PT88.S4.Q24 - Can you weaken causal relations with “no cause, but effect”

youbbyun

Powerscore says 1 way to weaken a casual conclusion is to show that “Although effect occurs, the cause did not occur.”

This is bc (According to powerscore Lr bible) the effect is always produced by the same cause.

But in PT 88.4.24, AC A seems to show no cause but effect, which seems to fit into powerscore’s definition of weakening causality. Is AC A wrong because of “sometimes”, which makes that AC too weak?

For me, AC A seems to mean in cases without traumatic experience, medical condition causes cortisol change.

Given that the original conclusion is traumatic event causes cortisol change, would AC A fall into the no cause, but effect category? Would it be right if the word “sometimes” was removed from AC A

Thanks

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Michael.Cinco

The sometimes is there to help you because it makes you less likely to choose it as the wrong answer choice.

Remember that the main correlation to causality we are trying to break here is traumatic event --> more cortisol.

Already A starts us on the wrong path by focusing on the group who did not have traumatic events but I am following your line of thinking maybe those guys had medical conditions and that affected their cortisol production. But the AC doesnt say HOW it is affected. Maybe they made them higher than usual (then you would strengthening the correlation)

So the problem with A is you have to assume that it is negatively affecting cortisol production in the latter group AND because sometimes is thrown in there, that the group you were testing was biased by these people who had medical conditions that were in fact affecting their cortisol production.

2ndTimestheCharm

It helped me to use the formulaic correlation/causation strategy here. Since we're trying to weaken A causes B (experiencing a traumatic event causes higher cortisol), my eyes immediately look for anything that translates to B causes A, C causes both A and B or and B have no relationship. And yes, these types of statements rarely contain a qualifier that weakens them, such as sometimes. Sometimes is just another form of some, so it could refer to just one lousy instance. Without even understanding the argument too deeply, we can read AC B as: increased cortisol leads causes people who experience traumatic stress to not get PTSD. So it's a form of B causes A.