[ARGU 53] by Cherish

kidloveUID: 2814224

TOPIC: ARGUMENT53 - Thirteen years ago,researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distresswhen exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recordingof an unknown voice. They discovered that these infants were more likely thanother infants to have been conceived in early autumn, a time when theirmothers' production of melatonin-a hormone known to affect some brainfunctions-would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In afollow-up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of thesechildren-now teenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves asshy. Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness duringinfancy and this shyness continues into later life.
WORDS: 547
TIME: 00:50:00
DATE: 2011/2/6 19:38:35

In this argument, the arguer concludes thatincreased levels of the substance called melatonin before birth cause shynessduring infancy and will continue into later life. To support the conclusion,the arguer points out that a research conducted thirteen years ago, researchersinvestigated a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distress whenexposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or voice, by which theydiscovered that those infants were more likely to be conceived in early autumnthan other babies, and during when their mother produces a hormone known toaffect brain functions that would naturally increase in response to decreaseddaylight. In addition, the arguer provides a follow-up study shows that morethan half of those babies-now teenagers-identified themselves as shy. At firstsight, it seems that the analysis is fully developed, but in fact the arguerhas committed several critical flaws.
The major problem with this argument isthat the samples mentioned in the study are too limited. Those babies who wereborn in early autumn as the arguer says are not representative and notcomparable. It is possible that their signs of mild distress when exposed tounfamiliar stimuli are passed down from previous generation, or it is becausethat every new-born baby are very sensitive to changes of circumstances aroundthem. Besides this, the arguer does not provide us how other samples of babiesborn in other seasons of the year will react when exposed to similar stimuliwith these infants. With similar samples can we draw a comparison on whether itdoes have influence on being conceived in autumn.
Another flaw that weakens this argument isthat there's no direct evidence provided to show that it is the high levels ofmother's production of melatonin is the result in the distress showed by theinfants. Granted that melatonin is a kind of hormone which is known to affectsome brain functions, there's no evidence that this kind of hormone woulddefinitely lead to the mild distress showed by these infants. In addition, thearguer fails to prove that increased levels of mother's production of melatoninwill directly affect their infants.
In the follow-up study of those infants,who are now teenagers, the arguer claims that half of these children identifiedthemselves as shy. The arguer simple equals mild distress with shyness. It may differa lot when judging distress between infants and teenagers, and even there willbe big differences when evaluating shyness among different people. Differentindividuals may define the term shy in various ways.
Last but not least, the arguer ignores manyother possible reasons that either causes the mild distress of those infantswhen exposed to unfamiliar stimuli, or definitions of shyness of thoseteenagers. For instance, genetic transmission may be the incentive, or other environmentalfactors will cause shyness in those teenagers.
To sum up, the conclusion of melatonincauses mild distress in infants and continues to affect in teenagers is notsufficiently substantiated because the evidence cited in the analysis does notlend strong support to what the arguer maintains. To strengthen the argument,the arguer would have to provide more evidence concerning the comparablesamples, the effect the hormone will have and whether the infants will beaffected by it, etc.