Critical Reasoning

Researcher: A number of studies have suggested that. On average, clients in short-term psychotherapy show similar levels of improvement regardless of the kind of psychotherapy they receive. So any client improvement in short-term psychotherapy must be the result of some aspect or aspects of therapy that are common to all psychotherapies for example, the presence of someone who listens and gives attention to the client.

Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken the researcher's argument?

(A) The methods by which the studies measured whether clients improved primarily concerned immediate symptom relief and failed to address other important kinds of improvement

(B) On average, clients improve more dramatically when they receive long-term psychotherapy, a year or longer in duration, than when clients receive short-term psychotherapy.

(C) The studies found that psychotherapy by a trained counselor does not result in any greater improvement, on average, among clients than does simple counseling by an untrained layperson.

(D) The specific techniques and interventions used by therapists practicing different kinds of psychotherapy differ dramatically.

(E) More-experienced therapists tend to use a wider range of techniques and interventions in psychotherapy than do inexperienced therapists.

OA is A

Please justify why D cannot be the answer.

Conclusion is :- Any client improvement in short-term pschotherapy must be the result of some aspect or aspects of therapy that are common to all pyschotherapies.

The following was my thought process, "Just because all clients in short-term psychotherapy experience similar levels of improvement, that does not mean that all types of psychotherapy share the same aspect responsible for that improvement".

D, though not clear, can hit the argument by showing specific techniques and interventions used by therapists differ dramatically ?

Thanks

Well, the first thing to note is that this isn't a GMAT question, so the tendencies and patterns that you are accustomed to seeing will not occur as you expect.

Answer choice (D), even if true, does not weaken the argument. Just because techniques and interventions vary widely does not mean that they could not have something in common (the presence of a professional, the presence of someone who listens, a soft reclining couch, etc.).

(A), on the other hand, if true, suggests that perhaps the clients are not really showing the same levels of improvement.

I think you should be wary of including LSAT questions in your GMAT critical reasoning preparation. Although some of them do follow the standard GMAT format and are useful for preparing yourself for the critical reasoning section, there are many, such as this one, that offer potentially correct answers that are unlike anything that you could expect to see on a GMAT test.