TOEFL Speaking Task 3

The concept of 'learned helplessness' refers to a psychological state in which an individual, after repeatedly facing uncontrollable negative events, begins to believe that their actions have no effect on outcomes. This belief leads to passive behavior and a failure to escape or change future situations, even when escape or change becomes possible. Learned helplessness often develops through a process of conditioning, where the individual generalizes past experiences of failure across new contexts.

Professor: To illustrate learned helplessness, let me describe an experiment with dogs. In the first phase, dogs were placed in a chamber with a mild electric shock. One group could stop the shock by pressing a panel with their nose—they learned control. The other group received the same shocks but had no control—the panel did nothing. In the second phase, both groups were placed in a shuttle box with a low barrier. When the shock began, they could easily jump over the barrier to escape. The dogs from the first group quickly learned to jump over. However, the dogs from the uncontrollable group—they just lay down and whined, even though escape was easy. They had learned that nothing they did mattered, so they didn't even try. That's learned helplessness in action.