TOEFL Speaking Task 3

In psychology, the concept of 'learned helplessness' refers to a condition in which an individual believes that they have no control over the outcomes of their actions, even when such control is actually possible. This belief often arises after repeated exposure to uncontrollable negative events, leading to passivity and a lack of effort to change situations. Learned helplessness can affect learning, motivation, and emotional well-being, and it is often studied in both animal and human experiments.

Professor: Let me give you an example from a classic experiment. Researchers placed dogs in a chamber with an electrified floor. In the first phase, the dogs were harnessed and could not escape the shocks, no matter what they did. After several trials, they stopped trying to avoid the shocks altogether. In the second phase, these same dogs were placed in a shuttle box with a low barrier that they could easily jump over to escape the shocks. However, instead of jumping, they simply lay down and whined, enduring the shocks passively. In contrast, a control group of dogs that had never experienced uncontrollable shocks quickly learned to jump over the barrier to avoid the shocks. The first group had learned that their actions were futile, so they gave up trying, even when escape was possible.