The despair stage model of grief is marred by a period of learned helplessness. The environmental threat that the person feels may feel a pattern of failure after experiencing a series of ineffective response.  The person may give up individual effort to alleviate, solve the environmental crisis and accept the reality.  This may stem from an individual’s sense of whether a person can control the situation over his or her life internally or externally – locus of control.

This acts as a sort of filter through which one sees the experience and serve as a motive towards action or inaction. Two types of people exist

(1) internals: people who believe they have an internal locus of control believe that they can spur into action and influence life outcomes.

(2) externals: people who believe they have an external locus of control believe that individual action will have little to influence their life outcomes.

The belief that we can influence our environment corresponds to whether a person experiences positive or negative outcomes – perceived control. Good physical and mental health stems from a person’s feeling and importance of perceived control. Those who had a high sense of control over their future were less likely to experience subsequent health complications than people who have a low sense of control.

The decision individual engages can also be accounted for via reciprocal determinism. It is the process in which cognition, behaviour and the environment mutually influence each other and reinforces each other. The environmental problems (environment) arise a feeling of eco-guilt. The individual may adopt an external locus of control and low perceived control (cognition). The eco-guilt then culminated in an individual unwillingness to act via learned helplessness (behaviour).