Self-study
Psychologist: Because of a perceived social stigma against psychotherapy, and because of age discrimination on the part of some professionals, some elderly people feel discouraged about trying psychotherapy. ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████████ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ████████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The psychologist argues that elderly people should not be discouraged about trying psychotherapy. He supports this claim with the fact that younger people have benefitted from psychotherapy. He then claims that older people’s greater knowledge, maturity, and interpersonal skills mean that they are even more likely to benefit from psychotherapy than younger people.
The psychologist does give some reasons why some elderly people may be reluctant to try psychotherapy (social stigma against the treatment and age discrimination) but these reasons provide context for the idea that the psychologist is arguing against.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion refutes that there’s a good reason for elderly people to feel reluctant toward psychotherapy: “They should not be.”
5.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████████ █████████
a
Certain psychotherapists practice ███ ███████████████
This is context. It provides a potential explanation for why elderly people may feel discouraged about trying psychotherapy, but our psychologist is arguing that they shouldn’t feel discouraged.
b
Elderly people are ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████
This is premise. (B) provides support for why elderly people shouldn’t feel discouraged about trying psychotherapy.
c
Elderly people should ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████████████
This is the conclusion. This is supported by the claims that younger people have benefitted from psychotherapy and older people have an even higher likelihood of a positive outcome.
d
Characteristics associated with ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ███████████████ ████████
The author doesn’t rank any factors. We’re told that characteristics associated with maturity are contributing factors, but we’re never told that they’re important.
e
Elderly people are ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████
We don’t know if this is true. We only know that some elderly people feel discouraged about trying psychotherapy and that many younger people have benefitted from it. We don’t have enough information to compare their inclinations to try psychotherapy.