Aggression during Learned-Helplessness Pretraining as a Coping Response

This study examined the effects of the opportunity to aggress during pretraining for learned helplessness. While rats individually given inescapable shock showed deficits in subsequent chain-pull escape, the performance of rats given inescapable shock in pairs did not differ from that of animals exposed to escapable shock or no shock. These results are interpreted as contrary to the prediction of the learned-helplessness hypothesis and are consistent with the notion that shock-induced aggression serves an adaptive function.