The question stem says, which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the therapist's argument?

So this is a strengthen question.

Let's go ahead and break down this argument, think about whether there's any gaps,

and then look for an answer that will fill a gap in the argument.

Cognitive psychotherapy focuses on changing a patient's conscious beliefs.

So there's a certain kind of psychotherapy called cognitive therapy,

and what it focuses on is on changing the beliefs that you're aware that you have.

That's the meaning of conscious beliefs.

Thus, and here's what looks to be a conclusion,

Thus, cognitive psychotherapy is likely to be more effective at helping patients overcome psychological problems

than are forms of psychotherapy that focus on changing unconscious beliefs and desires.

So this conclusion here is a comparative statement.

Cognitive psychotherapy is likely to be better at helping people with their psych problems

than forms of psychotherapy that focus on changing unconscious beliefs.

And then we get another premise here.

Since only conscious beliefs are under the patient's direct conscious control.

So this is one premise.

We have another premise in the first sentence here.

And both of those premises together, the author believes, prove the conclusion in the middle here.

Now in case it helps, I've laid out visually the argument here.

We have premise number one, which tells us cognitive psychotherapy focuses on changing conscious beliefs.

We have premise number two, which tells us that if something is under your direct conscious control,

it must be a conscious belief.

That's another way to say only conscious beliefs are under direct control.

It is necessary that something be a conscious belief in order for that to be under your direct control.

And then based on these premises, the author reaches this conclusion that therefore cognitive psychotherapy

is likely to be more effective than psychotherapy that focuses on the unconscious beliefs.

Now if we want to strengthen this argument, it helps to identify gaps first before we go to the answers.

Because if we can understand what's missing from this argument,

it's easier to recognize what's going to help the argument.

And one way to start identifying gaps is to think about whether there's anything in the conclusion

that is not brought up in the premises.

Because if there is a new concept in the conclusion that doesn't have any connection to the premises,

that strongly suggests the author must be assuming something about that new idea.

And the big thing that stands out to me here about the conclusion

is that the conclusion is trying to reach a judgment about effectiveness here,

but the premises don't tell me anything about effectiveness.

How do I know what kind of psychotherapy is better than another for helping people with their psychological problems

if the premises don't tell me anything about what's better or what's worse?

All the premises tell me is that cognitive psychotherapy focuses on conscious beliefs

and these kinds of beliefs are the only kind of belief out there that could be under direct conscious control.

But is it effective to focus on something that could be under direct conscious control?

The premises don't tell me that.

What makes the ones that focus on unconscious worse?

Now if we're particularly skilled at logical reasoning,

we might be able to recognize that because a psychotherapy that focuses on the unconscious

is not going to be focusing on something under direct control,

that the assumption the author is making is something like

it's better to focus on something that's under direct control than not under direct control.

So maybe that's something you could have in mind before going to the answers.

But at a minimum, I just want you to recognize that effectiveness is just coming out of nowhere in the conclusion.

And so there's a very strong chance that to strengthen this argument,

we want to supply an answer that's going to help me establish what makes something more effective than something else.

So let's start with answer choices A and E.

that could be changed with the aid of psychotherapy,

but this would constitute a reason that the psychological therapy that focuses on the unconscious might be effective.

So I don't see how answer choice A is going to help me establish that the cognitive psychotherapy is better than the other one.

At least when it comes to helping people with the problems.

A is like an opposite answer here, so I'm going to get rid of it.

but other psychological states cannot be controlled effectively without the aid of psychotherapy.

So this is telling me that every conscious belief is under conscious control,

but so far, that doesn't tell me that that's something that would make a therapy better,

that if you focus on something under conscious control, that helps you solve their problems more effectively.

So the first half does not help me establish that.

And the second half is telling me that other psychological states,

which I guess there's like other psychological states besides beliefs,

that can't be controlled effectively without psychotherapy,

but the second half isn't distinguishing between different kinds of psychotherapy.

The second half is just saying you need psychotherapy to control these other psychological states,

but I have no reason to think that one kind of psychotherapy is going to be more effective than another kind

based on the second half of E.

So E is not going to strengthen this argument because it's not helping establish

that this kind of psychotherapy is more effective than this kind.

that focuses primarily on changing the patient's conscious beliefs.

Now this might be very tempting because answer choice C seems to be singling out psychotherapy,

cognitive psychotherapy, and telling me that it's the only one that has this quality,

focusing on conscious beliefs.

But the problem with C is that it's not establishing that a focus on conscious beliefs

has any connection to being more effective.

All that answer choice C is establishing is that there are not other kinds of psychotherapies

besides cognitive that focus on conscious beliefs.

So for example, without answer choice C, in theory, this right here could have been cognitive psychotherapy,

and then there could have been like X, Y, and Z,

and in theory all of these could have focused on conscious beliefs.

What C is doing, if it were true, is saying, well actually these other ones, they don't exist.

But that doesn't help me establish that cognitive psychotherapy is better than,

or more effective at helping people, than therapies that focus on the unconscious.

It actually doesn't matter whether there are other kinds of therapies that focus on conscious beliefs

because even if all those other ones are also better than therapies that focus on the unconscious,

that doesn't undermine the author's point.

The author is trying to say this one is better than therapies that focus on the unconscious,

but the author didn't say this was the only one that was better than other therapies that focus on the unconscious.

What I want to help this argument is something that helps establish this more effective claim.

Telling me that cognitive psychotherapy is the only one that focuses on conscious belief

doesn't help me establish what is more effective than something else.

And if you're thinking that C helps the argument by like defending the argument from some objection,

that's not correct either because it wouldn't have hurt the argument

if you learned that there were other kinds of therapies that focus on conscious belief.

Those other ones could still exist as long as cognitive psychotherapy is more effective than the ones that focus on unconscious.

So that's why C does not strengthen this argument.

So now we get to B and D and these are very challenging answer choices

because there's really only one difference between them that makes one correct and the other one wrong.

No form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing the patient's unconscious beliefs and desires

can be effective unless it also helps to change beliefs that are under the patient's direct conscious control.

Now if you just read the first two lines here and then cut out everything after the unless,

if you just read this as no form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing the patient's unconscious beliefs and desires can be effective,

that would actually seem to be a very good strengthener

because that would tell me that this kind of psychotherapy, the one that focuses on unconscious beliefs, cannot be effective.

But the problem is answer choice D actually goes on and gives me this unless statement.

It's providing an exception to this rule.

Ordinarily, if a form of psychotherapy focuses on changing unconscious, then it can't be effective.

That's what that first part is saying.

But there's an exception to that rule.

It can still be able to be effective as long as it also helps change beliefs that are under the patient's direct conscious control.

And this right here is the part that makes D wrong.

Because all I know about the psychotherapies that focus on the unconscious beliefs is that they focus on unconscious beliefs.

Their primary attention is on unconscious beliefs.

But I don't know that this kind of psychotherapy does not also help change beliefs that are under direct conscious control.

So for example, let's say there are these five beliefs.

Three of them are conscious and two of them are unconscious.

I know that the psychotherapies that focus on the unconscious will spend most of their attention on these two beliefs here.

But that does not mean that they do not help at all with these other beliefs.

I don't know that.

It's entirely possible that these psychotherapies might help with these beliefs even if these are not the focus.

So that's just something I don't know right now.

They might help with these beliefs even though this is the focus.

And because that's possible, I don't know whether the rule in D applies.

I don't know whether these are not effective simply because they focus on unconscious beliefs.

Now by the way, if it helps to think of D in a conditional logic form,

let me go ahead and diagram that out and then show you why D is not correct using the diagram.

So I'm going to start with the unless here and I'm going to negate what's after unless and make it a sufficient condition.

So one way to understand D is if it does not help with the conscious beliefs,

if it does not help with the conscious beliefs,

then if it's a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the unconscious, it cannot be effective.

Now this is complicated. That's because this is essentially an embedded conditional.

So you might go back to the core curriculum and review lessons on embedded conditionals or rules and exceptions.

But this right here is a way to think of answer choice D.

If it doesn't help with conscious beliefs, then this rule here kicks in.

If it focuses on unconscious, it can't be effective.

Now the reason D is wrong here is because I just don't know whether this part triggers.

If I knew that this kind of psychotherapy does not help with conscious beliefs, then D would be correct.

But I just don't know that this kind of psychotherapy does not help with conscious beliefs even though it focuses on unconscious.

without focusing on mental states that are under the patient's direct conscious control.

If you translate this, what this means is if you do not focus on the conscious stuff,

if you don't focus on stuff under direct conscious control, then it is difficult to be effective.

And this is something that does apply.

Because I know that this kind of psychotherapy focuses on the unconscious which are not under direct conscious control.

And so I can know that this part is triggered.

So what B helps me establish is that psychotherapies that focus on the unconscious,

because they're not focusing on the conscious, it's difficult for them to be effective.

And although that alone does not establish that cognitive psychotherapy is more effective than those,

at least cognitive psychotherapy is not suffering from this failing.

Cognitive psychotherapy does focus on conscious beliefs and so I don't know that it's difficult for cognitive psychotherapy to be effective.

And B helps me establish that this is difficult for it to be effective.

And with respect to cognitive psychotherapy, I don't know that it's difficult,

but it still helps the argument to say that this one is difficult

because I don't know that the same is true about cognitive psychotherapy.

So ultimately the difference between B and D just comes down to this word helps.

With answer choice B, because this kind of psychotherapy focuses on unconscious,

that means it's not focused on the conscious.

But with answer choice D, I don't know that just because this focuses on the unconscious,

that it does not help with the conscious.