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21 Apr 2020, 01:47
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GMATNinja
Thanks for all of the great replies! It looks like there is still some confusion surrounding this question, so let's try to break it down...
The conclusion is that "attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills." In other words, attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem will CAUSE a great improvement in one's social skills. How does the author arrive at that conclusion?
Based on that evidence, the author concludes that attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem would greatly improve one's social skills. Why is this argument vulnerable to criticism?
Hopefully that adds some clarity!
The conclusion is that "attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills." In other words, attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem will CAUSE a great improvement in one's social skills. How does the author arrive at that conclusion?
- 100 volunteers take a psychological questionnaire to measure their self-esteem.
- Each volunteer is also asked to rate his or her own social skills. Note that their self-esteem was MEASURED by the questionnaire while their social skills were rated by the volunteers themselves.
- Based on the results of the questionnaire, the psychologists could break up the 100 volunteers into groups, including those with the highest levels of self-esteem and those with moderate levels of self esteem.
- Now the psychologists could compare the SELF-RATED social skills of those two groups: "the volunteers with the highest levels of self-esteem consistently rated themselves as having much better social skills than did the volunteers with moderate levels."
Based on that evidence, the author concludes that attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem would greatly improve one's social skills. Why is this argument vulnerable to criticism?
Quote:
A. It fails to adequately address the possibility that many of the volunteers may not have understood what the psychological questionnaire was designed to measure.
All that matters is that the test did in fact measure self-esteem, regardless of whether the volunteers understood what the questionnaire was designed to measure. Choice (A) can be eliminated.Quote:
B. It takes for granted that the volunteers with the highest levels of self-esteem had better social skills than did the other volunteers, even before the former volunteers had attained their high levels of self-esteem.
The author's line of reasoning does not involve taking this assumption for granted. If anything, the author assumes something closer to the opposite (that those with high self esteem had worse social skills before attaining their high levels of self esteem. Since (B) is inaccurate, it cannot be grounds for criticizing the author's argument and can be eliminated.Quote:
C. It overlooks the possibility that people with very high levels of self-esteem may tend to have a less accurate perception of the strength of their own social skills than do people with moderate levels of self-esteem.
What if volunteers with very high levels of self-esteem do tend to have a less accurate perception of the strength of their own social skills? In that case, the ratings those volunteers gave to describe their own social skills would be inaccurate, and we couldn't be sure which of the two groups (those with high levels of self-esteem and those with moderate levels of self-esteem) actually had better social skills. In other words, the ratings of the volunteers' social skills would not be reliable, so the ratings could not be used as valid evidence to support the author's conclusion. (C) looks pretty good.Quote:
D. It relies on evidence from a group of volunteers that is too small to provide any support for any inferences regarding people in general.
Pay attention to the word choice in the last sentence: "This suggests that attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills." The author does not say the evidence proves or confirms this conclusion. Thus, the author implicitly acknowledges that it is only a small sample. Regardless, evidence from a small sample can certainly suggest whether a certain theory is true. In other words, the evidence from the group of 100 volunteers certainly supports the author's conclusion, so (D) is not a valid criticism.Quote:
E. It overlooks the possibility that factors other than level of self-esteem may be of much greater importance in determining the strength of one’s social skills.
The author does not argue that self-esteem is the only factor or even the most important factor affecting the strength of one's social skills. The author simply argues that "attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills." This argument could still hold even if there were several other factors that had a greater impact on the strength of one's self-esteem. (E) can be eliminated.Hopefully that adds some clarity!
I still have an issue with the option C- the stem states that higher self esteem leads to a GREAT improvement in social skills, option C says that the high self-esteem group has a lower accuracy in perception of their level of skills. How can you assume that lower accuracy in perception=lower levels of self esteem? What I am trying to say is that lower accuracy in perception may also mean a very high level of social skills and this option may be slightly strengthening the argument.
Option E on the other hand does a better job at weakening the argument by providing an alternate cause which has a GREATER impact on the level of social skills than high levels of self esteem.
01 May 2020, 13:30
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Ujaswin
I still have an issue with the option C- the stem states that higher self esteem leads to a GREAT improvement in social skills, option C says that the high self-esteem group has a lower accuracy in perception of their level of skills. How can you assume that lower accuracy in perception=lower levels of self esteem? What I am trying to say is that lower accuracy in perception may also mean a very high level of social skills and this option may be slightly strengthening the argument.
Option E on the other hand does a better job at weakening the argument by providing an alternate cause which has a GREATER impact on the level of social skills than high levels of self esteem.
Take another look at the exact wording of the question:Option E on the other hand does a better job at weakening the argument by providing an alternate cause which has a GREATER impact on the level of social skills than high levels of self esteem.
Quote:
The psychologist’s argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?
We're not tasked with utterly obliterating the author's argument -- our job is just to find the answer choice that expresses the way that the argument is MOST vulnerable to criticism, when compared with the other answer choices.So, you're right that (C) doesn't give us ironclad proof that the people with a less accurate perception of their social skills actually have worse social skills than they report. But we don't need ironclad proof -- we just need need to poke a hole in the psychologist's argument. (C) points out that the volunteers' ratings, which are an integral part of the psychologist's argument, may not be reliable. This is a massive flaw in the argument, so (C) is looking good.
Here's (E):
Quote:
(E) It overlooks the possibility that factors other than level of self-esteem may be of much greater importance in determining the strength of one’s social skills.
To choose this as an answer, it must be true that the psychologist's argument "overlooks" the possibility that other factors are involved. This would be the the case if the psychologist argued that the ONLY factor affecting social skills is self esteem. It could even be true if he/she argued that the GREATEST factor affecting social skills is self esteem. But he/she doesn't say that. Instead, he/she concludes that "attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills." This is entirely compatible with other factors having a greater impact on social skills -- so long as self-esteem greatly improves social skills, it doesn't matter whether other factors do so as well.
Because the psychologist doesn't overlook the possibility of other factors, his/her argument is not vulnerable to the criticism in (E).
I hope that helps!
15 Jan 2021, 04:53
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AbdurRakib
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018
Practice Question
Critical Reasoning
Question no. 182
Psychologist: In a study, researchers gave 100 volunteers a psychological questionnaire designed to measure their self-esteem. The researchers then asked each volunteer to rate the strength of his or her own social skills. The volunteers with the highest levels of self-esteem consistently rated themselves as having much better social skills than did the volunteers with moderate levels. This suggests that attaining an exceptionally high level of self-esteem greatly improves one’s social skills.Practice Question
Critical Reasoning
Question no. 182
The psychologist’s argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?
(A) It fails to adequately address the possibility that many of the volunteers may not have understood what the psychological questionnaire was designed to measure.
(B) It takes for granted that the volunteers with the highest levels of self-esteem had better social skills than did the other volunteers, even before the former volunteers had attained their high levels of self-esteem.
(C) It overlooks the possibility that people with very high levels of self-esteem may tend to have a less accurate perception of the strength of their own social skills than do people with moderate levels of self-esteem.
(D) It relies on evidence from a group of volunteers that is too small to provide any support for any inferences regarding people in general.
(E) It overlooks the possibility that factors other than level of self-esteem may be of much greater importance in determining the strength of one’s social skills.
Argument Evaluation
Situation
In a psychological study of 100 volunteers, those found to have the highest self-esteem consistently rated themselves as having much better social skills than did those found to have moderate self-esteem.
Reasoning
What is wrong with the psychologist citing the study's results to justify the conclusion that exceptionally high self-esteem greatly improves social skills? The psychologist reasons that the study shows a correlation between very high self-esteem and how highly one rates one's social skills, and that this correlation in turn suggests that very high self-esteem improves social skills. This argument is vulnerable to at least two criticisms: First, the argument assumes that the volunteers' ratings of their own social skills are generally accurate. But very high self-esteem might in many cases result from a tendency to overestimate oneself and one's skills, including one's social skills. Second, the argument fails to address the possibility that good social skills promote high self-esteem rather than vice versa, as well as the possibility that some third factor (such as a sunny disposition or fortunate circumstances) promotes both high self-esteem and good social skills.
(A) An experiment's subjects do not have to understand the experiment's design in order for the experimental results to be accurate.
(B) To the contrary, the argument concludes that the volunteers with the highest self-esteem attained their enhanced social skills as a result of attaining such high self-esteem.
(C) Correct. As explained above, very high self-esteem may often result from a tendency to overestimate oneself in general, and thus to overestimate one's social skills.
(D) A group of 100 volunteers is large enough for an experiment to provide at least a little support for at least some inferences regarding people in general.
(E) As explained above, the argument overlooks the possibility that some third factor may play a significant role in determining the strength of one's social skills. But even if some factor other than self-esteem is more important in determining the strength of social skills, that would still be compatible with very high self-esteem being of some importance in improving one's social skills.
Situation
In a psychological study of 100 volunteers, those found to have the highest self-esteem consistently rated themselves as having much better social skills than did those found to have moderate self-esteem.
Reasoning
What is wrong with the psychologist citing the study's results to justify the conclusion that exceptionally high self-esteem greatly improves social skills? The psychologist reasons that the study shows a correlation between very high self-esteem and how highly one rates one's social skills, and that this correlation in turn suggests that very high self-esteem improves social skills. This argument is vulnerable to at least two criticisms: First, the argument assumes that the volunteers' ratings of their own social skills are generally accurate. But very high self-esteem might in many cases result from a tendency to overestimate oneself and one's skills, including one's social skills. Second, the argument fails to address the possibility that good social skills promote high self-esteem rather than vice versa, as well as the possibility that some third factor (such as a sunny disposition or fortunate circumstances) promotes both high self-esteem and good social skills.
(A) An experiment's subjects do not have to understand the experiment's design in order for the experimental results to be accurate.
(B) To the contrary, the argument concludes that the volunteers with the highest self-esteem attained their enhanced social skills as a result of attaining such high self-esteem.
(C) Correct. As explained above, very high self-esteem may often result from a tendency to overestimate oneself in general, and thus to overestimate one's social skills.
(D) A group of 100 volunteers is large enough for an experiment to provide at least a little support for at least some inferences regarding people in general.
(E) As explained above, the argument overlooks the possibility that some third factor may play a significant role in determining the strength of one's social skills. But even if some factor other than self-esteem is more important in determining the strength of social skills, that would still be compatible with very high self-esteem being of some importance in improving one's social skills.
GMATNinja, VeritasKarishma
Are (1) In a study, researchers gave 100 volunteers a psychological questionnaire designed to measure their self-esteem. AND (2) The researchers then asked each volunteer to rate the strength of his or her own social skills. two separate events?
I mean once event (1) is performed and then event (2) is performed.
