Self-study
Psychologist: Conclusion Doctors should never prescribe sedatives for people with insomnia. ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████ █████ █████████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The psychologist concludes that doctors should never prescribe sedatives to insomniacs. Why? Because most insomnia cases treated by psychologists are caused by stress, which the psychologist takes as evidence that it needs to be treated with therapy rather than drugs.
Identify and Describe Flaw
There are several problems with this argument. First of all, the given evidence only applies to a subset of insomnia cases—ones treated by psychologists. Even among those cases, only most of them are caused by stress, so the psychologist goes wrong in drawing a conclusion about all insomnia cases.
Further, the psychologist presumes that psychotherapy is necessary to alleviate stress—it’s possible that drugs could also help. The argument fails to consider possible benefits of prescribing drugs and leaps to the conclusion that they should never be prescribed for insomnia patients.
15.
Each of the following describes █ ████ ██ ███ ██████████████ █████████ ███████
a
It presumes, without █████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████
The argument does not presume this, but rather, says that stress causes some cases of insomnia. The argument doesn't assume that insomnia affects stress or ability to cope with stress.
b
It fails to ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████
The argument’s evidence is limited to “most cases of insomnia that psychologists treat”. But other cases of insomnia might not be caused by stress. If drugs may be helpful for insomnia that isn't caused by stress, then we have some reason to prescribe sedatives for at least some people with insomnia.
c
It neglects the ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ █████████████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ███████
This points out the possibility that drugs might be more effective than psychotherapy for some cases of insomnia. So, there might be some reason to prescribe sedatives for at least some people with insomnia.
d
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███████
This argument assumes that just because stress causes some insomnia cases, drugs shouldn’t be prescribed for them. But, if drugs can reduce stress, then there isn’t a clear reason why doctors should always default to psychotherapy.
e
It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ █████████████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████
Similar to (B), this describes the problem with the argument’s evidence being limited to “most cases of insomnia that psychologists treat”. We’re not told anything about cases not treated by psychologists. It's possible that sedatives would be appropriate for cases of insomnia that aren't treated by psychologists.