Self-study
Researcher: Support In an experiment, 500 families were given a medical self-help book, and 500 similar families were not. ████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ █████ ████████ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ ██████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that having a medical self-help book in the home improves family health. This is based on an experiment in which families that were given a medical self-help book experienced a decrease in doctor visits, whereas similar families that weren’t given such a book did not. In addition, we know that improved family health leads to fewer visits to doctors.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that having medical self-help books caused a reduction in doctor visits through improving family health. This overlooks the possibility that it may have caused a reduction in doctor visits through some other mechanism. Perhaps, for example, the books didn’t improve health, but simply made families think they don’t need to visit a doctor.
19.
The reasoning in the researcher's ████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ████
a
it is possible ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ █████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ █████ ███
This possibility isn’t significant enough to affect how we interpret the study. As long as families that weren’t given a book ended up being less likely on average to own a self-help book than the ones that were given a book, the study’s results can still be evidence of cause.
b
the families in ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████████ ███████ ██ █████
The conclusion concerns the effect of “having a medical self-help book in the home.” Whether the families could access self-help through other means besides a book doesn’t relate to the effect of having a book in the home.
c
a state of ███████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ █████████ ███████
The flaw doesn’t concern one cause with multiple effects; it’s about one effect (fewer doc. visits) and two dcauses (book, improved family health). Also, if you view the books as causing two effects (improved health, fewer doc. visits), (C) is consistent with the reasoning.
d
two different states ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████
The author overlooks that two different states of affairs (having book, improved family health) could each contribute to same effect (fewer doc. visits) even though neither contributes to the other. The books didn’t have to cause fewer visits through improving family health.
e
certain states of ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████
(E) might be true, but in the experiment 500 families were given a self-help book. So we know how these families got the book in their home. We then observed a decrease in doctor visits for these families after they were given a book.