After subjecting their rats to various intensitiesof electric
shock,sometimesallowingthemthepossibilityofescapeand
sometimesnot, theexperimenterswereunableto determine
whatmechanismscouldbeconsideredcorrectinaccounting
for their
results.Nonetheless,theysaidthattheybelievedtheirresults
tobeimportantbecause“theyraisesomequestionaboutthe
validityof theconclusionsof thehundredsof experiments
conducted over the past 15 years or so.”^33
In other words, fifteen years of giving electric shocks to
animals may not have produced valid results. But in the
bizarre world of psychological animal experiments, this
findingservesasjustificationforyetmoreexperimentsgiving
inescapableelectricshocktoyetmoreanimalssothat“valid”
resultscanfinallybeproduced—andremember,these“valid
results” will still only apply to the behavior of trapped
animals subjected to inescapable electric shock.
Anequallysadtaleoffutilityisthatofexperimentsdesigned
to produce what is known as “learned
helplessness”—supposedlyamodelofdepressionin human
beings. In 1953 R. Solomon, L. Kamin, and L. Wynne,
experimentersatHarvardUniversity,placedfortydogsina
devicecalleda“shuttlebox,”whichconsistsofaboxdivided
intotwocompartments,separated byabarrier. Initiallythe
barrierwassetattheheightofthedog’sback.Hundredsof
intense electric shocks were delivered to the dogs’ feet
throughagridfloor.Atfirstthedogscouldescapetheshock
iftheylearnedtojumpthebarrierintotheothercompartment.
In an attempt to “discourage”one dog from jumping, the
experimentersforcedthedogtojumponehundredtimesonto
a gridfloor intheothercompartment thatalsodelivereda