#13 - Therapist: Cognitive psychotherapy focuses on changing

[Adam Tyson]

It's not about how weak or strong the answer is, but about whether it closes the gap in the argument. The evidence is about being under the patient's control, and the conclusion is about being more effective. We need an answer that links those two concepts. Your search for an answer that talks about the link between conscious beliefs and control misses the crucial link to "effective." Many Justify, Strengthen, and Assumption answers will be all about closing the logical gap in the argument, linking the new thing in the conclusion back to something in the premises.

[MusaMuneer9898]

After reading the concerns that User-Quiz555 had mentioned, I am still unable to discern why answer choice B is superior to answer choice D.

The way I see it is that answer choices B & D are stating the same reasoning.

(B) states: 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.

This can be conditionally diagramed as follows:
NOT difficult for any form of psychotherapy to be effective --> focus on mental states under direct conscious control.

From this, we can deduce that any form includes "forms of psychotherapy that focus on changing unconscious beliefs and desires".

This is what answer choice D also states

(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 under the patient's direct conscious control.

Therefore, this can be conditionally diagrammed in the same manner, as so:

form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing unconscious beliefs and desires is EFFECTIVE --> also changes beliefs under the patient's direct conscious control.

I am unable to decipher the differences between these two answer choices? Thank you

[Robert Carroll]

Musa,

"Focus" is the key term here, and I'm going to explain why answer choice (B) is good and answer choice (D) not good by concentrating on the difference "focus" makes.

In the stimulus, cognitive psychotherapy (COG for short) focuses on changing conscious beliefs. Other forms (OTHER for short) focus on changing unconscious beliefs and desires. The author concludes that COG is better than OTHER since it's focusing on conscious beliefs, the only beliefs under the patient's direct control.

Coming to answer choice (B), the focus of COG is conscious beliefs and the focus of OTHER is unconscious beliefs/desires. Answer choice (B) makes OTHER difficult to be effective, whereas COG can perfectly well be effective, since it at least has the right focus. This weakens OTHER without weakening COG, making the author more likely to be right.

Answer choice (D) puts a constraint on the effectiveness of a psychotherapy; I could rephrase it something like: "If a psychotherapy that focuses on changing unconscious beliefs/desires is to be effective, it must also help change beliefs under the patient's conscious control." OTHER does not focus on such beliefs, but does it help change them? That's totally unknown. I'm not saying answer choice (D) weakens the argument. I'm saying that, in order for answer choice (D) to affect the argument, we'd have to have some idea of whether OTHER helps change conscious beliefs. At best, I know that that's not OTHER's focus. I have no idea, for or against, whether OTHER changes conscious beliefs. Thus, answer choice (D) is not relevant - it only affects the argument at all if I have information that neither the stimulus nor answer choice (D) gives me.

Robert Carroll

[teddykim100]

Hello,

correct me if I'm wrong but, wouldn't conditional logic "complete" the gap in the argument by having the evidence be the sufficient condition, and the conclusion the necessary condition?

The argument is saying "because only conscious beliefs are under the patient's direct conscious control, [therefore] cognitive PT is likely to be more effective"

to plug that gap, don't we have to say "if conscious control effective therapy?"

[Dana D]

Hey Teddy,

This question is a strengthening one, so we don't necessarily need a formal logical relationship to meet that standard.

Your general paraphrasing is correct - we could strengthen this argument if we found a way to say that changing things in a patient's conscious control is key to effective therapy. That is what answer choice (B) does, which is why it is correct.

Answer choice (B) also implies that because no other forms of psychotherapy are able to focus on mental states within the patient's conscious beliefs, those other forms of psychotherapy cannot be as effective as cognitive psychotherapy, thus strengthening the conclusion that cognitive psychotherapy is more effective than other forms of psychotherapy.

[teddykim100]

Hi Dana,

thank you for your reply, however I am still having trouble seeing how (in the words of the original explanation), "more effective" depends on "direct conscious control".

I the rigid conditional logic chain is not required on a strengthen question, but in my original comment, where I asked whether "if direct conscious control effective therapy", direct conscious control depends on effective therapy.

so in other words, the chain that the original commenter, Administrator proposes is effective therapy direct conscious control, which I have as reversed. Could you clarify the order of the logic?

[Chandler H]

Hi Dana,

thank you for your reply, however I am still having trouble seeing how (in the words of the original explanation), "more effective" depends on "direct conscious control".

I the rigid conditional logic chain is not required on a strengthen question, but in my original comment, where I asked whether "if direct conscious control effective therapy", direct conscious control depends on effective therapy.

so in other words, the chain that the original commenter, Administrator proposes is effective therapy direct conscious control, which I have as reversed. Could you clarify the order of the logic?

Hi Teddy,

I believe I see where you're coming from. In plain words, answer choice (B) alleges that psychotherapy will likely not be effective without focusing on direct conscious control. While conditional phrasing is not strictly necessary, like Dana said, we can write (B) out like this:

Direct conscious control effective

The contrapositive of that is this:

Effective therapy direct conscious control

So this would be the "correct" order of the logic. However, I do want to stress that it might not be best to think of this question in conditional phrases.

Hope this helps!

[teddykim100]

Thanks Chandler,

could you elaborate why this question would not be best to think about in conditional terms?

The way I approached it, the argument has a "gap" that is missing a pretty large assumption - one that connects direct conscious control and effectiveness. To provide strength to the argument, wouldn't we want to use the technique of "stating the assumption the argument is missing?"

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Teddy,

You are right that the argument has a pretty large gap and that the right answer will likely bridge that gap, so you should be looking for an answer that links effectiveness to mental states under patient's direct conscious control, as Answer B does.

This connection need not be conditional, however.

For example, an answer that stated "The more that a psychotherapy can focus on mental states that are under a patient's direct conscious control, the more effective the treatment" would still strengthen the argument (and be the correct answer) even though it is not conditional.

For strengthen answers, any answer that helps the argument will work. While the answers can sometimes be conditional, they don't need to be.