PrepTest 123, Section 3, Question 13
Therapist: Cognitive psychotherapy focuses on changing a patient's(41 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- APsychological problems are(14 more words not shown)
- BIt is difficult(21 more words not shown)
- CCognitive psychotherapy is(14 more words not shown)
- DNo form of(28 more words not shown)
- EAll of a(22 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why should the beliefs I can consciously control be the best place for therapy to focus?
I can picture working on a conscious belief. Suppose I keep telling myself, “I'm a failure.” A therapist might ask why I believe that and help me examine it. I'm aware of the belief, so we can talk about it directly. That makes sense as an approach. It doesn't yet tell me that an approach focused on unconscious beliefs or desires will work less well.
Maybe something I'm unaware of is causing the bigger problem. Maybe a therapist can help change it even though I can't simply decide to change it myself. “Outside my direct conscious control” doesn't mean “impossible to change through therapy.”
The therapist relies on the direct-control point to predict that cognitive psychotherapy will be more effective. I want a connection between those two ideas. Why does the patient's ability to consciously control a belief make focusing on it more useful for treatment?
What we’re looking for
We're asked to strengthen the argument. My first thought is to give conscious beliefs greater importance in overcoming the problem. Another way would be to explain why therapy has an easier time succeeding when it focuses on something the patient can directly control. Either would address the missing connection. We don't need to claim unconscious beliefs never matter; we need a reason for the comparative advantage the therapist predicts.
Working the answers
- A
This tells us unconscious beliefs frequently cause problems and can be changed with therapy. That doesn't support dismissing a focus on those beliefs as less effective. It gives us a reason such work could help, without establishing the advantage claimed for cognitive psychotherapy.
- BCorrect
Now direct conscious control matters to treatment's effectiveness. If a therapy doesn't focus on states under the patient's direct conscious control, it has difficulty being effective. That identifies an obstacle for the approaches focused on unconscious beliefs and desires, and supports the therapist's preference for the conscious-belief approach.
Keep the wording honest: difficult doesn't mean impossible. B doesn't say every other approach is useless or that cognitive psychotherapy always succeeds. It makes the claimed advantage more credible by explaining why the focus on conscious control could matter. That's enough for a strengthener.
- C
Being the only approach with this focus doesn't show that the focus works better. A unique method could be excellent or ineffective. We need a link between conscious control and treatment success, not simply a statement that cognitive psychotherapy occupies this category by itself.
- D
This is the close comparison. It says a therapy focused on unconscious beliefs can't be effective unless it also helps change consciously controlled beliefs. So conscious change has to be part of successful treatment. But what must the therapy focus on?
Imagine the therapist mainly works on an unconscious belief, and that work also helps the patient change the conscious thought “I'm a failure.” D allows this therapy to be effective. It has produced the required conscious change even though conscious beliefs weren't its focus. Nothing in D says this route has to be less effective than cognitive psychotherapy.
B speaks directly to the disputed focus: without focusing on states under conscious control, effective therapy is difficult. D instead names a change the therapy must also help bring about. A required result and a required focus aren't the same, so D doesn't support the claimed advantage as directly as B does.
- E
Needing a therapist's help to control other mental states doesn't make therapy focused on those states less effective. It could explain why that therapy is valuable: it helps patients make changes they can't manage unaided. E distinguishes what patients can control on their own from what needs therapy, but doesn't establish which therapeutic focus is more effective.
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