Martin Seligman's Hope Circuit: Definition and Fundamentals

Positive psychology founder Martin Seligman published a book titled Hope Circuit in 2018., which managed to captivate many readers. It covers his life from his childhood to the present, and also reveals the visionary stories behind his most important investigations. Within these, the theory of learned helplessness stands out since it manages to give it one more turn and thus generate a new point of view on it.

Does the term learned helplessness ring a bell? It refers to the condition of a person or animal that has learned to behave passively in situations that he has classified as uncontrollable. In addition, to this is added the subjective feeling of not having the ability to do anything to change the current situation. As a result, passivity is born even though there are real opportunities to change the aversive situation.

In this regard, in today's article, we will analyze the book circuit of hope published by Seligman, where revolutionizes the concept of learned helplessness and introduces the concept of hope circuit. What do you mean by this? Read on to find out.

• We recommend you read: "Learned helplessness: delving into the psychology of the victim"

hope circuit

The circuit of hope is designated by Seligman as NDR-CPFM. It is a complex functioning brain structure attached to the prefrontal cortex. Linking it to the concept of learned defenselessness commented above, in the face of negative events or threats prolonged, the body acts through learned helplessness, which increases our levels of anxiety.

However, this is where our brain processes come into play and help us dampen that passivity that is activated "by default". With all this, Seligman realizes that learned helplessness would be the default response for mammals. However, Human beings have this "new" circuit, that of hope, through which we learn to dominate, control and mitigate threats.

Going a step further, thanks to the hope circuit, we can learn (and also teach) that future negative threats (or negative events), can become controllable, and that helps protect us from helplessness, passivity, and anxiety.

learned helplessness

As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, learned helplessness is a set of emotions, feelings, physiological symptoms and behaviors characterized by discouragement, abandonment, passivity and inaction in the face of negative or unpleasant scenarios, from which any person would like to escape. People who fall into this state interpret that their behavior has no effect on the environment and 'learn' to do nothing, even if they are having a very bad time.

It is something similar to giving up, giving up or 'throwing in the towel' when you have the feeling that our problem has no way out or its resolution is far from our reach. Any attempt at a solution will seem useless. All this responds to a purely subjective experience, but those who suffer from it cannot see operational alternatives to improve.

Learned helplessness flourishes when a subject has repeatedly faced certain situations without his actions having managed to have the effect they really wanted. This ends up leading to a feeling of helplessness and the perception that what surrounds them is uncontrollable and that, therefore, it is best to do nothing.

In fact, even when the result is the desired one, the subject tends to think that it has not been produced by the actions carried out, but by pure chance or because it should be so.. As a result, it is not surprising that the person who suffers from learned helplessness ends up having a serious self-esteem problem.

In addition, this is increased by a lack of extreme motivation. All this means that the will of the subject himself is always subordinated to any external aspect. Even in extreme cases, depressive and anxiety symptoms may arise.

The threats

Throughout the article, we have been talking about the connection between learned helplessness, the hope circuit, and threats. In this regard, it should be noted that, according to Seligman, as the organism evolved over the years, it became more complex. With this, he began to identify and anticipate possible threats.

Likewise, to face threats we develop behavioral and cognitive abilities. Control of these threats was possible even with prolonged threats. In this way, in the face of prolonged threats, we activate energy adjustments in the organism. We also activate passivity mechanisms, but these mechanisms are blocked when we activate the control.

conclusions

Seligman himself, with his team, managed to understand that within the human brain there is a cerebral circuit that allows you to always live in hope. In such a way that hope will always be in humans and that no matter how much sorrows bring them down, it will shine showing that there is a north to walk, follow and trust. There will always be a new dawn, always achievable. And so that there is no gap between the hope of psychology and the hope of theological virtue, I must quote Seligman's abbreviated phrase: "Between science and religion, one can understand all".