Ch. 11 & 7 In-Class Review PDF

In-Class Review: Focus on Induction (Chs. 11 & 7) Concepts for Review: 1) Statistical Syllogisms (i.e., “Instantiating” or “De-Generalizing”) 2) Generalizing from a Sample 3) Sample 4) (Target) Population 5) Related Variabl...

In-Class Review: Focus on Induction (Chs. 11 & 7) Concepts for Review: 1) Statistical Syllogisms (i.e., “Instantiating” or “De-Generalizing”) 2) Generalizing from a Sample 3) Sample 4) (Target) Population 5) Related Variable 6) Attribute of Interest 7) Biased Sample 8) Representative Sample 9) Argument by Analogy 10) Terms of Analogy 11) Attacking the Analogy 12) Seven Inductive Fallacies (+ four special cases of Post Hoc) Are #s 1 and 2 statistical syllogisms (reasoning from the general to the specific) or generalizations from a sample, i.e., cases of sampling? Explain your answer. 1. “Jaguars are unreliable cars, from my experience.” 2. “Your car’s gonna cost you a bunch of money in repairs. It’s a Jaguar, after all.” 3. Identify the sample, target population and attribute of interest in the following example: “I’m a Belgian tourist who visits Malibu once a year. Half of the people I’ve met there have had at least one cosmetic surgery. I don’t know why Americans are so obsessed with how they look!” 4. Does the example in #3 use a biased (or, “skewed”) sample? Defend your answer by identifying at least two related variables. 5. Which of the following is an argument by analogy? Explain your answer by identifying the issue, position and premise. a) Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. b) Azia aced the English final, so she’ll probably ace the math final as well. We should try to get her in our study group. 6. a) What are the terms of the analogy in the answer to 5b? b) What is the attribute of interest? c) Is this a strong analogy? (How many relevant similarities and differences exist between the terms and how closely related are they to the attribute of interest, across how wide a range?) 7. How could we attack the following analogy? “Azia aced the English final, so she’ll ace the math final.”  For 8-16 identify the inductive fallacy as one of the following: 1) Hasty Generalization 2) Biased (or, “skewed”) Generalization 3) Anecdotal Evidence 4) Self- selection Fallacy 5) Weak (or) False Analogy 6) Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc* 7) Untestable Explanation or Claim 8. “I’ve put more than 200,000 miles on my Volvo without any major repairs. Clearly, Volvo really does build the most reliable cars.” 9. “Most Californians are worried about air pollution. In a recent survey of Los Angelenos, more than half of respondents said this was the issue they most wanted politicians to tackle.” 10. Whenever I listen to Sarah McLachlan songs, I notice that I’m feeling sad. Her music must cause sadness. 11. “Technology’s supposed to make all of our lives so much better. But study X has clearly shown that technology makes our lives far worse.” 12. “The IRS, like the rest of the government, works for big business. They could care less about middle-class taxpayers like you and me. I’ve been audited three times in the past ten years, and it bankrupted me. I lost my house and my marriage. My three children and I were living on the street. Did this government organization care about my welfare? Heck no! And you know what, I’m scheduled for another audit next month. I don’t know how much more of this I can take!” 13. “Jim’s an excellent tax attorney. He defended me well against the IRS last year at my audit. I’m now on trial for murder. I bet he’d make an amazing criminal defense lawyer, too. I’m definitely going to hire him.” 14. I had awful body aches and took twice the recommended dose of Tylenol, then feel asleep for 15 hours. Taking too much Tylenol must cause an intense need for sleep. 15. “I finally read the results of that mail-in survey I completed last year. It turns out that more than 85% of California residents think that we should lower the driving age to 12.” 16. The scores on the mini-test last week in PHI 120 were exceptionally high. Students were then rewarded with donuts before this week’s test. The scores this week were lower. Donuts must cause lower test scores. *For any post hoc fallacies, identify whether it could be a case of one of these special cases: a) Overlooking the possibility of regression to the mean b) Overlooking the possibility of random variation c) Overlooking the possibility of reverse causation d) Overlooking the possibility of a common cause