Argument Essay grading request

[johnny1921]

Argument     

 

A new study of a colony of meerkats provides insights into the effects of dominance on a male meerkat's levels of testosterone. The study showed that the dominant male of the meerkat colony had blood levels of testosterone that were, on average, about double those of the colony's non-dominant males. Alpha, or dominant, male dogs also have higher levels of testosterone than non-dominant males. The study also found that the male offspring of dominant male meerkats were born with higher testosterone levels than male offspring of non-dominant males.

 

Essay starts here:

 

The argument  posits that  the meerkat's level of testosterone is affected by their level of dominance. This is based on the preposition that, on average, the dominant male meerkats of a colony have twice the testosterone levels of that of the non-dominant.  Although the study has informative findings, the  deduced causal relationship between dominance and testosterone level is not ascertained, and the study is  circumscribed to one colony only, that its findings cannot be generalized for the whole meerkat population.  More points are explained below concerning the implausibility of the argument.

 

With the limited information given in the argument, male meerkat dominance does not imply high testosterone level, neither vice versa. It is possible that both have a common cause such as age. As the meerkat gets older, it is possible that the testosterone level rises and it becomes more dominant. Therefore, a correlation between two variables is not sufficient enough to determine the cause-and-effect relationship. Instead, many other variables such as age, habitat, and lifestyle need to be factored in to attain more cogent deductions.

 

Since the survey is conducted on one colony of meerkats and the dogs population, the results may not reflect that of the general meerkats population. Species residing in different habitats are likely to exhibit disparate behaviors: a cat living in the wilds is likely to be aggressive and untamed, while a cat raised in a house is likely to be soft and amenable. Therefore, the survey has too little a diversity of population that claims derived from such study are not well substantiated.

 

Several suggestions can be put forth to ameliorate the argument: conduct a study on diverse meerkat colonies via systematic sampling conventions, while neglecting irrelevant studies such as the one made on dogs, as different species display dissimilar behaviors. The findings on this new study would be much more representative, by which founded deductions can be discerned.