The learned helplessness model has been abandoned for depression because experimenters themselves came to accept that it was not a good model for depression and that the label 'learned helplessness' was even wrong—the behavior was more biologically innate than learned—but researchers subsequently proposed using it as a model for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

factualpending

Speaker

Peter Singer

Evidence Quote

although it's now accepted by the experimenters themselves that this was not a good model of depression

Source

Animal Minds & Moral Truths: A Conversation with Peter Singer (Episode #342)Sam Harris
Created: 8/12/2026, 6:38:38 PM

My Notes

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