PrepTest 126, Section 4, Question 3
People with high blood pressure are generally more(39 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(11 more words not shown)
- Afails to define(4 more words not shown)
- Bpresupposes that people(4 more words not shown)
- Csimply restates the(14 more words not shown)
- Dtakes a correlation(16 more words not shown)
- Efocuses on nervousness(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Which causes which?
People with high blood pressure tend to be more nervous and anxious. Fine. But that observation alone doesn't tell us whether anxiety leads to high blood pressure or high blood pressure leads to anxiety.
The author picks the first story: having these personality traits makes a person likely to develop high blood pressure. What if the direction goes the other way? Suppose high blood pressure makes people feel anxious. We'd still find anxiety and high blood pressure together, even if anxiety weren't what caused the blood pressure to rise.
What we’re looking for
That's the objection I want to bring to the flaw question. The evidence shows an association, and the author uses it to choose a cause. Our alternative shows why that choice needs more support. We don't have to establish the alternative as the true medical explanation to show that this argument hasn't ruled it out.
Working the answers
- A
The passage does define the term. “Hypertensive personality” refers to the combination of nervousness and anxiety just described. Giving that combination a name doesn't settle what causes high blood pressure, but lack of a definition isn't the problem.
- B
These traits don't have to last forever for the author's proposed explanation to operate. Someone could be anxious for a period, develop high blood pressure during that period, and later become less anxious. Whether that causal story is true is another question; its reasoning doesn't depend on permanent personality traits.
- C
The author does more than claim that a named combination of traits exists. The conclusion says those traits are likely to cause high blood pressure. The comparison between people with and without high blood pressure is offered as support. The problem is that this evidence doesn't establish the proposed cause, not that the argument merely repeats a claim without offering evidence.
- DCorrect
Finding the traits and high blood pressure together is a correlation. Treating that finding as proof that the traits cause high blood pressure goes beyond what it establishes. D describes the broader mistake behind our objection: the same association could occur if high blood pressure caused the anxiety instead.
- E
The author can focus on nervousness and anxiety without discussing every other trait these people might have. Perhaps they also share other characteristics, but simply leaving those unmentioned doesn't identify the unsupported causal step. We'd need to explain why an omitted trait matters, not merely note that other traits exist.
More Flaw questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Flaw questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.