Self-study
Researcher: Support A number of studies have suggested that, on average, clients in short-term psychotherapy show similar levels of improvement regardless of the kind of psychotherapy they receive. ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █████████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████████████████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that any improvement in short-term psychotherapy must be the result of some aspect that is in common with all psychotherapies. This is because various studies show that, on average, clients in short-term psychotherapy show similar levels of improvement regardless of the kind of psychotherapy they get.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there’s no other explanation for why people who get different kinds of psychotherapy, on average, experience the same levels of improvement besides the theory that all improvements from psychotherapy must come from something shared by all psychotherapies. This overlooks the possibility that, for example, different psychotherapies might have unique aspects that each produce a similar level of improvement.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████████
a
The methods by █████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████████ █████████ █████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████████
This shows that we can’t rely on the studies to make a conclusion about “any” improvement. (A) opens the possibility that different psychotherapies might lead to different levels of certain kinds of improvements due to aspects that are not in common with other psychotherapies.
b
On average, clients ███████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██████████████ █ ████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████████
The premises and conclusion are only concerned with short-term psychotherapy. The author never assumes anything about long-term psychotherapy, so it won’t weaken to point out some difference between long-term and short-term psychotherapy.
c
The studies found ████ █████████████ ██ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████████
The author suggests as an example that psychotherapies might help due to the presence of someone who listens. (C) is consistent with that proposal, since it could be the fact someone is listening that produces the improvements described.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
d
The specific techniques ███ █████████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ █████████ █████ ██ █████████████ ██████ █████████████
The author never suggested that the specific techniques and interventions can’t be different. The author simply hypothesizes that the improvement doesn’t come from those differences — it comes from something that’s similar between the psychotherapies.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
e
More-experienced therapists tend ██ ███ █ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ █████████████ ███████████
The author never suggested that different practitioners won’t use different ranges of techniques. The author simply hypothesizes that the improvement doesn’t come from any differences between the techniques used — it comes from something that’s similar among different therapies.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.