Q25

[LSAT-Chang]

Could someone go over the answers for me on this one? I chose B because I didn't understand what the "another field of inquiry" (choice D) was in the passage -- but I can see that it's referring to the international conflict and crisis. However, what is wrong with B? Is it because there are two psychological hypothesis presented (previous vs. currently found)? I thought "psychological hypothesis" was just talking about the currently found since that is the important part of the passage and so that coupled with "political test case", I thought it outlined it nicely -- any thoughts??

[giladedelman]

Thanks for posting.

I have some thoughts here. For starters, I don't actually see any psychological hypothesis presented here. I see some observations about human behavior drawn from the field of psychology ("recent investigations into the psychology of decision making), but I'm not sure where the passage presents some theory or hypothesis.

But a better reason to get rid of (B) is that nothing is "subjected to a political test case." Rather, the discussion of the Falklands War is offered as an example of the application of the psychology of decision making to the field of government risk taking. A test case, by contrast, is something designed to test the veracity of a theory or idea, rather than simply provide an example of it.

(D) is the best answer here because it pretty neatly outlines what the passage does: we start off with a discussion of these "new psychological considerations" (which is more supported than "hypothesis"), and conclude with an example of how they apply to another field, that is, the field of government risk taking.

(A) is incorrect because this isn't a "psychological analysis," it's merely a discussion of psychological research.

(C) is sort of backwards; the passage suggests that people who study politics and government could use this psychology stuff, not that psychologists should use political science.

(E) is out because there is no second "avenue" or perspective offered.

Does that answer your question?

[LSAT-Chang]

Thanks for the great explanation. I clearly see why (D) is correct. For some reason I thought the Falkland was a "test" but now that I read it again, it is clearly just an example to illustrate the new risk-taking theory.

[daytimeowl17]

Hi! Could you by any chance elaborate on why A doesn't work? So these scholars recently started looking into the psychology of decision making in interpreting the gov't actions in int'l conflict and crisis- how is that not a 'psychological analysis of motives' behind these actions? They started looking into & analyzing the gov't decisions in a new light. Is it because they only offered a new way of understanding the gov't actions, and not fully analyzed, for instance, why they act on these kinds of motivation?