People with high blood pressure

Answer choices

1. A

   Not a Flaw1% picked this

   fails to define the term “hypertensive

   It's never a reasoning flaw to have omitted a specific definition, exact measurement, or citation for your sources. In this case, the author actually did define the term contextually. "this combination of personality traits" has to refer to whatever combination of personality traits (nervous and anxious) was mentioned in the previous sentence.

   1%
2. B

   Too Strong: permanent1% picked this

   presupposes that people have permanent personality

   The author doesn't commit herself to a sweeping claim that people have permanent personality traits. Even if we grant that the author's use of "a person with these traits" insinuates a permanent trait, this answer choice still wouldn't address any reasoning flaw. Our objection isn't based on whether the personality traits are permanent or impermanent, but rather whether they are a cause of high blood pressure, and effect of high blood pressure, or an effect of something else that may also cause high blood pressure.

   1%
3. C

   Contradicted3% picked this

   simply restates the claim that there is a “hypertensive personality” without providing evidence to

   There is evidence of people with the hypertensive personality, because the author refers to them in the first sentence. When a flaw answer says that the author "simply restates a premise in its conclusion", it is describing Circular Reasoning, which is almost always an incorrect answer.

   3%
4. D

   Correct93% picked this

   takes a correlation between personality traits and high blood pressure as proof that the traits

   Why this is right

   Yes, the author goes from presenting a correlation between high BP and nervous/anxious to a conclusion that assumes that nervous/anxious was the reason they had high blood pressure.

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

   93%
5. E

   Not An Objection3% picked this

   focuses on nervousness and anxiety only, ignoring other personality traits that people with high blood

   This is somewhat tempting, because there might be some other personality trait of people with high blood pressure that is causing their high blood pressure. But this answer choice doesn't even add that last part, which would be crucial to making this sound like an objection. It just says, "we didn't consider other personality traits people with high BP might have". We don't care about other personality traits people with high blood pressure have, in general. We would only care if we thought / knew that those other traits could be a cause of high blood pressure. The reason the author focuses on nervousness and anxiety is because she knows there's a correlation between that combo of traits and high blood pressure. Her conclusion isn't saying that "these are the only two personality traits that can increase your risk of high blood pressure", so she doesn't need to consider other personality traits in order to make her argument about these two traits.

   3%