Self-study
Depression is a serious problem for residents of nursing homes. ████████ █ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ████████ █████ ████ █████
Summary
Depression is a serious problem in nursing homes. However, a recent study found that residents who formed bonds with pets had much lower rates of depression than those who didn't.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Encouraging nursing home residents to have pets could potentially help to lower the rate of depression in nursing homes.
Depression in nursing homes might in part stem from residents’ lack of companionship.
2.
Which one of the following ██████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Nursing-home residents are ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████████████
Unsupported. The stimulus tells us that depression is a serious problem for residents of nursing homes. However, it does not compare rates of depression among nursing home residents to rates of depression among anyone else.
b
The best method ███ ███████ █ ████████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ █ ████
Unsupported. Although forming bonds with pets significantly lowers rates of depression among nursing home residents, we do not know that this is the best way for residents to overcome depression.
c
High rates of ██████████ █████ ████████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ █ ████ ██ ██████████████
Strongly supported. Residents who formed bonds with pets had much lower rates of depression than those who didn’t, and bonds with pets are a kind of companionship. So, rates of depression may result in part from a lack of companionship.
d
Animal companionship is █████████ ███ █████████████ ███████████
Unsupported. We do not know that animal companionship is essential for psychological well-being simply because animal companionship could help alleviate depression in some circumstances.
e
Allowing free access ██ ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ █████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████████
Unsupported. Allowing free access to pets could alleviate rates of depression in nursing homes, but we have no way to know whether it would entirely eliminate all problems relating to depression.