what happens to them (Beck, 1972). Severely depressed people sometimes
lack the motivation even to get out of bed in the morning. Little intereststhem, and they often believe that nothing they do will turn out well. Like the
dogs that lie whimpering in the shuttle-box, they seem to have given up on
their ability to do anything about their problems.
These observations led psychologists to suggest that depression some-
times develops in a manner similar to the way research participants acquire
learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975). That is, people perceive a lack ofcontrol over one important part of their lives and inappropriately generalize
that perception to other situations. A college student might have difficulty in
a particular class. No matter how hard she tries, she can ’ti m p r o v eh e rt e s t
scores. At first she studies harder and gets advice from other students, but
it doesn ’t seem to help. If it ’s important to her to do well in school, she
may continue her efforts to change her grade. However, at some point she
may decide that no matter what she does, she can ’t avoid the bad grade
that is bound to come at the end of the term. In other words, she has
learned she is helpless in this class. As a result, she may become mildlydepressed.
Unless other information is forthcoming to counteract these feelings, this
student may soon conclude there is no sense trying in other classes or in otherparts of her life, such as sports, friendships or keeping up her appearance. She
may decide she lacks control over most of life ’s outcomes and may eventually
lose the motivation to try. In learned helplessness terms, she has inappropri-
ately generalized her feelings of helplessness in one situation she can ’t control
to others that she might be able to control.
Consistent with this interpretation of depression, people who find
they cannot control relatively simple laboratory tasks, such as escaping the
irritating noise, show significant increases in depressed feelings (Bodner &
Mikulincer, 1998; Burger & Arkin, 1980). Other support for a learnedhelplessness –depression connection comes from research with animals. Investiga-
tors find changes in neurotransmitters and receptors in animals exposed to ines-capable shock are similar to what we see in the neurotransmitters and receptorsof depressed individuals (Dwivedi, Mondal, Payappagoudar, & Rizavi, 2005;
Ferguson, Brodkin, Lloyd, & Menzaghi, 2000; Joca, Zanelati, & Guimaraes,
2006; Kram, Kramer, Steciuk, Ronan, & Petty, 2000; Maier & Watkins, 2005).In particular, the neurotransmitter serotonin appears to play a role in the develop-
ment of both learned helplessness and depression.
Data from many different sources suggest exposure to uncontrollable
events can be a cause of depression. But one difference between laboratory-
induced learned helplessness and genuine depression needs to be addressed.
Learned helplessness in laboratory animals is short, typically lasting no morethan a few days in rats and dogs (Maier, 2001). But clinical depression often
lasts considerably longer, in some cases for years. One explanation for this
discrepancy is that there are many different causes of depression, only one ofwhich is learned helplessness. Another possibility is that, in a sense, people
suffering from depression continually relive the initial helplessness induction.
Depressed patients typically ruminate about the causes of their depression400 CHAPTER 14 The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach