"It was obvious that highly-qualified job-seekers consistently submit sometimes hundreds of applications. They then wait. They hear nothing. Or they receive automated rejections sometimes many weeks or months later. What the job seekers describe is not just disappointment but something deeper, a growing sense that nothing they do matters anymore. Neuroscience has a name for this state of mind and emotion. It is not weakness nor lack of effort; it is learned hopelessness, which our brains are amazingly sensitive to."
"Baratta, Seligman, and Maier (2023) explain that the brain is constantly monitoring whether our actions lead to controllable outcomes. Believing that outcomes are controllable gives hope and increases a sense of power to overcome a problem. When effort reliably produces results, stress responses are likely to remain flexible and temporary. But when effort (e.g. applying for jobs) is repeatedly met with silence, randomness, or rejection regarding job opportunities, a different stress pattern takes hold."
Repeated, uncontrollable job-search setbacks produce learned hopelessness by signaling the brain that actions do not affect outcomes. The brain constantly monitors controllability; perceived control engages prefrontal circuits and suppresses stress-related brainstem responses. When effort fails to produce results, stress responses become persistent and draining. Experiencing even small degrees of control restores agency, activates resilience circuits, and buffers psychological harm. Job-seeking demands require self-care, social support, and strategies that restore a sense of agency to reduce burnout. Controllability can be learned, and resilience can be cultivated through practices that re-establish action-outcome contingencies.
Read at Psychology Today
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