Good job, brantly. Though I feel old, as Seligman’s newer theories on happiness and optimism were presented well after I finished grad school.
Folks here seem to be conflating the psychological concept of learned helplessness with dependence or passivity. While it is more like the latter than the former, it isn’t the same as having someone else do things for you and then having to fly by the seat of your pants.
My brother had never done laundry before he went to college. But he know to separate whites from darks and he used bleach with his undies. A LOT of bleach. They became religious underthings… holy tighty whities. Had to replace all of them. This is what in the psychology field is known as one trial learning 