I caught up on the debate and I think you are discussing the wrong thing. In fact, I think you don't even have different opinions, you just use different words. The two of you both think that Solas has given up on trying to find other solutions for the problem at hand and feels restricted to one course of action. The only bit where you differ is that midnight thinks he's done so because he doesn't know what else to do (though he might not even like his own plan) while DarkSun thinks he's done so because he believes that the plan he came up with is also the best thing he can do, thus he doesn't try finding an alternate solution any longer. But, really, that difference is minor and we just cannot know anyway.
Moreover I think that midnight's use of the term "learned helplessness" just lead to misunderstanding simply because she doesn't use it the way it was intended to be used. Because:
Giving up and thinking that he has to do what is necessary to be done/is right are not two mutually exclusive things. It's erroneous to assume that a person has to be motivated just by one thing (be it learned helplessness, conviction that one is right or else), when we know these situations are more complex than that. This is why I said that his situation has "a lot" to do with learned helplessness, but not absolutely everything.
"Learned helplessness" is not a motivation and it is nothing a person thinks about (or even can think about). It is a learned inactivity pattern, it applies to a specific stimulus, most likely even to a particular situation, and it was acquired subconsciously. It is not like a decision I make based on thought and consideration, after weighing all pros and cons. I just react and it is a strong reaction, as the scientists found out, which can only be broken by demonstration and not by persuasion. This makes it a rather "absolute" concept; there's just so little you can do about it once it's manifested itself.
So I could say your statement above is sort of correct but in fact it also shows that you apply the very phrase "learned helplessness" in a different context than how it should be used (because what you suggest does not work for this concept).
It doesn't make sense only because you think about it in a simplistic fashion, it seems. There is no contradiction if you understand that learned hopelessness, or even just the concept of giving up doesn't always mean giving up entirely and just, say, lie on the floor, completely defeated -
Well, in fact, yes. That is just what it means. This specific term specifically came from a specific experiment with dogs. It was coined by these men who noticed that the dogs (generalized to "animals") would do just that -- lay down and whine when shocked, just enduring the pain without even trying to move (= act) at all. It is the very basic notion of "learned helplessness" and whenever psychology uses this term for people, basically re-assigns it, it still refers to these people being inactive due to the perceived helplessness and loss of control.
it also means resigning oneself to certain outcomes, or never expecting that they'd be able to overcome certain obstacles even if they try.
Exactly. And because people resign, according to the theory of learned helplessness, they don't do anything at all (basically saving energy: because nothing I could possibly do will bring relief I just don't do anything at all because it's not worth the energy I'd invest). It's not part of the concept that the dogs take up arms and assault their tormentors because they don't expect that anything they do will change their situation.
Actually, you sort of contradict your own citation of the learned helplessness theory because you acknowledge that Solas wants to improve the world and thinks that only destruction of the status quo will achieve this -- he hopes, he wants, he plans to improve, he acts. This is not at all the concept of "giving up trying because of learned hopelessness". He does try. Simply he has set his mind on a particular goal and stubbornly follows the respective path.
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What I am pointing out is just that I think you use the wrong term and got into a debate over it. In psychology, most terms and concepts are coined for very specific phenomena and observations. "Learned helpnessness" is not a broad as you interpret it (or let's say: not intended to be used as broadly). But your opinion itself about giving up etc I do not comment on at all. Of course he has given up somehow. And of course nothing in life is quite as absolute. I agree with you there. So, again, I don't say one of you is right and the other is wrong (in fact I even think you don't differ so much).