#18- It is said that people should accept themselves as they

[voodoochild]

Experts,
I am having a hard time trying to negate the correct answer.

B:People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue PE.

Since "to pursue PE" is a dependent modifier, I think that we will have to negate that too.

Therefore, People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are not less likely than others to not pursue PE

OR

People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are more likely to not pursue PE.

OR (Peculiarity of the above statement is that the sentence seems "correlation" and is not typical conditional statement with "If and Then"

(Now I will go to conditional world) : Not Dissatisfied not pursue PE

If PE Dissatisfied

Is my reasoning correct?

Please let me know. Thanks in advance.

[Steve Stein]

Hi Voodoo,

Thanks for your question. Getting rid of the double negatives that the test makers have provided us with, answer choice B basically provides the following:

People who are happy with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.

The logically negated version of this answer choice is as follows:

People who are happy with themselves are no less likely than others to pursue personal excellence.

(In other words, such people are at least as likely to pursue personal excellence as anyone else.)

I hope that's helpful--let me know. Thanks!

~Steve

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello Steven,

I am not understanding how to draw up a chain for this, Im getting confused with everything that comes after the but in the stimulus.

Thankyou
Sarah

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your question! Try diagramming separately before and after the comma for the last sentence of the stimulus. For each half of that sentence, use "if" as a clue for how to diagram. If you can post what you come up with, we can help steer you in the right direction, and help you figure out how to tie the two ideas together!

[Lsathusker]

This question is stumping me. Here's my thought process so far:

Starts w/ principle: people should accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied w/ their own abilities.

Conclusion: Goal of society to be genuinely happy ----> Reject this principle

Why? Because:

Not pursuing excellence & unwilling to undergo personal change ---> cannot be happy

Contrapositive gives us:

Happy ---> pursuing excellence or willing to change

My question is can we link these two by saying: IF goal of society is to be pursuing excellence or willing to change ---> people should not accept themselves as they are and instead be dissatisfied with their own abilities?

This is where I'm getting lost, I identified answer choices B and C as contenders, and didn't love either one of them. I think I became caught up in the 'less likely' language of B and ended up going with C instead. I also think I became too in the weeds with the conditional reasoning of the stimulus. Can the correct answer be identified as B because in getting rid of the double negative you get: People who are satisfied with themselves are less likely to pursue personal excellence. Which means that negating this gets us to: People who are satisfied with themselves (the principle) are more likely to pursue personal excellence, which would basically destroy the argument that happiness and satisfaction/acceptance are compatible.

Sorry for the word vomit, but would love to hear critiques on my reasoning/advice to work through these super confusing/dense stimuli.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi LSAThusker,

Your reasoning is generally fine---personally, I'd eliminate answer choice (C) fairly quickly because the idea of confidence isn't in the stimulus, and it's not necessary to bring it in. It won't connect to the argument. Confidence is different than satisfaction and wouldn't link in.

For answer choice (B), I wouldn't remove the double negative. Not dissatisfied is different than satisfied. You could be neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. For example, I am not dissatisfied with the Pro Bowl structure. I am also not satisfied with it. I just don't care either way. Your analysis misses that middle ground that needs to be considered.

We must connect the idea that dissatisfaction is potentially good with pursuing personal excellence or undergoing change. That's what answer choice (B) does---it says that if you aren't dissatisfied, you are less likely to pursue personal excellence.

Hope that helps!

[kristinajohnson@berkeley.edu]

Stimulus "It is said that people should accept themselves as they are instead of being dissatisfied with their own abilities. [1] But this is clearly a bad principle if the goal is a society whose citizens are genuinely happy, [2] for no one can be genuinely happy if he or she is not pursuing personal excellence and is unwilling to undergo personal change of any kind."

Answer B "People who are not dissatisfied with themselves are less likely than others to pursue personal excellence."

1. If happy then dissatisfied
1c. If satisfied then not happy

2. (conclusion) If not pursuing personal excellence AND not personal change then not happy
2c. If happy then pursuing personal excellence OR personal change

Is the missing link here between 1c and 2?

1c. If satisfied then not happy
2. (conclusion) If not pursuing personal excellence AND not personal change then not happy

So we need something like IF satisfied THEN not pursuing personal excellence

Answer B IF satisfied THEN not pursue personal excellence
Answer B negated IF satisfied THEN pursue personal excellence

Does the link always put the premise before the conclusion and leave the conclusion in the original conditional direction given so you don't end up with a mistaken reversal? This is a very important question for me. Thank you very much, I sincerely appreciate your responses.

[Dana D]

Hey Kristina,

Your shorthand is misstating the stimulus slightly here:

1. If happy then dissatisfied
1c. If satisfied then not happy

It actually says that if you're happy you must be pursuing personal excellence and willing to undergo change

It further suggests that telling people to not be dissatisfied with themselves is a bad policy. So clearly, there is a gap here - a jump going from the idea that if you are not dissatisfied with yourself, you will not pursue personal excellence and be willing to undergoe change. That's the prephrase of answer choice (B), which is why it's the correct answer.

I wouldn't say the conclusion is always in the same conditional direction. You did a good job here identifying the link of what was missing from the argument.