kmewmewblue
Thanks Received: 1
Forum Guests
 
Posts: 57
Joined: April 18th, 2011
 
 
trophy
Most Thankful
 

Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by kmewmewblue Thu Jan 12, 2012 1:01 am

I eliminated(A)and (B).
I understand why (D) is correct by having nothing to do with the argument.

But, (C) and (E) also seems irrelevant....

Thank you in advance.
 
timmydoeslsat
Thanks Received: 887
Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch
 
Posts: 1136
Joined: June 20th, 2011
 
This post thanked 1 time.
 
trophy
Most Thanked
trophy
First Responder
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by timmydoeslsat Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:33 pm

The correct answer to this problem is (C).

It is the only choice that does not weaken the argument.

We have a conclusion based upon one piece of evidence.

Evidence:
In each study, over 80% of the people surveyed indicated that they wanted to be told if they had any serious medical condition.

Conclusion:
Several recent studies establish that most people would want to be informed if they had any serious medical condition.


As we can see, we are jumping from people being surveyed to people in general. We are not told that this is a representative sample in the survey. Perhaps all of the people being surveyed are 1st graders.

Since this is a weaken EXCEPT question stem, I will be viewing each answer choice as a weakener, if it does....eliminate. If it does not weaken...that is our answer.

A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.

B) This weakens. It shows a reason why we could view the results with suspicion and cannot conclude something based on shaky evidence.

C) Not sure how this would weaken. Does it matter if the person giving the survey has a background in medicine? Simply asking questions in front of you would not require a background in medicine. I will hold this for now and move on.

D) This inflicts bias into the survey results given into evidence. This weakens the argument.

E) This shows that our sample was not representative.

So, C is our answer.
 
patrice.antoine
Thanks Received: 35
Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch
 
Posts: 111
Joined: November 02nd, 2010
 
 
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by patrice.antoine Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:44 pm

Bump. Can an instructor please explain how (D) weakens???
User avatar
 
maryadkins
Thanks Received: 641
Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch
 
Posts: 1261
Joined: March 23rd, 2011
 
This post thanked 1 time.
 
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by maryadkins Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:37 pm

Regarding (D) Patrice, timmydoesLSAT is right about the bias. Think about what it would mean if the questions in the survey were suggestive that there was a right answer and a wrong answer--people might be more inclined to respond "correctly" because they want to do whatever the "reasonable" person would do. Often when people are criticizing surveys of this sort, a criticism is that the wording of the questions implicitly conveyed to people what they "should" answer. This is what (D) is getting at.
 
icebreaker
Thanks Received: 0
Forum Guests
 
Posts: 8
Joined: October 20th, 2013
 
 
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by icebreaker Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:59 pm

timmydoeslsat Wrote:A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.



Would anyone be able to help me with a question related to answer choice (A)?

I see how another study resulting in the opposite result of our conclusion is a valid weakener; however, I am wondering why this is the case if our premise (which is still valid in itself) still holds to support our conclusion?

In another question, I've noticed that another study is irrelevant to our premise to conclusion relationship because it is still the case that our study (in the original premise) exists.

Help appreciated :) Thank you!
User avatar
 
WaltGrace1983
Thanks Received: 207
Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch
 
Posts: 837
Joined: March 30th, 2013
 
 
trophy
Most Thanked
trophy
Most Thankful
trophy
First Responder
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by WaltGrace1983 Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:15 pm

icebreaker Wrote:
timmydoeslsat Wrote:A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.



Would anyone be able to help me with a question related to answer choice (A)?

I see how another study resulting in the opposite result of our conclusion is a valid weakener; however, I am wondering why this is the case if our premise (which is still valid in itself) still holds to support our conclusion?

In another question, I've noticed that another study is irrelevant to our premise to conclusion relationship because it is still the case that our study (in the original premise) exists.

Help appreciated :) Thank you!


The premise may offer some support for the conclusion. However, the premise goes from talking about people in a few SURVEYS to most people in GENERAL. (A) is showing that these surveys may not be representative of MOST people because another equally valid survey got different results.
 
huskybins
Thanks Received: 0
Jackie Chiles
Jackie Chiles
 
Posts: 28
Joined: June 23rd, 2016
 
 
 

Re: Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

by huskybins Fri Sep 23, 2016 7:39 pm

Dear all,
I knew it could seem stupid but I just can't help but asking why C can't be a valid weakening option? Maybe "serious medical condition" does require certain medicine background to be clearly defined for conducting a survey. Without a canonical definition of what situation or symptom shall qualify a "serious medical situation", how can the researcher warrant the accuracy of her survey? Maybe someone with heart beating rate at 40/min looks not a serious medical condition to a researcher without medical background but that can be regarded quite differently from some medical experts.

So if the accuracy of survey result is suspicious, then the conclusion from the stimulus is in much less certainty accordingly.

Really appreciate any input any folk would like to offer.