Persistence training: A partial reinforcement procedure for reversing learned helplessness and depression.

Abstract

This article examines the relative merits of either partial or continuous (total) success therapy as a device for reversing learned helplessness and depression in humans. College students experienced (a) no treatment followed by either abbreviated (20 trials) or extended (40 trials) continuous success therapy, (b) soluble problems followed by either abbreviated or extended continuous success therapy, (c) insoluble problems followed by either abbreviated or extended continuous success therapy, or (d) insoluble problems followed be either abbreviated or extended partial success therapy. Subsequently, subjects in all eight groups received 40 escape-extinction trials in which aversive tones were not controllable. The results of this experiment indicated that both continuous and partial success schedules were effective in reversing depressed responding (helplessness) induced by prior exposure to insoluble problems. However, only the partial success therapy schedules produced persistent escape responding in extinction. Also, across therapy procedures, extended therapy generated more response persistence in escape extinction than did abbreviated therapy. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed, and a compatible new treatment program, labeled persistence training, is introduced.

Interference and facilitation produced by noncontingent reinforcement in the appetitive situation

“…Is the subject gaining approval or avoiding disapproval? In many experiments, both possibilities exist since positive ("right") feedback and negative ("wrong") feedback were employed (Benson & Kennelly, 1976;DankerBrown & Baucom, 1982;Griffith, 1977;Hiroto & Seligman, 1975;Klein, Fencil-Morse, & Seligman, 1976;Nation & Massad, 1978;Roth & Bootzin, 1974). Even when more direct positive reinforcers have been used, negative verbal feedback still occurred (Dweck & Reppucci, 1973).…”

The change and maintenance effectiveness of persistence training regarding the treatment of laboratory-induced and naturally occurring depression

“…Whether or not such attributions actually are responsible for previous and present findings, or whether such findings are due to an Amsel-type frustration effect (cf. Nation & Massad, 1978;Nation et al, 1979), the advance for behavior therapy is absolute ; namely, greater maintainance of change can be achieved via scheduleinduced persistence. Block4,and this pattern continued for remaining blocks.…”

“…To date, experimental inquiries relevant to establishing the validity and reliability of the therapeutic effects associated with the persistence training technique have Requests for reprints should be sent to Jack R. Nation, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station , Texas 77843. been restricted to populations in which the depression is mild and characterized as laboratory induced (e.g., Nation, Cooney, & Gartrell, 1979;Nation & Massad, 1978). Such a narrow approach to documenting the efficacy of the treatment program is understandable when one realizes that persistence training evolved from the literature on another laboratory phenomenon known as learned helplessness (cf.…”

“…Nation & Massad , 1978). The hallmark of the therapy model is the inclusion of a partial reinforcement phase (Stage 3).…”

Frustration: Theory and practice

“…Amsel muses over this issue in chapter 10 of Frustration Theory (1992), directing us to Nation and Woods (1980) for a compelling analysis of persistence training in psychotherapy, and noting other implications of the phenomenon for the human condition. Until recently, however, Amsel himself was more interested in establishing the scientific credentials offrustration as a critical source of motivation and discriminative control in behavior, as reviewed in the prior nine chapters of his book.…”