Self-study
Support Traditional "talk" therapy, in which a patient with a psychological disorder discusses it with a trained therapist, produces chemical changes in the brain. █████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███████████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that physicians will eventually be able to treat patients with psychological disorders as effectively through drugs as through traditional “talk” therapy methods.
Why?
Because traditional “talk” therapy produces chemical changes in the brain, and these chemical changes correspond to improvements in the a patient’s behavior.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that any beneficial effect of “talk” therapy on a patient’s behavior is due only to chemical changes in the brain. (This overlooks the possibility that some of the benefit of “talk” therapy comes from something outside of chemicals or things that can be affected by drugs.)
4.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
All neurochemical changes ███████ █████████████ █████████████ ████████
Not necessary, because even if not all neurochemical changes produce psychological changes, the changes that occur in connection with “talk” therapy still can produce psychological changes. The author never reasoned, “Because therapy produces chemical changes in the brain, those chemical changes must cause psychological changes.” Rather, the author pointed out that the chemical changes “seem to correspond to improvements in certain aspects of the patient’s behavior.” It’s this association with improvements that the author finds to be supportive of the causal connection between these particular chemical changes and psychological changes. Other chemical changes might not be associated with improvement in behavior, and those other chemical changes then don’t have to produce any psychological changes.
b
Improvements in a █████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████████
Necessary, because if this weren’t true — if improvements in a patient’s behavior produced by “talk” therapy does NOT occur only through chemical changes — then we have no reason to think that drugs that affect the brain’s neurochemistry can be just as effective as “talk” therapy. “Talk” therapy may be more effective, because it can work through non-chemical means that aren’t available by taking drugs.
c
"Talk" therapy has ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████████ ███████
Not necessary, because the argument is concerned with whether drugs can be as effective as “talk” therapy. Whether “talk” therapy is effective or not has no bearing on whether drugs can equal “talk” therapy’s effect, however strong or weak it may be.
d
If chemical changes ██ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████████████
Not necessary, because it’s too broad. The author tries to conclude that drugs will be as effective as “talk” therapy concerning improving the behavior of patients with psychological disorders. This conclusion does not encompass the more general claim that psychology and neuroscience will become indistinguishable.
e
Direct intervention in ███ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ████ █████████ ███ ██ ████████ █████████████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████
Not necessary, because the argument’s reasoning doesn’t require any belief about cost. The conclusion is about effectiveness, not about affordability or accessibility.