LR Drill Set 11, Question 7
Psychotherapist: Most social situations can be interpreted in(52 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AThose who can(16 more words not shown)
- BOne of the(21 more words not shown)
- CThose who have(21 more words not shown)
- DTo avoid feeling(18 more words not shown)
- EFor a typical(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe that awkward comment wasn't an insult.
When someone says something that lands badly, there may be several ways to read it. Perhaps it was a clumsy compliment. Perhaps the person meant something neutral. If you can see only the insulting interpretation, it's easier to get stuck feeling bad about what happened.
That makes the therapist's advice sound plausible: learn to live with some uncertainty instead of treating your worst interpretation as certain. But then comes a very strong claim. This is supposed to be one of the most effective ways to avoid sadness.
How much sadness are we talking about?
Some sadness comes from difficult social encounters, but other sadness might come from loss or other problems. We haven't compared this approach with other ways of helping, either. My initial concern is whether the argument has enough evidence for such a strong claim about effectiveness.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption the argument needs. I'd look for something that helps support the proposed advice, while remembering that one assumption need not fix every concern we can raise. Let's see which connection the choices actually address.
Working the answers
- A
Seeing several possible meanings doesn't require seeing the situation as purely positive. A person might think, 'That could have been meant kindly, or it could have been criticism; I don't know.' Being less certain of the worst interpretation could help without producing a wholly positive view. A is stronger than the reasoning needs.
- B
This sounds close to the conclusion, but it recommends understanding that several interpretations of any situation are possible. The actual recommendation is to learn to recognize and tolerate ambiguity. B doesn't establish that learning the recommended skill makes someone able to generate several interpretations. It leaves that connection missing and makes its own broad claim about any situation.
- CCorrect
Here is a connection the argument has been treating as though it were already supplied. Its evidence concerns people who can or cannot formulate several interpretations; its recommendation concerns recognizing and tolerating ambiguity. C connects the recommended skill with the ability discussed in the evidence.
If learning to tolerate ambiguity didn't make people more able to consider different interpretations, why would the evidence about multiple interpretations support that advice? C supplies that needed link. It doesn't settle my separate worry about how effective this method is compared with every other way of avoiding sadness, but a required assumption need not fix the whole argument on its own.
- D
The argument recommends one effective approach; it doesn't say this is the only way to avoid sadness. Someone could avoid feeling sad in a particular situation for another reason. Making the ability a requirement for avoiding sadness goes beyond what the conclusion commits to.
- E
The evidence compares people who cannot formulate several interpretations with others; it doesn't require this general rule about anyone who comes up with only negative interpretations. A person might see several negative possibilities and still feel neutral rather than sad. More importantly, E doesn't connect the proposed ambiguity training to the ability used in the evidence.
More Necessary Assumption questions
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 1, Question 4Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 10, Question 2Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 12, Question 10Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 13, Question 11Necessary Assumption
- Logical Reasoning Drill Set 14, Question 1Necessary Assumption
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Necessary Assumption questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.