Tests the egotism hypothesis for poor performance following insoluble problems, and investigates the contribution of egotistic mechanisms to performance in perceived group affiliation and helpless threat conditions. Reports that participants in the failure and group-affiliation conditions performed better than others. Observes that this supports…

Gotlib and Asarnow suggest that learned helplessness may not adequately model clinical depression. They reply to Rohsenow's criticism that Gotlib and Asarnow's conclusions are unwarranted because the null hypothesis is not demonstrated by a single study and because adequate diagnostic criteria are not presented. (Author/BEF)

Principles arising from aspects of Vygotsky's ideas for the development of self regulation and from cognitive social learning theory are discussed. It is suggested that present methods of teaching mathematics are not adequate and that the use of instructional technology is needed to overcome the shortcomings. (JAZ)