"You've learned helplessness in seven minutes," Mr. Lavoie said.

It may also be a result of perceiving no challenge at all (e.g. the challenge is irrelevant to them, or conversely, they have learned helplessness).

It is likely, however, that she was beaten into a state of submission known to behavioral psychologists as "learned helplessness."

Depression may also mean a person has learned helplessness or is not interested in anything.

Those who are extremely shy, passive, anxious and depressed may learn helplessness to offer stable explanations for unpleasant social experiences.

That's one approach; it's what happens if you insist on trying to avoid being zapped and refuse to learn helplessness.

"It's learned helplessness," he says, "and when you feel helpless, that's a recipe for depression."

They learned helplessness fast enough, I reflected.

Many of these effects can be subsumed by the problems relevant to reactive attachment disorder, stress, fear of abandonment, learned helplessness, and guilt.

It may have been learned helplessness, which is known to cause chronic and severe depression.