The purpose of this study was to identify the degree of learned helplessness and self-care agency in dialysis patients and the relationship between learned helplessness and self-care agency. The subjects were 168 dialysis patients who were undergoing hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis from 1 university hospital, 1 hospital, 1 hemodialysis center in Seoul, 1 hospital in Incheon, Korea. The data were collected with two interview questionnaires which were Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS) and Self-as-Carer Inventory (SCI). The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test, One-way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation with SPSSWIN program. Results were obtained as follows : 1) The mean scores of learned were 45.93(range 20-80). The mean learned helplessness scores of peritoneal dialysis patient and hemodialysis (HD) patient were not different significantly. However by the aging process, the mean scores of learned helplessness has a tendency to get higher and who had a job were likely to low score of learned helplessness. 2) The mean scores of self-care agency were 142.48 (range 33-198). The mean self-care agency scores of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient much higher than the score of it with hemodialysis. The score of self-care agency were significantly different between peritoneal dialysis patient and hemodialysis patient. The patients who have job were likely to be higher score of self-care agency than other groups. 3) There was significant relationship between the score of learned helplessness and self-care agency. In conclusion, there was an inverse relationship between learned helplessness and self-care agency in dialysis patients. Considering this, the high level of learned helplessness of dialysis patients should be intervened by nurse with a well developed edicational program or cognitive behavioral therapy.