Psych 303   1/23/02 The Structure of Arguments

Argument is a form of persuasion.

        In everyday life, there are many ways other than argument that we try to persuade people. Other forms of persuasion sometimes get confused with arguments.

1. Non-Argument Forms of Persuasion – e.g.

    ßThreaten

        If you don’t agree with me, I’ll hit you.

    ßCajole, promise reward.

               If we can resolve this disagreement, I’ll go to the movies with you.

               Take my side and I’ll be your friend forever.      

2. Persuasive Arguments involve claims and evidence to back up those claims.

Effective Persuasion involves finding good arguments for your position.

PLUS arguments against your position that you figure out how to answer.

NOTE: Sometimes people’s beliefs are so strong that you cannot convince them of your position. You have to revise your goal – get them just to understand your point of view – even if they don’t agree with it.

3. Argument Structure

A. Simple argument: 

         Claim plus evidence for the claim.

Evidence – reasons that support the claim plus support for those reasons.

B. Claims (or assertions) can be stated in the form of a thesis or hypothesis.   

     As a thesis: It is important to major in psychology because society  needs research on how people think.

     As a hypothesis, Increasing the number of psychologists will increase our understanding of how people think.

C. Given a claim, the remainder of the discourse provides the evidence for the claim.

Consists of reasons and the support for them.

e.g., illustrations, examples, analogies.

Persuade but they cannot prove a point, according to logicians.

Examples and illustrations can disprove a point through counterexample.

     Claim: There are no black swans.

     Counterexample: I saw a Black swan in Australia. Disproves the claim.

Quotes do not prove a claim . They offer “support by association.” But for every one of your authorities the opposition is likely to find an authority with a different opinion.

Quotes are useful for comparing and contrasting authors, as a basis of critique.

In psychology the reasons are often patterns in empirical data

Information on how reliable the data are provide support.

Use language to build the case in terms of the claim + evidence. Involves reasoning from the data to the reason and ultimately to the thesis or hypothesis.

Researchers interpret their data; these interpretations can either be critiqued or accepted. If you accept it is useful to say why. 

e.g., Brown’s interpretation of his data as a general tendency in the population seems plausible because the effect was pervasive across large numbers of people. (Note: You might even quote Brown’s interpretation.)

Versus

Brown’s interpretation of his data as a general tendency in the population seems unwarranted. Despite the statistical trends he presents the distribution of responses showed large numbers of people behaving in other ways.

D. A complex argument: A combination of many simple (smaller) arguments.

e.g.,  list the advantages (or disadvantages) of majoring in psychology.

Complex arguments often include counterarguments.

E. Counterargument: A claim and evidence that contradicts another argument

Opponents will frequently use counterargument.

         They argue against your position rather than for their own.

F. Counterargument  can be turned to advantage if

you introduce a counterargument and show why it is inaccurate, weak, or irrelevant.

One technique for introducing a counterargument is to imagine the counters the audience might make to your argument

e.g., You might think that psychologists don’t get paid a great deal of money and so majoring in psychology is a bad idea. (This is a claim that opposes your claim that majoring in psychology is a good idea.)

To support your position you would then show why there is little or no evidence to support this claim.

4. Evaluating Arguments

     Strategies for Evaluating Arguments

         Read through the argument and identify the claims.

         Identify the reasons for the claims.

         Look for, think about counterarguments and counterevidence –

              In other words, can you introduce doubt through counterexample, illustration.

         Decide whether the claim is truly supported by the evidence.

         Decide whether the claim does or does not deal with potential counterarguments.

ß  Class Exercise in Evaluating Arguments

         Work in pairs on Evaluating the arguments in some sample essays.

Written by high school seniors in a 45 minute period. The students wrote in response to the prompt: The school principal is considering establishing a smoking area on campus for students who smoke. In an argumentative essaytake a stand either for or against this proposal. (From  James D. Williams, Preparing to Teach Writing, 2nd edition.1998, Erlbaum Associates.)

Mark in the margins of the essays.

Names in the top right, date.