PrepTest 119

Incorrect. Freud's theory doesn't need to make false suggestions for it to be disfavored compared to others—the argument just relies on the predictions about human behavior to be less accurate.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Necessary Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Other theories make more accurate predictions than Freud's theories, so we should throw Freud's theories out in favor of the other theories.

Answer Anticipation:
The argument recommends scrapping a theory for another set. Why? Because those other theories make more accurate predictions about human behavior.

Whenever an argument makes a recommendation, it needs to establish the criteria by which that recommendation can be made. Here, to conclude that we should throw out one theory in favor of another, it would need to be established what makes a theory better.

Here, the argument fails to do so. Instead, it compares Freud's theory to others along a single metric—how well the theory can predict human behavior. While Freud's theory is worse in this regard than others, there's no indication that this is the key element of a psychological theory.

Therefore, the argument is assuming that theories that can more accurately predict human behavior should be used and those that make less accurate predictions should be abandoned. Let's find an answer establishing this as the relevant criteria.

Answer Explanation:
This answer establishes accurate predictions on human behavior as the key element in determining which of several psychological theories is preferable. Since the stimulus establishes other theories beat Freud's on this metric, this answer is correct. If such predictions aren't scientifically preferable, then the argument falls apart.

Key Takeaway:
Whenever an argument makes a recommendation in the conclusion, be sure that a premise establishes what criteria need to be considered to make that recommendation. Here, there was no premise that said when one theory should be abandoned in favor of another, and so we needed to look for that in an answer choice.

Incorrect. The argument relies on these other theories being more successful, which doesn't require that Freud's theories have had little success. They could be fairly successful, but the new theories are even moreso.

Incorrect. The stimulus establishes as a fact that the predictive success of certain theories beats that of Freud's. It doesn't matter what methods are used to make that determination!

Incorrect. The conclusion of the argument says that Freud's theories should be abandoned "no matter how . . . complex they are," so that considers the possibility that they're not very complex at all, and thus this answer isn't a requirement for the argument to hold.