If something fails three or four times, would you still persist? If you were to ask British author J.K. Rowling, I believe she would confidently say, "Of course, I will keep going!" J.K. Rowling is the author of the globally bestselling series "Harry Potter." Before the publication of "Harry Potter," she was not only rejected three or four times but was turned down a total of 12 times by 12 different publishers; these 12 rejections led her to experience learned helplessness, and she occasionally complained, "The welfare check can't buy a typewriter, and there’s always someone pushing the stroller away while I write in cafes." However, the repeated rejections did not deter her.
Regarding her work and the publishing process, she remained persistent, and when Bloomsbury accepted her manuscript with a £1,500 advance, J.K. Rowling finally welcomed her era.
From a psychological perspective, J.K. Rowling was actually caught in the Seligman effect. The Seligman effect has a lasting and profound negative impact on individuals; it is a demon that can lead you to a life of mediocrity and unachievement. The Seligman effect is also known as learned helplessness, as it results from enduring multiple failures and pains, leading to a state of giving up, abandoning struggle, and ceasing to make efforts. These five words reflect the reality of many young people in this era.
The Seligman effect originates from the research of American psychologist Martin Seligman on learned helplessness, and it was the failure of this experiment that made him successful. In 1967, Martin Seligman and his colleague Stephen conducted animal behavior research at the University of Pennsylvania; they aimed to prove the correctness of Pavlov's classical conditioning conclusion (that once a painful environment persists for a long time, individuals cannot change their situation). The researchers divided the experimental animals into three groups and placed them in three different scenarios: pressing a lever to stop the electric shock, random cessation of painful shocks, and not receiving shocks at all, which was unrelated to their behavior. After 24 hours, the experimenters transferred all the animals to an escape box, where they could avoid shocks simply by jumping over a low barrier. The results were striking: the animals in groups one and three quickly learned to escape, while the animals in group two remained in the painful environment, and even when they could escape, they merely whimpered, giving up the struggle to flee.
To ensure the rigor of the results, Seligman's team extended the experiment to humans, and the final results mirrored those of the animal experiments; when individuals were in a situation of random punishment, their cognition and behavior lost initiative, leaving only a passive acceptance. Conversely, when the environment was perceived as controllable, individuals' subjective initiative and sense of self-efficacy significantly increased.
In subsequent research, the experimental team found that not everyone who experiences uncontrollable setbacks falls into learned helplessness; the key lies in attributional style. Attributional style is divided into internal attribution (I am the root of all failures) and external attribution (the root of failure is objective, caused by multiple factors, not just myself). Learning external attribution is crucial for the transition from learned helplessness to learned optimism. The core cognition must shift from "I can't do this because of who I am" to "I can't do this because I gave up trying"; and J.K. Rowling's success exemplifies this, as she never gave up.
She also maintained her core sense of control over herself and her environment by attributing the rejections from publishers to "editorial personal preference" rather than the value of her work; this transformed her from learned helplessness to "learned optimism." If a different person with an internal attribution faced the reality of continuous rejection of their work, perhaps "Harry Potter" would still be overlooked; in fact, there is no task that cannot be done, only those who give up on doing it.
However, "what is learned from books is ultimately superficial; to truly understand, one must practice." The transition from learned helplessness to learned optimism is not merely a change of words; to truly make a change, you can try these methods: