An offshoot of the behavioral model is Aaron Beck's cognitive-behavioral view of depression. Beck believes "depressives suffer from a kind of basic thinking that distorts reality" (Papalia & Olds, 1988).
Depressives, according to Beck, distort reality by harboring negative feelings about anything and everything. They tend to take things too personally and believe the future is bleak and dim (Papalia & Olds, 1988). These inferior feelings, Beck believes, lead to more negative experiences for the depressive. In turn, the depressive develops more thoughts of worthlessness and inferiority (Schwartz & Schwartz, 1993). Often a depressive expects too much of him or herself, Beck believes (Papalia & Olds, 1988). Failure is an accepted way of life and the depressive believes there is nothing he or she can do about it (Papalia & Olds, 1988). Learned helplessness is the result.
To demonstrate the learned helplessness theory, Martin Seligman conducted an experiment using two sets of dogs and a shuttle box. The shuttle box was constructed so there were two parts. One half of the box contained electrodes on the floor to emit electricity, while the other half of the box was normal. In the middle of the box a barrier was placed.
The first set of dogs were placed in the box and administered shocks. Initially they would react by jumping around. Eventually they jumped over the barrier to the safe zone. After awhile Seligman installed a warning device for the dogs, such as a light that would dim. The dogs learned that when the light dimmed, the electricity was coming. They were able to jump over the barrier to the other side without getting shocked.
The second set of dogs was also placed in the box, but they were unable to escape the shocks. Seligman then gave them an opportunity to avoid the shocks, but these dogs didn't learn that when the light dimmed they were going to be shocked. Instead, they lied dormant and whimpered when the electricity was turned on.
The second set of dogs, Seligman concluded, had been taught helplessness. They believed that no matter how much they tried to escape the shocks, the shocks were still going to be present (Comer, 1992).