Abstract

COMMENTARIES Ian H. Gotlib University of Western Ontario theoretical formulation of depression, they appear now to In the mid-1970s, Martin Seligman and his colleagues have become inviolable, applied to phenomena far removed presented a conceptualization of depression in which de- from the disorder they were originally postulated to describe. pressive symptoms were postulated to develop from a per- I agree with Peterson that, as much as possible, the the- ception that one's actions were ineffective in altering the oretical issues being addressed in any particular investigation outcome of an important event. This perceived lack of con- should dictate the dimensions of causal explanations that are trol was labeled learned helplessness. On the basis of the assessed. Although researchers may in fact end up examining results of subsequent empirical studies indicating inconsis- internality, stability, or globality, it is imperative that they tencies in people's responses to uncontrollability, Abramson, have a clear theoretical rationale for doing so. Peterson has Seligman, and Teasdale (1978) refined the concept of learned performed an important service by raising this issue. helplessness. In their reformulation, Abramson et al. empha- Peterson's reasoning becomes less clear, however, as he sized the importance of an individual's habitual style of