- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 8950
- Joined: Feb 02, 2011
- Fri Jun 30, 2017 3:17 pm
#36583
Complete Question Explanation
Weaken. The correct answer choice is (E)
This question describes a legitimate occupational dilemma for therapists: What do you do when a client
tells you about an unreported crime? Do you report it and violate the client’s trust or do you choose not
to report it and thereby jeopardize the public? According to the stimulus, it is impossible for a therapist
to keep a client’s information private while at the same time making efforts to ensure the public’s
wellbeing. In order to weaken this argument, you must provide a position that allows a therapist “to
both respect their clients’ right to confidentiality and be sincerely concerned for the welfare of victims
of future violent crimes.” In other words, the correct answer choice must provide a way for therapists to
somehow reduce the risk of future violent crimes without violating their clients’ right to confidentiality.
Answer choice (E) best expresses this idea.
Answer choice (A): Whether the therapist voluntarily sought out violent criminals or was assigned
to work with them has no impact on the moral dilemma expressed here. Court-appointed therapists
would be under the same obligations as any other therapists and this information does not make the two
obligations presented in the stimulus any less difficult to meet.
Answer choice (B): The likelihood of a criminal receiving therapy, or the physical location of the
criminal when he or she receives therapy, does nothing to weaken this conclusion, as it does not provide
a way for therapists to protect the public while still maintaining their clients’ right to confidentiality.
Answer choice (C): Remember that the argument is about the dilemma that faces therapists who treat
violent criminals. In order to weaken that argument, the correct answer choice must allow for the two
obligations of a therapist to coexist. Proving that victims and criminals are entitled to the same rights of
confidentiality does not do so.
Answer choice (D): Although it is perfectly acceptable for Weaken answer choices to introduce new
information, the idea of compensation for victims of violent crimes in this answer choice has no effect
on the argument.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. Besides answer choice (A), this is the
only other answer choice which actually addresses therapists. Identifying this feature will help you
accelerate through the incorrect answer choices to the most likely correct answer choices. In this case,
a therapist who has gained a violent criminal’s trust (presumably enough so that the criminal confesses
an unreported crime) can convince that criminal not to commit future crimes. Thus, it is possible
for therapists to simultaneously fulfill their obligations to both the criminal and the public, and the
stimulus’s conclusion is thereby weakened.
Weaken. The correct answer choice is (E)
This question describes a legitimate occupational dilemma for therapists: What do you do when a client
tells you about an unreported crime? Do you report it and violate the client’s trust or do you choose not
to report it and thereby jeopardize the public? According to the stimulus, it is impossible for a therapist
to keep a client’s information private while at the same time making efforts to ensure the public’s
wellbeing. In order to weaken this argument, you must provide a position that allows a therapist “to
both respect their clients’ right to confidentiality and be sincerely concerned for the welfare of victims
of future violent crimes.” In other words, the correct answer choice must provide a way for therapists to
somehow reduce the risk of future violent crimes without violating their clients’ right to confidentiality.
Answer choice (E) best expresses this idea.
Answer choice (A): Whether the therapist voluntarily sought out violent criminals or was assigned
to work with them has no impact on the moral dilemma expressed here. Court-appointed therapists
would be under the same obligations as any other therapists and this information does not make the two
obligations presented in the stimulus any less difficult to meet.
Answer choice (B): The likelihood of a criminal receiving therapy, or the physical location of the
criminal when he or she receives therapy, does nothing to weaken this conclusion, as it does not provide
a way for therapists to protect the public while still maintaining their clients’ right to confidentiality.
Answer choice (C): Remember that the argument is about the dilemma that faces therapists who treat
violent criminals. In order to weaken that argument, the correct answer choice must allow for the two
obligations of a therapist to coexist. Proving that victims and criminals are entitled to the same rights of
confidentiality does not do so.
Answer choice (D): Although it is perfectly acceptable for Weaken answer choices to introduce new
information, the idea of compensation for victims of violent crimes in this answer choice has no effect
on the argument.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. Besides answer choice (A), this is the
only other answer choice which actually addresses therapists. Identifying this feature will help you
accelerate through the incorrect answer choices to the most likely correct answer choices. In this case,
a therapist who has gained a violent criminal’s trust (presumably enough so that the criminal confesses
an unreported crime) can convince that criminal not to commit future crimes. Thus, it is possible
for therapists to simultaneously fulfill their obligations to both the criminal and the public, and the
stimulus’s conclusion is thereby weakened.