#22 - Doctors in Britain have long suspected that patients

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption, CE. The correct answer choice is (E).

The author concludes that some people wear tinted glasses because they have a tendency to be depressed or to be hypochondriacs. This is based on positive correlation between wearing such glasses and being prone to such psychological conditions. The reader should recognize that this conclusion is causal - the psychological condition is what causes the patient to wear the tinted glasses - and immediately consider the standard causal assumptions:

1. There is no alternate cause
2. When the cause occurs, the effect occurs
3. When the cause is absent, the effect is absent
4. The two phenomena are not reversed
5. The data on which the argument relied was valid

In this case, we could be looking for an answer that indicates the studies described in the second sentence were valid (supporting the data). We might find an answer that says there is not some third phenomenon that causes both depression/hypochondria and vision issues that require tinted glasses (a genetic condition, perhaps, or a disease, which could be an alternate cause for this correlation). Or we might want an answer that indicates that wearing the glasses is not actually a cause of depression or hypochondria (eliminating a reversed causal relationship).

Answer choice (A): The argument is not about the cause of depression, but about what depression causes. Thus, it doesn't matter what causes depression, as long as that cause isn't also directly causing the patient to wear tinted glasses.

Answer choice (B): It is irrelevant what the wearers think the glasses are doing. They can be completely aware that depression is causing them to wear them, or completely oblivious to the cause. The author need not assume anything about what the wearers think.

Answer choice (C): As with answer A, the argument is not about what causes depression, but whether depression causes some patients to wear tinted glasses.

Answer choice (D): Similar to answer B, the author does not need to make any assumptions about what the wearer is thinking or trying to accomplish by wearing the glasses. While this answer might strengthen the argument, it is not a necessary assumption of the argument.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. This answer eliminates the possibility of a reversed cause and effect: the glasses are not the cause of depression in these patients. The negation of this answer would indicate that wearing tinted glasses is a cause of depression, rather than an effect of it, and that would seriously undermine the argument.

[desmail]

Hi,

I just had a question about answer choice B. If the wearers wear the glasses because they want to distance themselves from others, wouldnt this weaken the conclusion that being depressed is the cause by offering another cause to why they wear the glasses?

I dont understand how it would be an effect of an effect because distancing themselves from others could initially be the reason or cause as to why they wear the glasses in the first place (so its not really an effect, its a cause) Distancing-->glasses?

Thank you!

[Jon Denning]

No problem! This question has a causal conclusion, where the author argues essentially that depression causes people to wear tinted glasses. As with any causal argument, the underlying assumptions run exactly counter to how it is we weaken causality: no alt cause, cause and effect exist together (neither alone), cause and effect not reversed, etc.

Answer choice E is the CE-not-reversed idea: wearing glasses doesn't lead to depression. So a great--and predictable--answer there.

The problem with B is that it's too closely related to depression. Take the negated form and consider its effect and hopefully you'll see what I mean: people wear the glasses to distance themselves from others. Does this attack the idea that depression leads to the wearing of the glasses? No, because it's reasonable to think that depression/hypochondria would make people WANT to get distance from others. That's the effect of the effect idea: depression causes glasses, because they cause a feeling of separation from others.

Make sense?

[desmail]

Got it! Thanks!

[Katya W]

Hi, for some reason I’m struggling with dissecting the word choice of the correct answer choice E.

“The tinting does not dim light to the eye enough to depress the wearer’s mood substantially.”

I just feel like this is worded in such a convoluted way that when I read it, I can barely put together that it is supposed to be saying that the tinted glasses do not cause depression. I don’t know if I’m hitting a mental block or what. I understand why the other answers are incorrect. And I understand why an answer choice that said “glasses do not cause depression” would be correct. I just need the wording in this answer to be dissected or put into terms that are easier to digest so that I can move on and actually take away the lessons from this problem.

To me this answer is talking about the dimness of the tint in the glasses, and how it doesn’t depress someone that much. That doesn’t equate to “tinted glasses do not cause depression” to me. I don’t know why. Please help my poor confused brain. Thank you!!

Katya

[Adam Tyson]

Hey Katya, let me see if I can help you paraphrase answer E in a way that makes more sense to you. That answer is saying that the dimming effect - the darkening, perhaps - isn't so much that it ends up making the people who wear them feel especially depressed. Put another way, it's saying "these glasses aren't so dark that they have a big effect on your mood if you wear them."

We've added a complete explanation at the top of the thread, but I don't think there's anything new there that you hadn't already figured out. Once you know that four answers are losers, and one is confusing enough that you cannot confidently eliminate it, then you should pick that answer and move on without hesitation or doubt!

[Katya W]

Put another way, it's saying "these glasses aren't so dark that they have a big effect on your mood if you wear them."

Hmm, okay I think I see it now. Thank you Adam!

[haileymarkt]

While I now understand why answer choice E works, I'm struggling to understand why B is incorrect.

When reading B, I viewed wearing the tinted glasses in order distance from others as an alternate cause (aka, they aren't actually depressed, they are just distancing themselves from others). So since this is negated, it would serve as a defender assumption (since they don't think this, it's not an alternate cause). Additionally, when I used the Assumption Negation technique, I thought this would undermine the argument by presenting an alternate cause.

Where has my thinking gone wrong? Hopefully that makes sense, and I appreciate the help!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi hailey,

Answer choice B is not a true alternate cause answer, because what a user thinks about why they're using something might not have anything to do with the actual reason they're using it. In other words, people can be mistaken about the reasons they're doing something (they might be self-delusional). So even if these people think they're using glasses to distance themselves from other people, there might still be another reason, like depression, that they're actually doing it.

Let's take it a step further. Even if the wearers have accurately understood themselves and are right that they're using the glasses because they want to distance themselves from other people, isn't that potentially consistent with depression being the root cause? After all, the stimulus allows that it's a possibility that people consciously choose to wear the glasses because they perceive the world as irritating (which, for the stimulus speaker, is consistent with depression being the root cause). So, even read that way, it's not clear that answer choice B is removing a true alternate cause.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[leslie7]

Hello, (p393, ed. 2020, question 4)

I'm just wondering here, (and it may have been touched on in the book already) but when we write
C (Depression)--> E Glasses since there is an arrow does this represent both a causal and conditional? (as in they can co-exist in a representation?)

Also, are there ever instances when a causal relationship is not conditional? do we have examples of what that looks like and how we would write/understand it?