In critically reviewing learned helplessness literature, P. H. Blaney (1977) has noted that most of the current support for this model rests on studies that induce or reduce helplessness in college student Ss. This research, employing a psychiatric population, addressed two issues Blaney suggested as in need of clarification: (1) the role of reduction in perceived control as an antecedent to clinical depression; and (2) the specificity of learned helplessness to depression as a diagnostic category. (Author/RK)