托福口语 Task 3

The concept of 'learned helplessness' refers to a psychological state in which an individual, after repeated exposure to uncontrollable negative events, begins to believe that their actions have no effect on outcomes. This belief leads to passive behavior and a failure to act even when opportunities to escape or improve the situation become available. Learned helplessness often arises when a person internalizes a lack of control, generalizing it across different situations. The phenomenon has been studied extensively in both animals and humans, and it can be overcome through therapeutic interventions that restore a sense of agency.

Professor: Let me give you an example from a classic experiment. In a study with dogs, researchers placed them in a shuttle box—a box divided into two compartments by a low barrier. First, they gave the dogs a series of electric shocks that they could not escape, no matter what they did. After this phase, they placed the same dogs in the shuttle box where a tone signaled that a shock was coming. If the dog jumped over the barrier, it could avoid the shock entirely. However, most dogs did not jump. They just lay down and whined, even though the barrier was low enough for them to easily jump over. In contrast, a control group of dogs that had never experienced inescapable shocks quickly learned to jump over the barrier to avoid the shock. This illustrates the core idea: the dogs learned that their actions had no effect, so they gave up trying, even when escape was possible.