Self-study
Psychologist: Support There are theories that posit completely different causal mechanisms from those posited by Freudian psychological theory and that are more successful at predicting human behavior. ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that Freudian theories should be abandoned in favor of other psychological theories. Why? Because those other theories are more successful at predicting human behavior.
Notable Assumptions
The author’s support is that the other theories are more predictive. But what if there are other relevant criteria for believing a scientific theory? If so, we might prefer Freudianism, even if it’s less predictive.
Consequently, the author must assume that being more predictive is, by itself, enough reason to prefer one scientific theory over another.
5.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ████████
a
Freudian theories have ███████ ███████████ ████████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████████
While this would help the author’s argument, it’s not necessary for him to assume. Even if Freudian theories offered suggestions which have been shown to be true, other theories might still be more predictive.
b
A psychological theory ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████████ ██████████ ██ ███
The author’s only support for abandoning Freudianism is its lack of predictive power, so he must assume this is true. If it weren’t, we might have reasons to stick with Freudianism, even if it’s less predictive.
c
Freudian theory has ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████████
Like (A), this would help the argument, but it isn’t necessary. Even if Freud’s theory has great predictive success, the other theories could still be more predictive.
d
Measuring the predictive ███████ ██ █ █████████████ ██████ ████████ ███████████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████
There’s no indication that the author thinks theories must be compared to be measured. He is comparing different theories, but he might believe they can be individually measured, without being compared to others.
e
Scientific theories become ███████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ██████ █ ███████ █████ ██ ███████████
The author’s basis for rejecting Freudianism is its lack of predictive power, not its complexity. Since this wouldn’t even apply here, we certainly can’t say the author believes this is true for all scientific theories.