#20 - Psychologist: Psychotherapists who attempt to provide

[Robert Carroll]

L,

I don't think there's a substantial difference between "context" and "manner" in this case. "Context" just refers very generically to the situation, and "manner" refers to how you do something - I think either of these could be valid. You could say "Make sure the context in which you do something is appropriate" or "Make sure the manner in which you do something is appropriate". What's "appropriate" is going to depend both on the context and the way you do it, so both matter!

The real problem with answer choice (C) is that, as Adam said above, it's far too strong. This is an Assumption question, so an answer that assumes too much is wrong. The author is not committed to the idea that any chance of a lack of high quality is enough to make it wrong for a psychotherapist to provide therapy. Instead, the second sentence of the stimulus tells us that entertaining psychotherapy is particularly unlikely to be high-quality. So we need an assumption like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that create a high degree of likelihood that the psychotherapy will not be high quality should be avoided." Answer choice (C) is saying something like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that have any chance of being less than high quality should be avoided." That's far stronger than we need.

Robert Carroll

[ericj_williams]

L,

I don't think there's a substantial difference between "context" and "manner" in this case. "Context" just refers very generically to the situation, and "manner" refers to how you do something - I think either of these could be valid. You could say "Make sure the context in which you do something is appropriate" or "Make sure the manner in which you do something is appropriate". What's "appropriate" is going to depend both on the context and the way you do it, so both matter!

The real problem with answer choice (C) is that, as Adam said above, it's far too strong. This is an Assumption question, so an answer that assumes too much is wrong. The author is not committed to the idea that any chance of a lack of high quality is enough to make it wrong for a psychotherapist to provide therapy. Instead, the second sentence of the stimulus tells us that entertaining psychotherapy is particularly unlikely to be high-quality. So we need an assumption like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that create a high degree of likelihood that the psychotherapy will not be high quality should be avoided." Answer choice (C) is saying something like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that have any chance of being less than high quality should be avoided." That's far stronger than we need.

Robert Carroll

How would my reading of C be incorrectly applied?

If there is any context in which psychotherapy might be of less than high quality, it should never be provided in that context.

Radio and television talks shows is a context in which psychotherapy might be of less that high quality, thus it should never be provided in that context (talk shows).

[ericj_williams]

L,

I don't think there's a substantial difference between "context" and "manner" in this case. "Context" just refers very generically to the situation, and "manner" refers to how you do something - I think either of these could be valid. You could say "Make sure the context in which you do something is appropriate" or "Make sure the manner in which you do something is appropriate". What's "appropriate" is going to depend both on the context and the way you do it, so both matter!

The real problem with answer choice (C) is that, as Adam said above, it's far too strong. This is an Assumption question, so an answer that assumes too much is wrong. The author is not committed to the idea that any chance of a lack of high quality is enough to make it wrong for a psychotherapist to provide therapy. Instead, the second sentence of the stimulus tells us that entertaining psychotherapy is particularly unlikely to be high-quality. So we need an assumption like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that create a high degree of likelihood that the psychotherapy will not be high quality should be avoided." Answer choice (C) is saying something like "Psychotherapy in circumstances that have any chance of being less than high quality should be avoided." That's far stronger than we need.

Robert Carroll

How would my reading of C be incorrectly applied?

If there is any context in which psychotherapy might be of less than high quality, it should never be provided in that context.

Radio and television talks shows is a context in which psychotherapy might be of less that high quality, thus it should never be provided in that context (talk shows).

I re-read it and think the difference between A and C is not the negation, it's the fact that C is too broad. It's not psychotherapy as in C, it's about what psychoTHERAPISTS should or should not do. E directly refers to the therapists themselves, as opposed to C, which talks about psychotherapy in general.

[nivernova]

As far as I remember, I've never seen my Powerscore LR Bible dealing with PR-Necessary Assumption Question type.

Furthermore, some other explanations classify this question as PR-Strengthen.

I'm really confused

[Jeff Wren]

Hi nivernova,

You're not alone in being confused. This question gave many people a lot of trouble.

First, you are right that The Logical Reasoning Bible doesn't specifically mention Assumption - PR questions. That is because they are very rare.

The LR Bible mentions that principles are just an "overlay' or a modifier of other question types. In theory, any of the other question types could involve a principle (either in the stimulus or in the answer choices). The LR Bible focuses on the most common principle question types (strengthen, justify, must be true, parallel) as those are generally what test takers are most likely to see. It would be impractical to cover every variation of every question type to ever appear in a logical reasoning section in one book. (The current edition is already over 700 pages as it is!) When it gives examples of question types that sometimes use principles, The LR Bible states "among others" to indicate that these are just examples and not a comprehensive list.

I'm not sure what other explanations you are referring to that classify this question as a Strengthen Principle question, but this is definitely, without question an Assumption Principle question, and it is critical to identifying the question type correctly in order to get this question correct. If this were a Strengthen question, then Answer C would be correct. If it were a Justify question, Answer C would also be correct. The only reason that Answer C is not correct is that it is an assumption question, and Answer C is not required/necessary for the argument.

As to how to recognize that it is an assumption question rather than a justify or strengthen, the word "must" in the question stem is the key. "Must" is a necessary indicator and overrides any other language in the question stem. The words "conclusion to be properly drawn" usually appear in Justify questions, so that part is tricky, but the word "must" is the deciding factor.

While these questions are very rare, it looks like one appeared on a very recent prep test, so perhaps the test makers are bringing them back to add some additional difficulty to LR.