Learned helplessness describes the state in which a person — after repeated experiences of being unable to control negative events — stops trying to change situations, even when control would be possible. The learning that "nothing I do matters" generalizes and produces passivity, sadness, and cognitive deficits similar to depression.
Concept origin
Seligman and Maier (1967) described the phenomenon in dogs exposed to inescapable shocks. Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978) reformulated the theory including causal attributions: people become depressed when they attribute failure to internal, stable, and global causes.
Therapeutic approach
Therapy addresses learned helplessness through behavioral activation (experiences of real success) and restructuring of causal attributions: questioning whether failure was truly internal, stable, and global, or whether external, temporary, and specific factors were determinant.
Related concepts
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