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16 Sep 2014, 02:00
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Emotional stress is a well known cause of certain serious health problems, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications. Now, an additional concern can be added to the list of maladies caused by emotional stress. A group of researchers surveyed both people who have high levels of emotional stress and people who don’t and found that people with high emotional stress levels are significantly more obese and nervous than people with lower levels of emotional stress.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument rests?
A. Obesity and nervousness does not always lead to serious health problems.
B. Obesity and nervousness do not make individuals less capable of handling emotionally stressful situations.
C. Equivalent numbers of people with high and low levels of emotional stress were surveyed for the study.
D. Emotionally stressed out people are aware of the various health problems attributed to emotional stress, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications.
E. Emotionally stressed out people who had encountered an emotionally stressful situation immediately before responding to the survey were more obese and nervous than the people from the same group who had not encountered any emotionally stressful situation for a few days.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument rests?
A. Obesity and nervousness does not always lead to serious health problems.
B. Obesity and nervousness do not make individuals less capable of handling emotionally stressful situations.
C. Equivalent numbers of people with high and low levels of emotional stress were surveyed for the study.
D. Emotionally stressed out people are aware of the various health problems attributed to emotional stress, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications.
E. Emotionally stressed out people who had encountered an emotionally stressful situation immediately before responding to the survey were more obese and nervous than the people from the same group who had not encountered any emotionally stressful situation for a few days.
16 Sep 2014, 02:00
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Official Solution:
Emotional stress is a well known cause of certain serious health problems, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications. Now, an additional concern can be added to the list of maladies caused by emotional stress. A group of researchers surveyed both people who have high levels of emotional stress and people who don’t and found that people with high emotional stress levels are significantly more obese and nervous than people with lower levels of emotional stress.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument rests?
A. Obesity and nervousness does not always lead to serious health problems.
B. Obesity and nervousness do not make individuals less capable of handling emotionally stressful situations.
C. Equivalent numbers of people with high and low levels of emotional stress were surveyed for the study.
D. Emotionally stressed out people are aware of the various health problems attributed to emotional stress, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications.
E. Emotionally stressed out people who had encountered an emotionally stressful situation immediately before responding to the survey were more obese and nervous than the people from the same group who had not encountered any emotionally stressful situation for a few days.
The argument shows a causal relationship between the premises and the conclusion. The conclusion states that emotional stress causes people to become obese and nervous. The assumption in this causal argument should support the causal direction of the conclusion. i.e. the assumption must prove that A causes B or Emotional stress causes obesity and nervousness.
The assumptions in a causal argument are often of two types: (i) Assumptions that support the causality of the argument either by eliminating an alternate cause of the conclusion OR (ii) by demonstrating that the conclusion, if it exists, is in the proper direction. In other words, A is caused by B and not B is caused by A. Any option which does not tell us anything about the causal link between Emotional eating and obesity and nervousness can be safely eliminated.
A. The stimulus does not discuss the frequency with which obesity and nervousness are related to serious health problems. Even if obesity and nervousness always lead to serious health problems, the argument still remains valid and hence option A is not a necessary assumption.
B. CORECT. Imagine what would happen if obesity and nervousness caused people to have emotional stress. Every single person would display both symptoms. This would invalidate the research because of the reversed causality. Instead of emotional stress causing obesity, obesity would be causing emotional stress and as the result every obese person participation in the research would end up having emotional stress symptoms. You would have a 100% correlation, which would be 100% wrong. This is a pretty clever one and easy to eliminate without considering it accurately. This answer choice rules out an opposite direction for the causality, making our conclusion valid, thus, the correct choice.
C. The number of respondents does not say anything about the causal link between emotional eating and obesity and nervousness. Option C might strengthen the argument to some extent, however it is NOT a necessary assumption - it is not that the author MUST have assumed this statement. If the author did not assume option C, even then the argument would hold. Although it might have been somewhat weakened, it won't completely break down.
D. Again the awareness of people on problems related to emotional stress is irrelevant. No link to causal relationship.
E. This choice is incorrect for two reasons. First, the argument never compares some emotional eater to other emotional eaters. Second, the argument is not based on immediate impact of emotional stress in making people obese and nervous.
Answer: B
Emotional stress is a well known cause of certain serious health problems, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications. Now, an additional concern can be added to the list of maladies caused by emotional stress. A group of researchers surveyed both people who have high levels of emotional stress and people who don’t and found that people with high emotional stress levels are significantly more obese and nervous than people with lower levels of emotional stress.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument rests?
A. Obesity and nervousness does not always lead to serious health problems.
B. Obesity and nervousness do not make individuals less capable of handling emotionally stressful situations.
C. Equivalent numbers of people with high and low levels of emotional stress were surveyed for the study.
D. Emotionally stressed out people are aware of the various health problems attributed to emotional stress, including high blood pressure and cardiac complications.
E. Emotionally stressed out people who had encountered an emotionally stressful situation immediately before responding to the survey were more obese and nervous than the people from the same group who had not encountered any emotionally stressful situation for a few days.
The argument shows a causal relationship between the premises and the conclusion. The conclusion states that emotional stress causes people to become obese and nervous. The assumption in this causal argument should support the causal direction of the conclusion. i.e. the assumption must prove that A causes B or Emotional stress causes obesity and nervousness.
The assumptions in a causal argument are often of two types: (i) Assumptions that support the causality of the argument either by eliminating an alternate cause of the conclusion OR (ii) by demonstrating that the conclusion, if it exists, is in the proper direction. In other words, A is caused by B and not B is caused by A. Any option which does not tell us anything about the causal link between Emotional eating and obesity and nervousness can be safely eliminated.
A. The stimulus does not discuss the frequency with which obesity and nervousness are related to serious health problems. Even if obesity and nervousness always lead to serious health problems, the argument still remains valid and hence option A is not a necessary assumption.
B. CORECT. Imagine what would happen if obesity and nervousness caused people to have emotional stress. Every single person would display both symptoms. This would invalidate the research because of the reversed causality. Instead of emotional stress causing obesity, obesity would be causing emotional stress and as the result every obese person participation in the research would end up having emotional stress symptoms. You would have a 100% correlation, which would be 100% wrong. This is a pretty clever one and easy to eliminate without considering it accurately. This answer choice rules out an opposite direction for the causality, making our conclusion valid, thus, the correct choice.
C. The number of respondents does not say anything about the causal link between emotional eating and obesity and nervousness. Option C might strengthen the argument to some extent, however it is NOT a necessary assumption - it is not that the author MUST have assumed this statement. If the author did not assume option C, even then the argument would hold. Although it might have been somewhat weakened, it won't completely break down.
D. Again the awareness of people on problems related to emotional stress is irrelevant. No link to causal relationship.
E. This choice is incorrect for two reasons. First, the argument never compares some emotional eater to other emotional eaters. Second, the argument is not based on immediate impact of emotional stress in making people obese and nervous.
Answer: B
27 Jun 2022, 02:48
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The question or/and solution has been revised and edited. Thank you sayantanc2k !!!
