Self-study
P1
Recent investigations into the psychology of decision making have sparked interest among scholars seeking to understand why governments sometimes take gambles that appear theoretically unjustifiable on the basis of expected costs and benefits. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Recent psychology findings are interesting for political scientists
The political scientists are trying to understand why governments take unreasonable risks.
Recent Findings ·
Risk-taking is common strategy to avoid loss
People's subjective value can be significantly different from objective value. This is might be explained by loss aversion, the idea that being in possession of something makes that thing subjectively worth more to me than it's objectively worth. For example, if I stand to lose something that I already own, I will take risks to avoid that loss. But, if I stand to gain that same thing, I won't be equally likely to take risks.
P2
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Previous Theory ·
Risk-avoidance is the generally applicable strategy
Previously, the theory was that people prefer to be risk-avoiding, not risk-taking. If fact, they would need sufficiently high payoff to compensate for taking the risk.
Example ·
$300 is the minimum payoff for 50% chance of willing the payoff or losing $100
Even though, rationally, any amount more than $100 yields positive expected value. For example, I'd take the gamble if the payoff was $101. Half the time I lose $100 but the other half I gain $101. So each time I play, I expect to gain $0.50. But most people won't even play for $200 or $250. They need the payoff to be $300 in order to play. That's how much they hate taking a risk. This illustrates the theory that people prefer risk-avoidance.
Challenge: Recent Findings ·
Risk-taking is common strategy to avoid loss
If the choice is between (1) a sure loss or (2) a significant chance of losing even more + a small chance of losing nothing, then the preference is for the risk-taking choice.
P3
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Application ·
Recent findings of risk-taking as applied to international politics
Example ·
Falkland Islands / Malvinas
Both Britain and Argentina was faced with choosing between (1) a sure loss of the island or (2) a significant chance of an even greater loss (war) + a small chance of no loss (get to keep the island). They made the risk-taking choice. Each party's subjective value of the island was greater than the objective value.
Passage Style
Single position
25.
The passage can be most ██████████ █████████ ██
a
a psychological analysis ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████████
There’s no indication that the decisions at issue are “collective” decisions (made by a group).
b
a presentation of █ █████████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ████
The author doesn’t present any test cases to evaluate a hypothesis. The reference to Britain and Argentina and the Falkland islands is offered as an example of a situation the author believes shows that nations can be influenced by the perception of having lost something. But the author isn’t testing a hypothesis out using this historical example; the author has already through their view and is presenting the example as support for the view.
c
a suggestion that █████████████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████████
If anything, this is reversed. The author suggests certain scholars of international conflict should incorporate the findings of psychologists.
d
an examination of ████ ███ █████████████ ██████████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ███████
This is the best answer. The passage examines new psychological considerations (from “recent investigations) regarding risk and their application to another field of inquiry (the field of international conflict and crisis).
e
a summary of ███ ████████ ███████ ███ █████████████ █████████████ ██████ ███ █████████
The author doesn’t summarize two possible ways to understand international conflicts. The author describes the previously accepted view about decision-making and reports on a new finding that is relevant to international conflict. But this just involves the inclusion of additional factors that are likely part of decision-making; this doesn’t constitute a separate way to understand international conflicts.