i chose B and still not sure why C is correct. Is C suggesting that the behavior of punching the Bobo doll cannot be viewed as the indication of aggressive behavior, because it isn't children hurting other children?
thanks a lot!
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- Nina
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Re: Q17 - a major social problem is children hurting other child
Hey Nina.
Answer choice (B) is a degree detail creep. How does how hard or frequent a child punches the doll weaken the argument that watching violent films is partially responsible for aggressive behavior?
Besides which, maybe this child was an exception? Sure, this child did not watch the film but maybe it was a child who had anger management issues or some other factor that resulted in him/her punching the Bobo doll.
(C) works best in weakening the argument because it provides us with an even playing field. It's telling us that whether or not a child watched the violent film, it did not change their likelihood in hurting other children.
Does this make sense?
Answer choice (B) is a degree detail creep. How does how hard or frequent a child punches the doll weaken the argument that watching violent films is partially responsible for aggressive behavior?
Besides which, maybe this child was an exception? Sure, this child did not watch the film but maybe it was a child who had anger management issues or some other factor that resulted in him/her punching the Bobo doll.
(C) works best in weakening the argument because it provides us with an even playing field. It's telling us that whether or not a child watched the violent film, it did not change their likelihood in hurting other children.
Does this make sense?
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- Daniella.owusu
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Re: Q17 - a major social problem is children hurting other child
I would like to explain my thought process to help myself and to hopefully help others on this forum.
The conclusion of the argument is that watching violent films is at least partly responsible for this aggressive behavior. "This" in the conclusion refers to the major social problem of children hurting other children. So, the conclusion is supported by the the experiment that showed that those who watched violent films punched Bobo the clown, while most of the other children did not.
Automatically, what jumped out to me was that it concludes that children hurt other children because of the influence of these films, but all that's been shown is that most who watched punched Bobo. But maybe, they hit Bobo but they may not be more likely to hit an actual child. Answer choice C says this. They aren't any more likely than their counterparts who didn't watch to hit another student.
The conclusion of the argument is that watching violent films is at least partly responsible for this aggressive behavior. "This" in the conclusion refers to the major social problem of children hurting other children. So, the conclusion is supported by the the experiment that showed that those who watched violent films punched Bobo the clown, while most of the other children did not.
Automatically, what jumped out to me was that it concludes that children hurt other children because of the influence of these films, but all that's been shown is that most who watched punched Bobo. But maybe, they hit Bobo but they may not be more likely to hit an actual child. Answer choice C says this. They aren't any more likely than their counterparts who didn't watch to hit another student.
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- agutman
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Vinny Gambini
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Re: Q17 - a major social problem is children hurting other child
Hey guys! Here's my explanation. Hope it helps!
PT69, S1, Q17 (Weaken)
Identifying the conclusion is a bit tricky this time: is it that children hurting other children is a major social problem? Sounds like an opinion... But once we read the rest of the argument we should realize that there is no evidence to support the fact that it’s a major social problem. What, then, is the conclusion? Most of the argument discusses the results of an experiment, and they appear to support that "watching violent films is at least partly responsible for this aggressive behavior." As you know, it’s very important to identify what this refers to. Aha! It refers to "children hurting other children". That first sentence was probably just background. We can now diagram the core:
Most children who watched a film of people punching Bobo proceeded to punch the Bobo doll but most other children did not --> watching violent films is at least partly responsible for children hurting other children
Isn’t it so much easier to spot the gaps when you take the time to identify the core? There’s a major gap between punching the Bobo doll and hurting children. Also, they just finished watching a film where people were punching that exact same doll! Maybe they’re just imitating a very specific behavior that they just saw...
(A) is out of scope; this argument is about whether the experiment shows that violent films cause children to hurt other children.
(B) makes the premise a bit weaker, as it presents an outlier that possibly should have been taken into consideration. Would one outlier cause us to doubt a conclusion that’s based on the results of a good experiment? Maybe if we’re very hard to satisfy... Let’s keep it for now, but hopefully there’s a better answer waiting for us.
(D) which behavior did they imitate? Did they also punch the doll? If so, this attacks one of the gaps that we identified earlier (perhaps they’re just imitating the specific behavior from the film). But if you read this answer choice carefully, you’ll realize that we actually have no idea which behavior was imitated here! Get rid of this one.
(E) is out of scope; this argument didn’t require the children to be familiar with the Bobo doll.
(C) Finally, an answer choice that talks about children hurting other children. If this is true, that means the Bobo doll experiment results do not predict whether children will hurt one another, attacking that major gap we identified earlier (between punching the Bobo doll and hurting children)
So (C) is correct.
PT69, S1, Q17 (Weaken)
Identifying the conclusion is a bit tricky this time: is it that children hurting other children is a major social problem? Sounds like an opinion... But once we read the rest of the argument we should realize that there is no evidence to support the fact that it’s a major social problem. What, then, is the conclusion? Most of the argument discusses the results of an experiment, and they appear to support that "watching violent films is at least partly responsible for this aggressive behavior." As you know, it’s very important to identify what this refers to. Aha! It refers to "children hurting other children". That first sentence was probably just background. We can now diagram the core:
Most children who watched a film of people punching Bobo proceeded to punch the Bobo doll but most other children did not --> watching violent films is at least partly responsible for children hurting other children
Isn’t it so much easier to spot the gaps when you take the time to identify the core? There’s a major gap between punching the Bobo doll and hurting children. Also, they just finished watching a film where people were punching that exact same doll! Maybe they’re just imitating a very specific behavior that they just saw...
(A) is out of scope; this argument is about whether the experiment shows that violent films cause children to hurt other children.
(B) makes the premise a bit weaker, as it presents an outlier that possibly should have been taken into consideration. Would one outlier cause us to doubt a conclusion that’s based on the results of a good experiment? Maybe if we’re very hard to satisfy... Let’s keep it for now, but hopefully there’s a better answer waiting for us.
(D) which behavior did they imitate? Did they also punch the doll? If so, this attacks one of the gaps that we identified earlier (perhaps they’re just imitating the specific behavior from the film). But if you read this answer choice carefully, you’ll realize that we actually have no idea which behavior was imitated here! Get rid of this one.
(E) is out of scope; this argument didn’t require the children to be familiar with the Bobo doll.
(C) Finally, an answer choice that talks about children hurting other children. If this is true, that means the Bobo doll experiment results do not predict whether children will hurt one another, attacking that major gap we identified earlier (between punching the Bobo doll and hurting children)
So (C) is correct.
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