Control and Helplessness

Locus of control refers to the location where one believes control over life
events originates. An external locus of control is outside oneself; an internal
locus of control is within oneself. The individual who perceives that life
events are the result of luck, or are determined by others, is assuming an external
locus of control. The belief that one’s efforts and actions control
one’s own destiny reflects an internal locus of control. Internalizers are
thought to be more likely to assume responsibility for initiating necessary
lifestyle changes, to employ direct coping mechanisms when confronted
with stressful situations, and to be more optimistic about the possibility of
successfully instituting changes that are needed. This last characteristic is
sometimes called self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one is
able to do what is needed and attain the intended effect.

The concept of learned helplessness, on the other hand, produces feelings
of complete lack of control and a fatalistic acceptance of events. Martin
E. P. Seligman began to investigate this phenomenon in 1964. He found that
when people are faced with a situation which they can do nothing to prevent
or escape, they learn the attitude of helplessness. Seligman and colleagues
later investigated the question of why some people do not adopt this attitude.
They concluded that people who adopt a pessimistic explanatory style
become helpless when adversity is encountered, but that an optimistic explanatory
style prevents the development of learned helplessness.

Seligman has described the chain of events by which the pessimistic explanatory
style may lead to illness. Beginning with unfortunate experiences
such as a serious loss, defeat, or failure, the person with a pessimistic explanatory
style becomes depressed. The depression leads to depletion of a neurotransmitter
substance called catecholamine, and the body increases the
secretion of endorphins—the body’s naturally produced formof morphine.
When receptors in the immune system detect the increased presence of the
endorphins, the immune system begins to turn itself down. Any disease
agents that are encountered while the immune system is weakened have a
much greater likelihood of overwhelming the remaining defenses of the immune
system. This process is very similar to the situation faced by the individual
who contracts the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and develops
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). When the immune
system of the person with AIDS is unable to function effectively, opportunistic
infections against which the body could normally defend itself are able to
overtake it. It is those opportunistic infections that kill, rather than the HIV
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