Logical Reasoning

PT127 · S2 · Q20 Psychologist: Psychotherapists who

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Psychologist: Psychotherapists who attempt to provide psychotherapy on radio or television talk shows are expected to do so in ways that entertain a broad audience.

Conclusion

Psychotherapists should never provide psychotherapy on talk shows.

Evidence

On a talk show, you're expected to entertain a broad audience, which is nearly always incompatible with providing high quality help.

Evaluation

We know our conclusion is that psychotherapists should never do something, so we need a rule about what psychotherapists should never do. Why should they never go on talk shows? It's almost always incompatible with providing high-quality help. So the rule could sound like,

The question stem asks what must be assumed, so there are other necessary assumptions we could say: - psychotherapists appearing on talk shows sometimes provide therapy in the way they're expected to - medium-quality psychological help is not significantly helpful to broad audiences - when a psychotherapist appears on a talk show, the purpose involves at least some high-quality help

Goal

We want a conditional bridge like If it's almost always incompatible with high-quality help, then psychotherapists should never do it or anything else that would qualify as a Necessary Assumption.

20.

Which one of the following principles must be assumed in order for the psychologist's conclusion to be properly drawn?

  1. It is never appropriate for

    Too Strong: "never appropriate"

    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% picked this

  2. The context in which psychological

    Out of Scope Comparison

    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% picked this

  3. Psychotherapy should never be provided

    Too Strong: any chance

    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.

    34% picked this

  4. Most members of radio and

    Too Strong

    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% picked this

  5. Correct

    Psychotherapists should never attempt 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.

    60% picked this

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