Self-study
Support Psychologists recently conducted a study in which people from widely disparate cultures were asked to examine five photographs. ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ █████ █████ ████████████████ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that people are genetically predisposed to associate certain facial expressions with certain basic emotions.
What makes the author think this?
Because in a study, people from widely different cultures were asked to examine five photos. Each photo showed the face of someone expressing one of five different basic emotions. The people were asked to identify the emotions being displayed. For each photo, everyone in the study agreed on the emotion being displayed.
Notable Assumptions
Where does the author get the idea that we have a “genetic predisposition” to associate facial expressions with emotions? Just because people agreed on the emotions shown in the photos? Couldn’t that be a result of cullture — people learn what certain emotions look like? The author assumes that the fact people from widely different cultures all agreed on the emotions being displayed is evidence of a genetic explanation for that agreement.
15.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
For each photograph, ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ████ ██ █████ ████████
Not necessary, because even if the emotion the subjects agreed on was not the emotion the person photographed was in fact feeling, that person could still have been expressing that emotion. What matters is the emotion the person expressed, not what they actually felt internally.
b
One's emotional disposition ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument isn’t trying to explain the cause of someone’s emotional disposition (how they tend to feel). The argument concerns what explains why people agreed on the emotion being expressed in certain photographs. How the people who were looking at the photographs felt emotionally is irrelevant.
c
Some behaviors that ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███████████
Not necessary, because (C) would actually undermine the argument if assumed. The author assumes that the behavior of the people in the study was NOT the product of culture. The author does not have to assume that anything IS the product of culture.
d
If there is █ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ █ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ████ █████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the fact that a behavior is common to people of widely different cultures does NOT indicate probable genetic predisposition for that behavior — then we have no reason to think that the fact people agreed on the emotions shown in the photos indicates a genetic predisposition. The author believes that the universal agreement, between people of widely different cultures, on the emotions displayed in the photos is evidence of a genetic origin for the identification of those emotions.
e
The people whose █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████████
Not necessary, because the negation would arguably help the argument. If the people in the photos were ALL from the same culture, and yet everyone from the widely disparate cultures still identified the same emotions for each photo, that tends to suggest culture may not have played a role in the identification. Because even someone who did not share the culture of the person in the photos still agreed on the emotion displayed.