is probably because I was lucky




PERSONAL FEATURES - causes of learned helplessness attributed internally to an individual

My health problems prevent me to achieve my life goals

I believe age is my barrier to achieving life goals.

I consider my self to be a victim of my past.

SOCIAL FEATURES - causes of learned helplessness attributed externally to social groups

I believe cultural background is an obstacle to success in my life

I feel that lack of adequate education prevents me from achieving my life goals

I feel I am a victim of society.

I believe gender is a barrier to achieving my life goals.

When I’m not successful, my failure is due to other people’s stupidity




CHANGE ENABLER CONDITIONS -conditions to change one’s life direction as a gained from previous failure

I avoid situations unless I can predict the outcome

I’m willing to take risks to achieve my life goals

Failure gives me new opportunities

I don’t try to do a new task if in the past I have failed on similar tasks*

I don’t accept a task unless I believe that I will be successful*

I feel I have support from important people around me in achieving my life goals.

* these 2 statements meaning point in opposite direction of the other 3 statements. To ease results interpretation it is possible to invert the content and scale and the of the sentence.




Adolescent pregnant/ mothers

Young prisioners

Learned Helplessness Applications1st 2nd 2nd – 1st 1st 2nd 2nd – 1st

INABILITY 3,3 4,3 1,0 3,9 3,4 -0,4

When something doesn’t happen as I planned, it’s always my fault 3,6 5,4 1,8 6,3 4,1 -2,2

I feel that my inability to solve problems is the cause of my lack of success 2,6 5,4 2,8 5,1 3,7 -1,4

I am incapable of finding solutions for problems 4,0 3,0 -1,0 3,8 2,9 -0,9

No matter how much I try, things will never be as I want them to be 3,2 5,0 1,8 3,4 3,6 0,2

I feel that anyone does better than me in most tasks 3,6 4,2 0,6 2,3 2,5 0,2

Other people have more control over their lives than I do 2,4 4,8 2,4 3,6 3,3 -0,3

Even though I spend large amounts of energy in a task, I feel I don’t have any control on the outcomes 3,0 3,4 0,4 3,9 4,1 0,2

If I do a task and I achieve success, it is probably because I was lucky 3,6 3,0 -0,6 2,7 3,1 0,4


Learned Helplessness Snapshot – PT Average Results I




Young prisioners

Learned Helplessness Applications 1st 2nd 2nd – 1st 1st 2nd 2nd – 1st

PERSONAL FEATURES 4,1 3,9 -0,2 2,8 3,3 0,5

My health problems prevent me to achieve my life goals 1,3 1,6 0,4 2,1 2,7 0,6

I believe age is my barrier to achieving life goals 5,2 4,2 -1,0 1,9 2,3 0,3

I consider my self to be a victim of my past. 4,8 6,0 1,2 4,4 4,9 0,5

SOCIAL FEATURES 2,7 2,8 0,1 3,1 3,0 -0,2

I believe cultural background is an obstacle to success in my life 3,0 2,8 -0,2 3,3 3,1 -0,3

I feel that lack of adequate education prevents me from achieving my life goals 2,2 2,0 -0,2 4,6 3,3 -1,3

I feel I am a victim of society 1,4 4,8 3,4 3,4 2,6 -0,8

I believe gender is a barrier to achieving my life goals 3,8 2,2 -1,6 1,7 2,6 0,9

When I’m not successful, my failure is due to other people’s stupidity 3,0 2,2 -0,8 2,7 3,3 0,6

Learned Helplessness Snapshot – PT Average Results II





Young prisioners

Learned Helplessness Applications 1st 2nd 2nd – 1st 1st 2nd 2nd – 1st

CHANGE ENABLER CONDITIONS 5,7 6,8 1,1 6,6 6,9 0,3

I avoid situations unless I can predict the outcome 4,4 4,8 0,4 4,6 5,2 0,6

I’m willing to take risks to achieve my life goals 6,4 8,0 1,6 6,6 7,4 0,8

Failure gives me new opportunities 3,6 5,6 2,0 6,7 6,1 -0,6

I try to do a new task if in the past I have failed on similar tasks* 6,8 7,2 0,4 6,2 7,5 1,3

I accept a task unless I believe that I will be successful* 5,0 7,0 2,0 6,3 5,5 -0,8

I feel I have support from important people around me in achieving my life goals 7,8 8,0 0,2 9,3 9,5 0,3


Learned Helplessness Snapshot – PT Average Results III



Learned Helplessness Snapshot - PT, SW and SK First Apllication Results

Documents

Learned Helplessness and the Glory of Failure 2009-1-GB2-GRU06-01470 2 Bratislava Conference, April 14th, 2011 Who are we? Associação Humanidades (AH),