Historian: One traditional childrearing practice

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: are incorrect14% picked this

   The beliefs of many present-day child psychologists about the consequences of loss of

   If we softened this to "may be incorrect" it's way safer. This answer is choosing one possible way of reconciling the 3rd and 4th sentences, but there are other possible ways (such as maybe they were right about the consequences of losing self-esteem but they were wrong to think that making a kid sit outside alone would damage their self-esteem). So we shouldn't sound so certain that psychologists were wrong about this thing.

   14%
2. B

   Out of Scope: most / least16% picked this

   Some of the most confident adults, as well as some of the least confident adults, were raised under

   We only hear that on average kids raised under the traditional practice end up about as confident as those not raised under that practice. We can't say anything more specific than that, like whether some of the most confident and least confident were among the traditional practice.

   16%
3. C

   Unsupported: incorrect inference3% picked this

   With the traditional childrearing practice, passersby did not always make correct inferences about children’s behavior

   To support this we just need one example in which a passerby assumed the kid sitting alone outside had misbehaved, but the kid had not misbehaved. But we have nothing like that to go off of.

   3%
4. D

   Out of Scope: most / highest3% picked this

   The most confident adults are those who developed the highest level of

   We hear that many psychologists think that damage to self-esteem makes one less confident as an adult. But we can't take that supposed causal connection and then extrapolate something about the superlative levels of confidence and self-esteem. More than one thing can affect our confidence and self-esteem as adults, so it's possible that the most confident adults aren't also the people with the highest self-esteem. I can say "getting parking tickets makes someone less rich", but that doesn't mean "The richest people are those who have gotten the fewest parking tickets".

   3%
5. E

   Correct64% picked this

   If children’s loss of self-esteem makes them less confident as adults, then the traditional childrearing practice in question did not tend to

   Why this is right

   This is similar but superior to (A), because it deals with possible ways to reconcile the pivot tension between the 3rd and 4th sentences. The psychologists were saying: Traditional ? loss of self ? loss of confidence practice esteem as adults It doesn't seem like the traditional practice led to less confident adults, so is that because the 1st causal link is wrong or because the 2nd causal link is wrong? This answer is staying agnostic about which one is wrong, but it's assuming that at least one of them is wrong. It's saying, "If that 2nd link is correct, then the 1st link is wrong". By contrapositive, "If the 1st link is correct, then that 2nd link is wrong". 2nd ? ~1st 1st ? ~2nd That means "at least one of these links is wrong".

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

   64%