Component 1 – Written Exam (AS Level) flashcards

Topic 1: Component 1 – Written Exam

What are the four stages of the Critical Path in 9239?

Deconstruction: analyse and evaluate a point of view. Reconstruction: research and evaluate evidence and sources for competing views. Reflection: explore the impact of research on personal perspectives. Communication and collaboration: communicate views and work with others.

Which Critical Path stages does Component 1 assess?

Deconstruction, reconstruction and communication. Reflection and collaboration are excluded: the exam is individually assessed and its AO2 (Reflection) weighting is 0%.

Which parts of an argument do you identify when deconstructing it?

The conclusion, the reasons (premises), assumptions (stated and unstated), assertions and counter-assertions, and evidence. A stated claim is treated as the conclusion, not as a separate element.

What is a hasty generalisation?

A broad claim drawn from limited cases.

What does the flaw "false cause" cover?

Treating a correlation as causation without justification. It covers confusing correlation with causation, overlooking a confounding variable and reverse causation. Naming any one earns credit as false cause; they are not separate flaws.

What is a false dichotomy?

Presenting two options as the only ones when others exist.

What is an ad hominem argument?

Attacking the arguer, not the argument.

What is a straw man argument?

Misrepresenting a view so that it is easier to defeat.

What is circular reasoning?

An argument in which the conclusion is already assumed within the premises.

Why is naming a reasoning flaw only half the job?

Credit comes from showing how the flaw operates in this source and explaining why it undermines the inference from the reasons to the conclusion.

On which five criteria should you judge evidence in 9239?

Provenance (who produced it, and why), methodology (sample, selection, replicability), currency, corroboration and sufficiency. "Cases rose from 2 to 4, a 100% increase" fails on sufficiency: the numbers are too small to mean much.

Where do perspectives come from, and what scores higher than describing them?

From contexts: economic, political, cultural, generational, geographic. Explaining why a perspective is held, through its context, scores higher than describing what it says.