Learned industriousness is a behaviorally rooted theory developed by Robert Eisenberger to explain the differences in general work effort among people of equivalent ability. According to Eisenberger, individuals who are reinforced for exerting high effort on a task are also secondarily reinforced by the sensation of high effort. Individuals with a history of reinforcement for effort are predicted to generalize this effort to new behaviors. Operationalization of industriousness An individual is considered industrious if he or she demonstrates perseverance and determination in performing a task. This term has also been used interchangeably with work ethic, which is generally regarded as the attitude that hard work and effort is virtuous. Learned industriousness theory asserts that industriousness is developed over time through a history of reinforcement. Possible relationship to learned helplessness Learned helplessness is a term to explain a specific pattern of behavior that occurs in both animals and humans. When an animal or human is consistently exposed to an aversive condition (pain, unpleasant noise, etc.) and is unable to escape this condition, that animal or human will become helpless and stop attempting escape. The animal or human may develop motivational deficits, as demonstrated in learned helplessness experiments. In contrast, learned industriousness theory attempts to explain why some individuals are more motivated than others. In an attempt to merge these two phenomena, Eisenberger, Park, & Frank invoked learned industriousness in children by providing task-contingent verbal approval for a small group of behaviors, contrasting outcomes between a group of children conditioned to exhibit learned helplessness and a control group. On a subsequent approval-contingent task, children conditioned by task-contingent verbal approval outperformed controls. However, the learned-helplessness group performed no differently from controls. Antecedents of industriousness Effort Effort is the subjective experience of fatigue felt by the body when it is in motion or meets resistance. This fatigue can refer to both physical and mental fatigue depending on the task at hand. Until the theory of learned industriousness, effort was generally considered an aversive sensation. Hull summed up this concept with the Law of Least Effort, which asserts that individuals will choose a solution that minimizes effort for any given problem. Learned industriousness theory is considered an addendum to the Law of Least Effort. Relationship between effort and goal-setting strategies Individuals with high levels of industriousness have a history of applying great effort towards tasks. It has been demonstrated in many studies that different uses