Argument53 [jet小组] 第五次作业

abzeroUID: 2308499

TOPIC: ARGUMENT53 - Thirteen years ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered that these infants were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production of melatonin-a hormone known to affect some brain functions-would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children-now teenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life.


In this argument, By citing the results of a study thirteen years ago and a follow-up study of 25 infants, the arguer claims that the increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. However, this conclusion is unconvincing as it stands.

Firstly, the arguer takes that these infants were conceived in when their mothers' production of melatonin would increase as the reason why they showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli. The arguer fails to tell us whether there were controls in this study; if not, it is arbitrary to assert that these 25 infants were more likely to show signs of mild distress.

However, it is probably not the case, for that the arguer hastily equals the correlation between the distress of infants and the possible high level of mothers' melatonin to a causal relation. Furthermore the arguer overlooks other possible reasons that may also cause the mild distress of infants. For example, maybe melatonin only affect the brain function of mothers but has no effect on the infants, and it is some other chemical material with which the mothers have got touch before these infants were born that causes this phenomena. Or perhaps their mothers have received impacts on mind, which will also affect their babies. Unless the author rules out these alternative explanations, this assumption remains unpersuasive.

Secondly, the reliable of the result of the follow-up study is questionable. As we all know, people, including teenagers, are suffering great stress nowadays, and the shyness maybe just one result of them-maybe nearly all teenagers feel shy. And under many conditions, the self-feeling is not objective enough to evaluate the mind condition of people. So the fact these teenagers who identified themselves as shy cannot indicate they are different from common people. The arguer should tell us more information about this follow-up study, or the result of it lends little support to this conclusion.

Even if these teenagers are really shier than their contemporaries, it is arbitrary to assert that it results from the increased levels of melatonin. It is entire possible that the shyness is caused by their family environments or by the culture which they are live in. For example, people who grow in China are more likely to identify themselves as shy than Americans. Or perhaps, during the past thirteen years, these teenagers may experienced many things which have changed their characters. Unless the arguer provides more information, this assumption remains groundless.

In sum, the conclusion that the increased levels of melatonin before birth will cause shyness during infancy and this effects will continues into later life is unconvincing. To strengthen it, the argue needs to provide more evidence to prove the consequence between them. And to better assess this conclusion, I would needs more information of these studies.

[ 本帖最后由 iq28 于 2008-2-13 00:47 编辑 ]