丁丁倒数 67#

玛莎丁丁 · 发表于 2012-8-2 00:33:41

Therapist: Cognitive psychotherapy focuses on changing a patient’s conscious beliefs. Thus, cognitive psychotherapy is likely to be more effective at helping patients overcome psychological problems than are forms of psychotherapy that focus on changing unconscious beliefs and desires, since only conscious beliefs are under the patient’s direct conscious control.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the therapist’s argument?

(A) Psychological problems are frequently caused by unconscious beliefs that could be changed with the aid of psychotherapy.
(B) It is difficult for any form of psychotherapy to be effective without focusing on mental states that are under the patient’s direct conscious control.
(C) Cognitive psychotherapy is the only form of psychotherapy that focuses primarily on changing the patient’s conscious beliefs.
(D) No form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing the patient’s unconscious beliefs and desires can be effective unless it also helps change beliefs that are under the patient’s direct conscious control.
(E) All of a patient’s conscious beliefs are under the patient’s conscious control, but other psychological states cannot be controlled effectively without the aid of psychotherapy.

OA is B and D could be temping. But after some comparasion, B definitely fills the logic gap better.

玛莎丁丁 · 发表于 2012-8-2 00:34:22

【Here is explanation for reference】

Question Type: Strengthen the Conclusion
One way to strengthen an argument is to provide a piece of information that closes a gap in the
argument. In other words, we can strengthen this argument by explicitly stating one of the
assumptions. Let’s rearrange this argument in order to make the logic more transparent.
Cognitive psychotherapy changes conscious beliefs. Other forms of psychotherapy change
unconscious beliefs. Since only conscious beliefs are under the direct control of the patient,
cognitive psychotherapy is likely to be more effective at treating psychological problems.
What’s the assumption? The author assumes that in order to be effective, a treatment must
address mental processes that are under the control of the patient. This is easy to miss, but it’s an
important assumption that is critical to the argument. We can strengthen the argument by making
this assumption explicit. Answer (B) does this.
(A) weakens the argument.
(C) is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if it’s the only form of therapy that focuses on conscious
beliefs. The argument deals only with cognitive psychotherapy vs. other forms of psychotherapy
that do NOT focus on conscious beliefs.
(D) strengthens the argument by providing an additional piece of supporting evidence, but it does
not strengthen as much as answer (B). An answer that fills a gap in the argument will generally
strengthen the most (since the argument is weak with the gap).
(E) fails to provide any information comparing the two types of therapy.

丁丁倒数 67#

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