Learned Helplessness

"Did I really make this?"

Pettigrew found it hard to believe:

"But why do I seem to have no recollection of this? And now, looking at these questions, I seem to be unable to solve them again... Was I really not possessed by something just now?"

"You weren't possessed, you were just affected by magic."

Pettigrew looked at Manus in astonishment, only to see Manus shrug his shoulders:

"I didn't cast any spell to make you learn more about Transfiguration all at once—quite the opposite, I made you temporarily forget something."

"Forgot...?! What did I just forget?"

"You've forgotten one of your habits: the habit of feeling like you can't do anything right."

Pettigrew blinked, speechless for a moment.

Manus reached out and took the exam paper back from Pettigrew's hand, looked at it again, and revealed a look of certainty.

Habit is a terrifying force; it makes you believe you are someone else and accept it as normal. Unlike direct cognitive alteration, this change prevents you from even questioning it. There's a specific branch of Enchantment School that utilizes this principle...

Among the Enchantment School, which he was not particularly good at, Manus was quite skilled at this one, because the founder of this branch was his teacher.

However, these things are not very convenient to use in this world, because the practical application of this branch of magic is generally not very ethical.

Returning to the psychological and cognitive problems caused by this habit, Muggle research in psychology has also touched upon this area, especially regarding Pettigrew's case, which is known as learned helplessness.

When a person gets used to the fact that their efforts cannot change the outcome, and thus "learns" this "helplessness," they will remain in a state of "helplessness" even after they have the ability to change the outcome, unable to escape it.

This is reflected in animals; Muggle use circus elephants as an example. Young elephants cannot break free of their chains, injuring themselves all over, and eventually get used to the fact that they cannot break free of their chains, so they will not try to break free of their chains even when they are adults.

When it comes to people, it manifests as a person repeatedly trying and failing, then attributing their failures to an unchangeable factor, such as "I'm not capable enough." This leads to a loss of motivation, passivity, and even generalization to other broader situations.

This is a learned form of self-doubt, as well as an invisible psychological path dependency and a result of natural inertia.

Effort and thought are both tiring things. When a person truly accepts that "I am not capable enough, I cannot do it," then they have a reason to give up easily after making a little effort but seeing no change.

While some people in a state of learned helplessness endure countless failures, they also gain a sense of ease, thus becoming increasingly reliant on this psychological path of accepting failure and their own incompetence.

Once this psychological dependence is formed, unless someone is truly determined to change and accomplish something no matter what, they will no longer force themselves to put in their full effort to do something.

Manus suspected that Pettigrew had this tendency because of the numerous denials of his own abilities found in his self-narration.

It seems that if this crisis isn't overcome, it's certain death. Theoretically, even learned helplessness should have hit rock bottom and caused Pettigrew to unleash his true abilities. But it's not the final moment yet.

Thinking that it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, Manus gave Pettigrew that test paper.

When giving Regulus and Barty Jr. the test before, Manus was able to make the students forget it was a test and block out other thoughts. Now, he can naturally block out this unconscious laziness and assess a person's actual ability.

After all, Manus could do all sorts of things with this kind of habit, and isolating it from his influence wasn't particularly troublesome.

As for why we didn't include such magic on the exam paper before, it's because we felt it wasn't necessary. Adding magic takes thought and effort; why go through the trouble of doing something pointless when you have nothing better to do?

"Pettigrew, regardless of the circumstances that led you to believe you were inadequate, you are now far stronger than you were then, and your true strength exceeds your own perception."

Manus rolled up the scroll in his hand and stuffed it back into Pettigrew's arms:

"Keep this test paper safe. This is the real you. You can choose to accept your truth, or you can choose to stay in comfortable self-deception. In any case—you shouldn't face any life-threatening danger during the Animagus Transformation later."

Manus stood up, stretched, and walked towards the door.

"As a classmate, I hope you can become a better version of yourself, more in line with your own aspirations. As a good listener, once you leave this room, I won't tell anyone what I heard today."

After saying this, Manus left without waiting for Pettigrew's reply.

Speaking of which, should we tell Lily that Potter and the others plan to directly perform the Animagus Transformation?

Oh well, it's not a big deal anyway, and Potter and his friends might not even succeed this month. Even if they do succeed, they won't just transform this once; every full moon after that, they'll Transfiguration animals to accompany Lupin. Lily will know if she's been following this.

If Lily still can't figure it out, then let's wait until summer vacation to tell her. Ritual Magic is something she should learn, but since it won't bring much practical benefit in the short term, we can't let her delay it for too long.

As time went by, the final exam week arrived as scheduled. Before the exams, Dumbledore spoke with Manus, hoping that he would not use the Focus Charm on other students during the exams.

"The value of exams lies in testing students' abilities. Although this magic can't increase their knowledge or put them in danger, it also means that exams can't reflect their true abilities when they enter the workplace... What do you think?"

In theory, the Focus Charm should not be included in the list of prohibited uses. This is because it cannot actually help someone answer questions about knowledge they don't possess (like cheating with a quill pen), nor does it pose any danger to students (Wit-Sharpening Potion or Felix Felicis).

Whether it constitutes cheating for a Wizard to unleash their full potential through magic is a question that would be debated for a long time, even in Wizengamot.