Self-study
Counselor: Support Constantly comparing oneself to those one sees as more able or more successful almost invariably leads to self-disparagement. ███████████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that people who refrain from comparing themselves to others will most likely be self-accepting and accepting of others. This is based on the fact that constantly comparing oneself with those one sees are more successful leads to self-disparagement. And, constantly comparing oneself with those one sees as less successful leads to be dismissive of others.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that there are no other ways to be self-disparaging and dismissive of others besides comparing oneself to those one sees as more successful or less successful. This overlooks the possibility that even if you stop comparing yourself to others, you might still self-disparage or dismiss others. The argument also assumes that if you’re not self-disparaging, you’ll be self-accepting, and that if you don’t dismiss others, you’ll accept others.
23.
The counselor's reasoning is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██
a
overlooks the possibility ████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████
This possibility doesn’t undermine the argument. Perhaps someone can compare oneself both to people thought of as more successful and people thought of as less successful. The author’s conclusion concerns what happens if you stop comparing yourself to anybody at all.
b
overlooks the possibility ████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██
The conclusion is not a recommendation that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others. It’s simply a description of what the author thinks will happen regarding self-acceptance and acceptance of others. Other benefits from comparison have no impact on this conclusion.
c
takes for granted ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████████████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████
One assumption is that NOT being self-disparaging implies self-acceptance, and NOT being dismissive of others implies accepting others. (C) wrongly turns this into the idea that being self-disparaging implies NOT self-accepting, and being dismissive implies NOT accepting others.
d
overlooks the possibility ████ ██████████████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████
If this possibility were true, the conclusion does not follow. Refraining from comparisons could not be expected to lead to avoidance of self-disparagement and dismissiveness if there were other things that caused these feelings. So overlooking this possibility is a flaw.
e
takes for granted ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████
The author is open to the idea that not all comparisons involve people you think of as better/worse. The author simply asserts that if you don’t compare yourself to anyone, you’ll avoid things that we know result from comparing yourself to people you think of as better/worse.