Self-study
Child psychologist: Support Psychologists have found that most children under the age of six are egocentric and selfish in their attitudes toward animals. ███████████ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████ ████
Summary
The author concludes that most children shouldn’t have pets until they’re at least 6 years old. Why?
Because most children under 6 are egocentric and selfish in their attitudes toward animals.
In addition, most children under 6 don’t understand that animals are independent creatures with their own feelings and needs.
Missing Connection
The conclusion brings up a new concept — shouldn’t have pets. The premises don’t say anything about who shouldn’t have pets. So, at a minimum, the correct answer needs to tell us about people who shouldn’t have pets.
To go further, we can anticipate a more specific connection between the premises and the conclusion. Any answer that connects a feature we know about most children under 6 to “should not have pets” can be correct:
If one is egocentric and selfish in attitudes toward animals, then one shouldn’t have a pet.
or
If one doesn’t understand that animals are independent creatures with their own feelings and needs, then one shouldn’t have a pet.
16.
The child psychologist's conclusion follows █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
Most children who ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █ ████
(A) doesn’t establish anything about who shouldn’t have a pet. Since neither this answer nor the premises establish who shouldn’t have a pet, it can’t make the argument valid.
b
Children who are ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████
(B) allows us to conclude that certain children SHOULD be allowed to have pets. But we’re trying to prove that certain children should NOT be allowed to have pets. (B) is the sufficiency/necessity confused version of what we want.
c
Most children who ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████
(C) doesn’t establish anything about who shouldn’t have a pet. Since neither this answer nor the premises establish who shouldn’t have a pet, it can’t make the argument valid.
d
Most children are ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████
(D) doesn’t establish anything about who shouldn’t have a pet. Since neither this answer nor the premises establish who shouldn’t have a pet, it can’t make the argument valid.
e
The only children ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████
(E) establishes that in order for a child to be one that should have a pet, the child must understand the pet is an independent creature. Since we know from the premises that most children under 6 don’t understand this, (E) allows us to conclude that most children under 6 shouldn’t have a pet.