Logical Reasoning

PT104 · S1 · Q14 Critic: Many popular psychological

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Critic: Many popular psychological theories are poor theories in that they are inelegant and do not help to dispel the mystery that surrounds our psyche.

Conclusion

This is not really important. (rephrase: It's not really important that many popular psychological theories are inelegant and do nothing to help dispel the mystery that surrounds our psyche.)

Intermediate Conclusion

The theories produce the right results

Evidence ( ":" )

The theories have greater therapeutic success than their more scientific rivals.

Evaluate

Whenever we read Role and Main Conclusion paragraphs, we prime ourselves for a Conclusion in the first sentence or a Conclusion that feels like a rebuttal (these two patterns dominate arguments for those two question types).

When the first sentence begins, "Many popular theories are poor theories", that does sound like the author's opinion, and she even provides a couple reasons to support that opinion (inelegant / don't dispel mystery).

But then she pivots away from that into a different opinion: this isn't important.

Why? Because the theories produce the right results (more therapeutic success).

Goal

We're being asked about the final claim, which is a Premise that directly supports the Intermediate Conclusion and indirectly supports the Main Conclusion.

14.

The statement about the relative therapeutic success of many popular psychological theories plays which one of the following roles in the critic's argument?

  1. It is used to disprove

    Too Strong: disprove

    There is evidence against these theories (presented by the author herself): they are inelegant and don't dispel the mystery. But this last claim isn't proving either of those claims untrue. This last claim is supporting the idea that those claims, while true, aren't important.

    4% picked this

  2. Correct

    It is used to override

    Why this is right

    There are considerations introduced that go against these theories (presented by the author herself): they are inelegant and don't dispel the mystery. And this last claim is supporting the idea that those claims, while true, aren't really important. What matters more, the author thinks, is that the theories produce the right results. This last claim is part of the support for the author's implicit notion that "the therapeutic success of these theories is more important than (overrides) the worries that they are inelegant theories that don't help dispel the mystery surrounding our psyche." This answer is very conversational. If we were looking for something formal like, "A premise that supports an intermediate conclusion", we would need to loosen our grip and try this on for size.

    Skill tested: Role · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    64% picked this

  3. It is used to suggest

    Bad Conclusion Match

    This claim is used for support, but it's used to suggest that "being inelegant and unhelpful at dispelling mystique are less important than being able to achieve better therapeutic results". The author hasn't committed to a strong idea that (all?) popular theories are better scientific explanations than their rivals. If anything, the author's final claim concedes that the rivals are more scientific but thinks that many popular theories are nonetheless worthy of consideration because, despite being poor scientific explanations, they are able to achieve great results.

    8% picked this

  4. It is used to illustrate

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: most important Too Broad: scientific theories The author seems to think that therapeutic results are a more important way to evaluate these psychological theories. The author is never suggesting that the most important aspect of a scientific theory is therapeutic success. Einstein's Theory of Relativity probably doesn't have a lot of therapeutic success. This author would call Einstein's scientific theory largely a failure, then?

    12% picked this

  5. It is used to suggest

    Bad Conclusion Match

    This claim is used for support, but it's used to suggest that "being inelegant and unhelpful at dispelling mystique are less important than being able to achieve better therapeutic results". The author isn't trying to say that these theories really do have explanatory power. She's more saying, despite lacking some explanatory power, they are still valuable for being able to achieve great results.

    12% picked this

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