According to psychoanalytic theory, people have unconscious beliefs th

(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs.---This is wrong because the argument never mentions about the extent of becoming conscious...
(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief.---this cud be right because arg mentions "researchers observed occasions on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief"
(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs,---no mention about the origin of the conscious beliefs .
(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.---again no mention about conscious beliefs in passage
(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is some thing of which patients are consciously aware. ---which mechanism they are trying to refer here....it is OOS.
hence acc to me big B..

According to psychoanalytic theory, people have unconscious beliefs that are kept from becoming conscious by a psychological mechanism termed “repression.” Researchers investigating the nature of this mechanism observed occasions on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief. They found that such occasions were marked by an unusual decrease in the patient’s level of anxiety.

If the information above is true, and if the researchers’ investigation was properly conducted,
then which of the following must also be true?

Explanation:
We believe that our "beliefs" are "true," for they fit our experience. They tell us what is real or not, what is possible or not, what is right and wrong, what is acceptable or not, and so on. Yet most of these beliefs are not conscious i.e., we are not really aware about them. These are unconscious beliefs. These beliefs (whether conscious or unconscious) are specific to an individual i.e, only they are aware about it (others may just guess).
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(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs. ---> This option is going too far in saying that it’s an ‘accurate’ measure.

(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief. ---> The words …remains unconscious… are problematic here. It cannot be concluded from the passage. Rather, we can say that researchers find it (a previously unconscious belief) only when a patient informs them about the same (by using the following part from the excerpt: …expressed a previously…).

(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs. ---> This information cannot be concluded from the passage.

(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed. ---> IMO, researchers can know about anyone’s belief only if they are expressed by that particular person. If the person tells/conveys (in whatever manner) the researcher that this particular belief was something that he wasn’t aware of earlier (i.e., it was an unconscious belief), only then can the researcher conclude that it was earlier an unconscious belief (and now the patient is aware/conscious about it). But if the patient thinks that a particular belief is not an unconscious belief, he would actually never express it to the researcher. He would only express those beliefs that he feels were unconscious earlier.

IMO, the explanation mentioned above is the basis on which the researchers differentiate.

(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is some thing of which patients are consciously aware. ---> IMO, the excerpt mentioned above doesn’t look sufficient enough to conclude the first part of this option (that psychological mechanism works on only unconscious beliefs). It may be possible that psychological mechanism works in some other cases/fields/areas too besides unconscious beliefs.

Coming to the second part, we cannot say that patients are aware about how the mechanism operates. They just become aware about their previously unconscious beliefs.
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Though option D was my first choice, I would have marked it mainly on the basis of process of elimination.

Hope that helps.


Regards,
Technext

Straight forward Assumption

Go through each answer choice & negate... 30 second CR.

Negate D:
(D) Researchers were NOT able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.

Final Answer, D.

Very tricky question, IMO E (use POE)

According to psychoanalytic theory, people have unconscious beliefs that are kept from becoming conscious by a psychological mechanism termed “repression.” Researchers investigating the nature of this mechanism observed occasions on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief. They found that such occasions were marked by an unusual decrease in the patient’s level of anxiety.
If the information above is true, and if the researchers’ investigation was properly conducted, then which of the following must also be true?
(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs -->just mentioning about unconscious beliefs, we can't conclude anything about a conscious beliefs. One more, what is repressed belief ?
(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief -->the fact is about unconscious belief became conscious belief (became aware of ...), so this choice is irrelevant
(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs. -->ridiculous
(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed. -->very wordy but impressive. However, conscious belief is not mentioned, so I eliminate it
(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is something of which patients are consciously aware --> initially choose by POE, after that, still stick with it: ...on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief...--> patients becomes awareness although still expressing an unconscious belief

if you negate D, then the conclusion does not hold..

(D) Researchers were NOT able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.

If researchers cannot distinguish between what was an unconscious vs a conscious one, then how do they know the patient was able to discover an unconscious belief?

When the conclusion fails with a negated assumption then that assumption must be true in order for the conclusion to be true.
Answer is D

" unconscious beliefs that are kept from becoming conscious" are referred to as repressed beliefs. When a patient goes through therapy, the patient becomes aware of the unconscious belief and expresses them.

In order for the last claim to be true, the therapist must be able to distinguish between conscious beliefs that have not been expressed yet and unconscious belief that the patient became aware of and expressed.

tryingharder, i don't think the issue is between unconscious of conscious beliefs. The questions says the patient became aware of and expressed repressed beliefs.

sayantanc2k
Could u please take this one?
The OA (D) looks more like an assumption. Also shed light on the difference between assumption and inference with respect to this argument.

GMATNinja, Could you help to explain for this Inference question? I have a hard time to answer this question. Why (A) is incorrect?

According to the passage, when a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief, the patient's level of anxiety was decreased. But this does not necessarily mean that a decrease in anxiety level is a sign that the patient has become conscious of a previously repressed belief. There could be several other reasons to explain the decrease in anxiety (perhaps the patient joined a support group, started taking medication, got involved in a social activity, etc.)

For example, say that exercise reduces stress. Does that mean we can monitor changes in a person's stress levels to measure how much that person exercises? Of course not... several other factors can affect stress levels.

Similarly, several other factors can affect anxiety levels, so we cannot monitor changes in a patient's anxiety level during therapy to accurately measure the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs. Choice (A) should be eliminated.

I hope that helps!

(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs.

The stimulus says that the occasions when patients become conscious of previously repressed beliefs are marked by decreased anxiety. They don’t say that the level of decrease varies directly or is correlated with the level of becoming conscious. Hence we cannot infer this from the stimulus.

(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief.

Not relevant to the given statements. Whether there are other mechanisms of identifying unconscious beliefs is out of scope.

(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs.

Again, not relevant. All we can say is that people can be made to express some unconscious beliefs through therapy. We cannot say that all conscious beliefs originate as unconscious.

(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed.

The given stimulus tells us that the researchers have been able to make people express their unconscious beliefs through therapy. A valid point here is – how do researchers know that the beliefs being expressed by the patients are unconscious beliefs and not merely conscious beliefs that the patients did not express previously? Since the stimulus says, “Researchers investigating repression observed occasions on which a patient undergoing therapy became aware of and expressed a previously unconscious belief” and we have to take the statement to be true, it means they were able to distinguish between unconscious beliefs and conscious but unexpressed beliefs. Hence (D) is the answer.

(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is something of which patients are consciously aware.

Focus on the first part of this option. The statements in the stimulus tell us that repression keeps unconscious beliefs unconscious. They don’t tell us whether repression works on conscious beliefs or not – perhaps it keeps people from expressing conscious beliefs or perhaps it doesn’t work on conscious beliefs at all – the statements don’t say. We cannot say that the beliefs on which repression works are ALL unconscious. Hence we cannot infer this. Not the answer.

The correct answer is (D).

what is the conclusion of this argument?
How to identify what the qn stem requires? i.e what should I look for ? an assumption, inference or conclusion?
Also, elaborate on the qn stem types possible in "must be true" questions
TIA

This passage does not have a conclusion. Instead, we are given a series of facts and must find an answer choice that must be true if all of the given facts are true. This is similar to questions that ask, "If the statements above are true, which of the following can properly/logically be inferred/concluded..."

With such inference questions, as with any CR passage, you must pay close attention to the details and to the language/modifiers used by the author (see the "It’s all about the modifiers" section in the Ultimate CR Guide for Beginners for more information).

Then, it's simply a matter of using process of elimination to cross off answer choices that do not necessarily have to be true. Check out my earlier post in this thread for more help: https://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to ... l#p1898296

Need explanation for D ans choce

In simple words:

people have unconscious beliefs. These beliefs become conscious due to repression. Researchers observed unconscious becoming conscious is due to decrease level of anxiety.

Question: Which statement supports the conclusion belief but not expressed .
D says: Researchers can distinguish unconscious belief from conscious belief
--> distinguish something that you suddenly remember due to decrease level of anxiety from something you already remember but just expressing it now .

I hope it helps.

Understanding the argument -
Unconscious beliefs (U Belief) are kept from becoming conscious by "repression."
When patients undergo therapy, they
1. Become aware of the U Belief
2. Expressed the U Belief
Researchers found that when it all happened - occasions were marked by an unusual decrease in patients' anxiety.

Option Elimination -

(A) Changes in the patient’s anxiety level during therapy can generally be used as an accurate measure of the extent to which the patient is becoming conscious of previously repressed beliefs. It's saying as if Factors A, B, C, D, and E lead to F. By measuring changes in "F" we can say how much change in "A." This is ridiculous. This option is a classic distortion.

(B) Even when one of a patient’s unconscious beliefs remains unconscious, researchers are sometimes able to discover this belief. - We don't know. Not mentioned in the argument. Wrong.

(C) If psychoanalytic theory is correct, then most conscious beliefs originate as unconscious beliefs. - We don't know. Not mentioned in the argument. Also, it's a bit hyperbolic. Wrong.

(D) Researchers were able to distinguish expressed beliefs that had previously been unconscious from those that had long been conscious but that the patient had not previously expressed. - We can logically deduce this from the premises - more from the second statement of the argument.

(E) Although the beliefs on which the mechanism of repression works are all unconscious, the operation of the mechanism itself is something of which patients are consciously aware. - We don't know if the patients are aware of this or not. Nothing is mentioned in the passage. Wrong.