There was three groups the first group was the “no escape” group where they were tied up and shocked, the second group which was called the “escape group” who were also tied up but a panel was attached to their head and they were able to stop the shocks coming toward the on controlling the shocks and they ones they were attached to in the no escape group. The third group was the no harness group who just in a room doing nothing. In the no escape group and escape group received sixty four shocks in ninety seconds intervals, until the escape group stops the shocks with its head the shocking will continue. Then twenty four hours later they were put in a shuttle box where there are two sides when light appears on the floor there is an electric current going through so the dog will only have to jump over the barrier to the other side to escape the shocks. The no harness were successful of doing do but the escape group were more successful because of their past experiences, the no escape group just stood there because they were taught to be helpless proving Seligman’s theory.
By choosing mongrel dogs, it made the experiment valid because it those dogs are mix of different breeds. If Seligman chose another breed it would be a confounding variable because many people would argue that that breed acts differently than other dogs so the choice of picking the mongrel will help get rid of the confounding variable. Plus when Seligman chose dogs it also made a control group, because it help to test only one variable rather than mean which will make the result seem