The Study on Relationship Between Learned Helplessness and Adjustment among Young Adults

One of the major challenges to mankind in today’s world is the unending need to adjust to the rapidly changing and often conflicting social intuitions such as the family, peer group networks, occupation, economic changes, wars and even various ideological changes that are sweeping the world. In fact, the whole course of evolution is a process of adjusting to the ever-impinging changes. The word “adjustment” became popular in psychology during the 1930s. Shaffer (1936) in his book, The Psychology of Adjustment, assigned biological adaptation as the central meaning of the term adjustment. This somewhat mechanistic view represents the then predominant view of behavior held by behaviorists. Learned helplessness is thought to contribute to feelings of anxiety and may influence the onset, severity, and persistence of conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). When you experience chronic anxiety, you may eventually give up on finding relief because your anxious feelings seem unavoidable and untreatable. Because of this, people who are experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety or depression may refuse medications or therapy that may help relieve their symptoms. Therefore, both these topics and their relationship with each other are studied in this research for young adult population. The study focuses on studying the relationship between learned helplessness on adjustment and differentiates the relationship based on Gender, Socioeconomic status, Habitation (hosteller or day scholars). The study is conducted on 129 students from the age group of 19-21 pursuing their under-graduation degree in arts, engineering and medicine. The study is conducted using 2 questionnaires, 1. Learned Helplessness scale developed by G.P Mathur and 2. Adjustment Scale by Dr. D.N Srivatsava and Goving Tiwari. The samples are collected using purposive sampling method from the above-mentioned sample group. Pearson’s correlation was done to study the relationship and except for male population, every other division (female, low socioeconomic status, high socioeconomic status, hosteller, day scholar) showed insignificant or weak direct type of relationship between learned helplessness and adjustment, for male population showed insignificant or weak indirect type of relationship for the same. (Keyword: Adjustment, Learned Helplessness, Young Adult)