Necessary AssumptionDiff: Hard
Logic Breakdown
Passage Summary: Since talk show therapy has to be entertaining and you can't give good help while being entertaining, therapists should just stay off the air.
Conclusion: Psychotherapists should never provide psychotherapy on radio or television talk shows.
Reasoning: Talk shows require entertainment for a broad audience, which is almost always incompatible with providing high-quality psychological help.
Analysis: The psychologist identifies a conflict between entertainment and quality, then jumps to a moral or professional prohibition. The 'gap' here is the assumption that if a practitioner cannot provide high-quality help in a specific setting, they should not provide help in that setting at all. A necessary assumption must bridge 'incompatibility with high quality' and 'should never do it.' If it were acceptable to provide mediocre or 'low-quality' help for the sake of entertainment, the conclusion would fall apart.
Conclusion: Psychotherapists should never provide psychotherapy on radio or television talk shows.
Reasoning: Talk shows require entertainment for a broad audience, which is almost always incompatible with providing high-quality psychological help.
Analysis: The psychologist identifies a conflict between entertainment and quality, then jumps to a moral or professional prohibition. The 'gap' here is the assumption that if a practitioner cannot provide high-quality help in a specific setting, they should not provide help in that setting at all. A necessary assumption must bridge 'incompatibility with high quality' and 'should never do it.' If it were acceptable to provide mediocre or 'low-quality' help for the sake of entertainment, the conclusion would fall apart.
Passage Stimulus
Passage Redacted
Unlock Full Passage20.Which one of the following principles must be assumed in order for the psychologist's conclusion to be properly drawn?
Correct Answer
E
This supplies the needed normative bridge: if providing help in a certain manner makes high quality unlikely, therapists should never do it. Negation test: If it is sometimes acceptable to provide help in a manner that makes high quality unlikely, then the conclusion that therapists should never provide therapy on talk shows would not follow, given the premises only show it’s unlikely there to be high quality.
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