Self-study
Support Those who participate in risky sports often do so to confront their fears. ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ████ █ ████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███████████ █████ █████ █████████ █████ ████████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that confronting one’s fears probably increases one’s self-confidence. This is based on the fact that people who participate in risky sports have more self-confidence than people who don’t participate in risky sports
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the correlation between participation in risky sports and self-confidence is explained by participation in risky sports causing more self-confidence. This overlooks the possibility of other explanations for the correlation. In particular, it’s possible people who are already more self-confident are more likely to participate in risky sports.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████
a
Often those who ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ████ █████
The author never suggested that everyone who suffers from a fear of heights will engage in activities to try to confront those fears. Some people might not be aware and might not do anything to confront their unknown fears.
b
In general, people ███ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████████████ ███████████████ ████ ██████ █████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
This raises the possibility that the causal relationship between risky sports and self-confidence is reversed. People who start off with higher self confidence are more likely to participate in risky sports, which could explain the correlation we observe.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or suggest an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for the target phenomenon.
c
Most people who ███████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ █ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███████
This has no clear impact on the argument. If anything, this might strengthen the argument by suggesting that it’s not a lack of confidence that causes people to choose not to participate in risky sports.
d
Participating in risky ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██ ████████ █████ ██████
The author never suggested that risky sports are the only way to confront one’s fears. We know people who do risky sports often do so to confront their fears, but maybe people confront fears in other ways, too. This doesn’t suggest risky sports might not increase confidence.
e
Most of those ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ███████████
This has no clear impact on the argument. This doesn’t provide an alternate explanation for the correlation between risky sports and higher self-confidence, nor does it provide evidence suggesting risky sports might not be the cause of higher self-confidence.