Self-study
Psychiatrist: Support In treating first-year students at this university, I have noticed that those reporting the highest levels of spending on recreation score at about the same level on standard screening instruments for anxiety and depression as those reporting the lowest levels of spending on recreation. ████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that first-year students with high levels of spending on recreation can reduce spending without increasing their anxiety or depression. This is based the fact that at a particular university, the first-year students reporting the most spending on recreation score the same level on anxiety/depression tests as those who report the lowest-levels of spending on recreation.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the students reported spending amounts reflect actual spending amounts. The author assumes that students who spend in between the highest and lowest amounts on recreation don’t have higher rates of depression/anxiety than the students with the highest spending. The author assumes that the first-year students at this university are representative of first-year students in general.
22.
Each of the following, if █████ ███████████ ███ ██████████████ ████████ ███████
a
At other universities, ██████████ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████
This strengthens by providing evidence that the results at the university in the stimulus aren’t unrepresentative.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
b
Screening of first-year ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████
This strengthens by eliminating the possibility that moderate spending is associated with higher depression/anxiety. This supports the claim that students with high spending can decrease their spending without becoming more depressed/anxious.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
c
Among adults between ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████
If anything, this might undermine the argument by associating increased spending on recreation with decreased anxiety/depression. This would suggest reducing spending might lead to more anxiety/depression.
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 screening instruments ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██████████ █████████
This strengthens by affirming the reliability of the screening instruments. If they’re extremely accurate, they’re a good indication of actual depression/anxiety.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
Several of the ██████████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████████
This strengthens by giving a few data points that align with the psychiatrist’s hypothesis.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.