Life lesson #207 from Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice

Helplessness induced by failure or lack of control leads to depression if a person’s causal explanations for that failure are global, chronic, and personal.

“Optimists” explain successes with chronic, global, and personal causes and failures with transient, specific, and universal ones. “Pessimists” do the reverse.

It is the pessimists and maximizers who are candidates for depression.