LSAT 126 – Section 1 – Question 22

LSAT 126 - Section 1 - Question 22

October 2008

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT126 S1 Q22
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
A
1%
155
B
20%
160
C
10%
156
D
18%
162
E
51%
165
152
163
174
 +Hardest 146.126 +SubsectionMedium

Psychologist: It is well known that becoming angry often induces temporary incidents of high blood pressure. A recent study further showed, however, that people who are easily angered are significantly more likely to have permanently high blood pressure than are people who have more tranquil personalities. Coupled with the long-established fact that those with permanently high blood pressure are especially likely to have heart disease, the recent findings indicate that heart disease can result from psychological factors.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that psychological factors can cause heart disease. This is based on a study showing that people who are easily angered are more likely to have permanently high blood pressure than people with more calm personalities, and the fact that people with permanently high blood pressure are likely to have heart disease.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the correlation between being easily angered and likelihood of having permanently high blood pressure is due to anger causing the permanently high blood pressure or due to calmness causing lower blood pressure. This overlooks the possibility that high blood pressure could make one easy to anger, or that there’s an alternate cause that leads to both anger and high blood pressure. The author also assumes that high blood pressure causes heart disease.

A
Those who are easily angered are less likely to recover fully from episodes of heart disease than are other people.
This relates to the relationship between anger and recovery from heart disease. But it doesn’t undermine a causal connection between anger and the initial presence of heart disease.
B
Medication designed to control high blood pressure can greatly affect the moods of those who use it.
Without knowing whether many people take this medication, or whether the effect on moods includes making one easily angered, (B) doesn’t do enough to suggest a reversed causal relationship between being easily angered and permanently high blood pressure.
C
People with permanently high blood pressure who have tranquil personalities virtually never develop heart disease.
If anything, this could support the author’s hypothesis by showing that, despite permanently high blood pressure, calm personalities almost never get heart disease. This suggests that psychological factors may have a role to play in causing or inhibiting heart disease..
D
Those who discover that they have heart disease tend to become more easily frustrated by small difficulties.
Becoming more easily frustrated by small difficulties does not constitute being “easily angered.” So, (D) doesn’t suggest that the causal relationship between heart disease and being easily angered is reversed.
E
The physiological factors that cause permanently high blood pressure generally make people quick to anger.
This provides an alternate causal explanation for the correlation between being easily angered and having perm. high blood pressure. If certain bodily factors lead to both, there doesn’t have to be a causal relationship between being easily angered and perm. high blood pressure.

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LSAT PrepTest 126 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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