#22- Psychologist: It is well known that becoming angry

[stsai]

Q22 "Psychologist: It is well known that becoming angry..."
I selected (B) for I thought the weakness of the argument lies in the Conclusion, which links the causal relation between high blood pressure to a new condition--heart disease. (B) seems to me address this weakness. And I do not see any clear path for me to understand why (E) is the correct answer.

Thank you!

[Eric Ockert]

22. The problem with the argument in #22 is definitely of a causal nature. The premises give us the CORRELATION between Easily Angered and Permanently High BP, as well as the CORRELATION between Permanently High BP and Heart Disease. The author then links this chain up to say, essentially, that Easily Angered (Psychological Factor) CAUSES Heart Disease.

Answer E is suggesting that both Easily Angered and Permanently High Blood Pressure stem from a common cause......PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTORS (note this is different than Psychological....the closeness in the words is intentional). If that is true, then it suggests that the High BP that may cause Heart disease does not stem from Psychological but Physiological factors, so perhaps Heart Disease has nothing to do with Psychological factors.

While (B) may weaken this argument, it would need us to assume that the mood change in these people is necessarily making them easily angered. It may make them happy, sad, etc. This does not dislodge the argument's causal relationship near as well as E.

Hope that helps!

[stsai]

Now I get it!

And for #22, it was indeed the play on word similarity (PSYchological v.s. PHYSIological) that fooled me!

Thanks so much Eric!

[Nina88]

Q22 "Psychologist: It is well known that becoming angry..."
I selected (B) for I thought the weakness of the argument lies in the Conclusion, which links the causal relation between high blood pressure to a new condition--heart disease. (B) seems to me address this weakness. And I do not see any clear path for me to understand why (E) is the correct answer.

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[Nikki Siclunov]

Indeed, the weakness lies in the conclusion, which is why (E) works: it suggests an alternate cause for the observed correlation. If physiological factors are responsible for both anger and high blood pressure, then it's possible that anger (which is a psychological factor) is not the real cause for high blood pressure (which has been factually proven to cause heart disease).

[Nina88]

Hi, There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points.this is very useful information. I actually appreciate your own position and I will be sure to come back here.

[FrannieVargas]

Can you please explain Question # 22 in Section 1 of Test 3( Oct. 2008).

Frannie Vargas

[Steve Stein]

Hey Frannie,

In that one, the psychologist's conclusion is presented at the end of the paragraph: the recent findings indicate that heart disease can result from psychological factors (such as being easily angered).

The psychologist asserts a causal argument, and in many cases these are weakened with the presentation of alternative causes. Answer choice E provides such a cause:
If the attribute of being "quick to anger" actually comes from physiological factors, as opposed to psychological factors, the presence of this alternative cause weakens the author's argument.

Let me know whether that's clear--thanks!

~Steve

[imagineer]

Hi,
I'm struggling to find an explanation for problem # 22. I selected answer C but the answer is E.

Here is my logic behind my answer...

Anger--> High Blood Pressure (HBP)
HBP--> Heart Disease (HD)
Anger -> HD

In this argument, I assumed that anger was the psychological factor. This is a most weaken question, so i thought C was the answer that would remove the end conclusion line of my logic. If anyone could show me where the flaw in my logic is, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

Thanks for your question--that's a classic causal conclusion, found at the end of the stimulus: The author concludes that heart disease can result from psychological factors; the author's examples appear to show that anger leads to both temporary and permanently high blood pressure, which is associated with heart disease.

Since the stimulus is followed by a weaken question, the correct answer choice will somehow hurt the hypothesis that psychological factors lead to anger and, by extension, high blood pressure.

Correct answer choice E points to physiological factors as the culprit. If, as this choice provides, physiological factors are to blame for both the blood pressure and the anger that is associated, that weakens the author's case that psychological factors are the cause.

I hope that's helpful! Let me know whether that clears this one up--thanks!

~Steve