Explain answer

Hi there, thanks for your post. This is a Flawed Method of Reasoning question. The stimulus presents an argument. The conclusion is "it follows that excessive anxiety in childhood is one of the causes of migraine headaches and depression in later life." Why? Because the anxiety in childhood comes before migraine headaches and depression. This is a flawed method of reasoning. You cannot conclude that one thing causes another just because one thing happens before the other. Answer choice (B) describes this flaw: the argument fails to rule out the possibility that all of the characteristic symptoms of the syndrome (excessive anxiety, migraines, and depression) have a common cause (the excessive anxiety). Hope this helps! Please advise if you have any additional questions.

Hello, I got this one right, but I had it narrowed down to B & D. Can you please explain how to eliminate answer choice D, please?

@mcduffeeee, Happy to help. (D) says, "It fails to demonstrate that the people who participated in the study are representative of migraine sufferers." In doing so, (D) is basically saying that the sample is unrepresentative. This answer choice is simply trying to argue that anxiety and depression are one of the causes of migraines. The stimulus doesn't have to establish that the migraine sufferers mentioned in the study represent all migraine sufferers because the stimulus simply concludes that anxiety during childhood is one of the causes of migraines and depressions later on in life. Whether or not this group of migraine sufferers represents the totality of all migraine sufferers, this group's cause of migraines would still be one of the causes of depression and migraines. Plus, (D) is simply not describing the flaw in the argument of inferring causation from a correlation between things, as Mehran pointed out above. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!