PT126.S1.Q22

PrepTest 126 - Section 1 - Question 22

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Psychologist: It is well known that becoming angry often induces temporary incidents of high blood pressure. █ ██████ █████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████████ ████████

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author hypothesizes that psychological factors can cause heart disease. This is based on a study showing that people who are easily angered are more likely to have permanently high blood pressure than people with more calm personalities, and the fact that people with permanently high blood pressure are likely to have heart disease.

Notable Assumptions

The author assumes that the correlation between being easily angered and likelihood of having permanently high blood pressure is due to anger causing the permanently high blood pressure or due to calmness causing lower blood pressure. This overlooks the possibility that high blood pressure could make one easy to anger, or that there’s an alternate cause that leads to both anger and high blood pressure. The author also assumes that high blood pressure causes heart disease.

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22.

Which one of the following ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████████████ █████████

a

Those who are ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ███████

This relates to the relationship between anger and recovery from heart disease. But it doesn’t undermine a causal connection between anger and the initial presence of heart disease.

1%
b

Medication designed to ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███

Without knowing whether many people take this medication, or whether the effect on moods includes making one easily angered, (B) doesn’t do enough to suggest a reversed causal relationship between being easily angered and permanently high blood pressure.

Failed alternate explanation
20%
c

People with permanently ████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ █████████████ █████████ █████ ███████ █████ ████████

If anything, this could support the author’s hypothesis by showing that, despite permanently high blood pressure, calm personalities almost never get heart disease. This suggests that psychological factors may have a role to play in causing or inhibiting heart disease..

Directionally wrong
10%
d

Those who discover ████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █████ █████████████

Becoming more easily frustrated by small difficulties does not constitute being “easily angered.” So, (D) doesn’t suggest that the causal relationship between heart disease and being easily angered is reversed.

Failed alternate explanation
18%
e

The physiological factors ████ █████ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████

This provides an alternate causal explanation for the correlation between being easily angered and having perm. high blood pressure. If certain bodily factors lead to both, there doesn’t have to be a causal relationship between being easily angered and perm. high blood pressure.

Alternate explanation
51%

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