Self-study
Support A study found that patients referred by their doctors to psychotherapists practicing a new experimental form of therapy made more progress with respect to their problems than those referred to psychotherapists practicing traditional forms of therapy. ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that therapists using the new form of therapy are more effective than therapists using traditional forms. As support, he cites a study that found that patients referred to therapists practicing the new form made more progress than those referred to therapists practicing traditional forms.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of using unrepresentative samples, where the author draws a conclusion based on a sample that doesn't accurately reflect the whole group. In this case, the author concludes something about two types of therapists based on a study of patients referred to those therapists by doctors. But if the patients referred to therapists using the new form had problems that were easier to treat, the author can't conclude that these therapists are overall more effective.
18.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████
a
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███
Whether the two kinds of therapists use the same techniques is irrelevant. The conclusion is about which therapists are more effective, not which forms of therapy are more effective, and (A) doesn't change the fact that patients referred to the new therapists made more progress.
b
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████
The author draws a conclusion based on samples that probably aren't representative. He ignores the possibility that patients referred to therapists using the new therapy are just easier to treat, and their improvement could be due to that rather than to the therapists themselves.
c
It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ███████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████████
The author doesn’t assume that this. Instead, his conclusion is about therapists who practice traditional forms rather than the new form. Those therapists may still be trained in the new form and simply choose not to practice it.
d
It ignores the ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████████
Even if therapists practicing the new form of therapy are significantly different from those practicing traditional forms, this doesn’t change the fact that their patients made more progress. It also doesn’t weaken the conclusion that these therapists are more effective.
e
It presumes, without █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ █████████
The author never assumes that rapport doesn’t influence therapists’ effectiveness. Even if he did assume this, it wouldn’t impact the conclusion that the therapists practicing the new form are more effective because their patients made more progress.