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- Thu May 12, 2016 2:14 pm
#24467
Complete Question Explanation
Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (E)
The quickest way to answer this question is to put together the facts presented in the stimulus and react!
The fact set that can be summarized as follows: while many child psychologists believe that traditional childrearing practices damage the child’s self-esteem and makes them less confident as adults, adults raised under the traditional practice were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised. To resolve the paradox between this fact and the opinion of the child psychologists, it must be true either that the fact is incorrect (which is rarely the issue on the LSAT), or that some aspect of the child psychologists’ belief is mistaken. On the LSAT, facts are rarely wrong; opinions usually are. Answer choice (E) is therefore correct.
Answer choice (A): This may seem like an attractive answer choice at first, since it suggests that the beliefs of the psychologists about the consequences of loss of self-esteem are incorrect. However, remember that the child psychologists’ belief is two-fold: (1) traditional childrearing practices damage the child’s self-esteem; and (2) this makes children less confident as adults.
Even if child psychologists are wrong, as this answer choice suggests, it need not be true that the second part of their beliefs be incorrect: it is entirely plausible that the they are correct about the consequence of loss of self-esteem, but are mistaken as to the effects of traditional childrearing practices on children’s self-esteem. Answer choice (A) would have been a lot more attractive if it stated that the beliefs of child psychologists about the consequences of loss of self-esteem may be incorrect.
Answer choice (B): We cannot infer any information about the outliers in a group (most and least confident adults) based on information about a property shared by the average member of that group (adults raised under the traditional practice were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised). This answer choice is incorrect.
Answer choice (C): Passerby only observed that the child had misbehaved. We have no reason to suspect that the child did not misbehave. This answer choice is incorrect.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice is possibly true, but is too extreme. Just because the psychologists believe that children’s low self-esteem causes lack of confidence in adulthood does not necessarily entail the inverse correlation between higher self-esteem and higher levels of confidence. It is entirely possible that the most confident adults are confident for reasons entirely unrelated to their childhood.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, as it establishes a conditional relationship between the two parts of the child psychologists’ beliefs: either they were wrong to think that loss of self-esteem makes children less confident as adults, or the traditional practice in question did not cause significant loss of self-esteem. If they were correct about the former, they could not have been right about the latter.
Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (E)
The quickest way to answer this question is to put together the facts presented in the stimulus and react!
The fact set that can be summarized as follows: while many child psychologists believe that traditional childrearing practices damage the child’s self-esteem and makes them less confident as adults, adults raised under the traditional practice were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised. To resolve the paradox between this fact and the opinion of the child psychologists, it must be true either that the fact is incorrect (which is rarely the issue on the LSAT), or that some aspect of the child psychologists’ belief is mistaken. On the LSAT, facts are rarely wrong; opinions usually are. Answer choice (E) is therefore correct.
Answer choice (A): This may seem like an attractive answer choice at first, since it suggests that the beliefs of the psychologists about the consequences of loss of self-esteem are incorrect. However, remember that the child psychologists’ belief is two-fold: (1) traditional childrearing practices damage the child’s self-esteem; and (2) this makes children less confident as adults.
Even if child psychologists are wrong, as this answer choice suggests, it need not be true that the second part of their beliefs be incorrect: it is entirely plausible that the they are correct about the consequence of loss of self-esteem, but are mistaken as to the effects of traditional childrearing practices on children’s self-esteem. Answer choice (A) would have been a lot more attractive if it stated that the beliefs of child psychologists about the consequences of loss of self-esteem may be incorrect.
Answer choice (B): We cannot infer any information about the outliers in a group (most and least confident adults) based on information about a property shared by the average member of that group (adults raised under the traditional practice were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised). This answer choice is incorrect.
Answer choice (C): Passerby only observed that the child had misbehaved. We have no reason to suspect that the child did not misbehave. This answer choice is incorrect.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice is possibly true, but is too extreme. Just because the psychologists believe that children’s low self-esteem causes lack of confidence in adulthood does not necessarily entail the inverse correlation between higher self-esteem and higher levels of confidence. It is entirely possible that the most confident adults are confident for reasons entirely unrelated to their childhood.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, as it establishes a conditional relationship between the two parts of the child psychologists’ beliefs: either they were wrong to think that loss of self-esteem makes children less confident as adults, or the traditional practice in question did not cause significant loss of self-esteem. If they were correct about the former, they could not have been right about the latter.
