PrepTest 115, Section 3, Question 16

Working the answers

• A

  We aren't given his view of how children distinguish living things from objects. That leaves the claim unestablished, but doesn't put it in conflict with the views described.

• B
  Correct

  This would teach children that their own needs deserve recognition even when they differ from their parents' needs. Bettelheim's readings take the opposite direction: even parental abandonment becomes a lesson about the children's unhealthy dependence, and the children are praised for becoming the family's support. Their demands are the problem to correct; the parents' conduct escapes scrutiny. B most clearly challenges that parent-centered approach. We need this broader connection, not a nonexistent sentence in which he declares that no child's feelings ever matter.

• C

  Family influence on children's experience isn't addressed in this form. Nothing in his interpretation directly opposes it.

• D

  Security helping children outgrow immature ideas isn't ruled out. In fact, he does think children can mature, although this particular explanation of how isn't given.

• E

  No age threshold for distinguishing stories from reality appears. Bettelheim's belief that stories can teach children doesn't require that they mistake those stories for real events.