The Effect of LEARNED HELPLESSNESS on the Adaptation to College Life

Purpose: College life is perhaps the largest task of college students during the late period of their youth in their developmental phase, which is also a crucial task directly leading to their future satisfaction of life. However, college students in Korea are admitted without a proper preparation due to their academic centric education and blind focus on grades and scores, thereby undergoing much confusion in the process. This paper presents data of importance to help a successful adaptation to college life by clarifying the effect of the learned helplessness formed through the repeated failures on the adaptation to college life in detail. While previous studies have been limited on the effect of the learned helplessness on the learning process, this study seeks to specifically verify the effect on the adaptation to college life. Method: By undertaking reference research, the factors impeding the successful adaptation to college life are identified, while the concept, characteristics, and the basic aspects of the factors are summarized, and how the factors cause a negative effect on the adaptation to college life is clarified in detail. Result: Learned helplessness brings about negative predictions even under new circumstances even while re-peated failures are experienced. The negative expectations formed as such cause the loss of new attempts or practical behaviors, thereby gravely impeding the behavioral practice required for the adaptation to college life. This further causes a serious negative impact on the formation of self identity and career path development. To form the self identity and develop an appropriate career path, one needs to have a positive attitude and find and practice various activities, yet being trapped in the learned helplessness causes passive attitude, negatively im-pacting the achievement of any developmental task. Moreover, learned helplessness causes negative emotions including dpression and anxiety, while impeding the emotional adaptation to college life. Conclusion: As examined throughout this study, it was discovered that the learned helplessness causes a neg-ative impact on the adaptation to college life across various areas. Therefore, colleges and universities ought to actively make efforts for the successful adaptation to college life by rolling out various programs which can help their students address the learned helplessness.