Reductions in experienced control and depression in psychiatric inpatients: A test of the learned helplessness model

Abstract

Used a measure of reduction in experienced control to investigate two aspects of the learned helplessness model of depression. Consistent with this model, psychiatric inpatients who reported reduced control over life events prior to hospitalization were significantly more depressed than individuals who reported no such reductions. Locus of control (I-E) was not related to depression scores, and it was suggested, in light of previous research, that future research on the antecedents of depression employ more specific measures of control rather than measures of generalized expectancies. Additionally, depressives as a diagnostic group reported greater reduced control than chronic schizophrenics, paranoid schizophrenics, and patients with personality disorder diagnoses. These results were interpreted as supporting the specificity of learned helplessness to depression. It was suggested that research on learned helplessness and depression, which has relied on college student analogues, can be complemented profitably by studies of reduced experienced control within clinical populations.