Psychologist: Psychotherapists who

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: "never appropriate"1% picked this

   It is never appropriate for psychotherapists to attempt to entertain a

   The author is only talking about providing therapy on talk shows. He could easily allow for other settings in which it would be acceptable for psychotherapists to entertain a broad audience ... it could even be on a talk show, as long as they weren't there to provide therapy.

   1%
2. B

   Out of Scope Comparison3% picked this

   The context in which psychological help is presented has a greater impact on its quality than the nature of

   Out of Scope Comparison: context vs. nature The author doesn't get into comparing what is said vs. where it's said. We don't know how he would rank content vs. context in terms of which one has more impact on quality.

   3%
3. C

   Too Strong: any chance35% picked this

   Psychotherapy should never be provided in a context in which there is any chance that the therapy might be

   This rule is much more severe than the author's thinking. The author is thinking, "Let's avoid going on talk shows. It's almost always incompatible with high-quality help. If it's bad 90% of the time, we should just never do it." This rule is saying, "Unless it's good 100% of the time, we should never do it." The author would probably acknowledge that there always some chance that therapy will not be high quality. If he assumed this rule, he would be forbidding doing therapy in pretty much all contexts.

   35%
4. D

   Too Strong3% picked this

   Most members of radio and television talk show audiences are seeking entertainment rather than

   Too Strong: most Out of Scope: what audiences are seeking The author told us that psychotherapists are expected to entertain. That could be from the talk show's director / host / staff. We don't know whether most audiences seek entertainment over high-quality help (maybe they want both). We were looking for a principle that told us what psychotherapists should never do. The language here is nowhere close to our goal. This is just using language from a premise to make a spin-off idea (some call this a PREMISE BOOSTER). The word "most" is almost always wrong on Necessary Assumption, because why would the argument hinge on whether it's 49% or 51% of talk show audiences that have a certain trait?

   3%
5. E

   Correct58% picked this

   Psychotherapists should never attempt to provide psychological help in a manner that makes it unlikely to

   Why this is right

   This matches the argument core. Talk shows are a context in which therapy is unlikely to be of high quality (it's almost always incompatible with that goal). The conclusion is that psychotherapists should never go on talk shows. This answer safely bridges the premise and the conclusion.

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

   58%