Learned helplessness : a theory for the age of personal control

The theory of helplessness refers to the problems that follow in the wake of uncontrollability. First described in the 1960s to account for behaviour changes in laboratory animals, learned helplessness over the years has been applied to a variety of human problems entailing inappropriate passivity to demoralization. The best-known application of learned helplessness has been an explanation of depression, although numerous other extensions have been made, most recently to physical illness and death.