Self-study
Researcher: People who participate in opinion surveys often give answers they believe the opinion surveyor expects to hear, and it is for this reason that some opinion surveys do not reflect the actual views of those being surveyed. ████████ ██ ████████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██████ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that if a survey is well constructed, survey respondents’ desire to meet surveyors’ expectations won’t affect the survey’s results. This is based on the fact that in well-constructed surveys the way questions are worded don’t indicate the kind of answer that the surveyor might expect.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that a respondents’ answers can still be affected by desire to meet the surveyor’s expectations, even if the questions don’t indicate the surveyor’s expectations. Perhaps, for example, the respondent might form a belief about the surveyor’s expectations through other aspects of the survey besides the questions.
24.
The reasoning in the researcher's ████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ████
a
an opinion survey ████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████████
The conclusion is only concerned with whether the desire to meet expectations will affect the results. Whether there are other ways a survey can be flawed doesn’t affect whether the desire to meet expectations will affect results in a well-constructed survey.
b
when people who ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████████
(B) points out the possibility that respondents’ answers are UNlikely to influenced. This doesn’t point out a flaw, because we’re trying to show why respondents’ views still CAN be affected by the surveyor’s expectations.
c
many opinion surveyors ████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████
This possibility doesn’t undermine the argument’s reasoning. If many surveyors have no expectations, that doesn’t help show why respondents’ desire to meet expectations actually could affect results.
d
some people who ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ ████████████
The conclusion concerns whether a desire to MEET expectations will affect survey results. The desire to “thwart” expectations involves a desire NOT to meet expectations; this is about a different issue that the conclusion isn’t concerned with.
e
the answers of ██████████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████
This possibility shows how a desire to meet expectations can still affect the results, even if the questions don’t indicate the expectations. The respondent might just wrongly assume what the surveyor expects, and answer in a way that meets those assumed expectations.