Human relations have commanded peoples attention from early times.

Question

Human relations have commanded people’s attention from early times. The ways of people have been recorded in innumerable myths, folktales, novels, poems, plays, and popular or philosophical essays. Although the full significance of a human relationship may not be directly evident, the complexity of feelings and actions that can be understood at a glance is surprisingly great. For this reason psychology holds a unique position among the sciences. “Intuitive” knowledge may be remarkably penetrating and can significantly help us understand human behavior, whereas in the physical sciences such commonsense knowledge is relatively primitive. If we erased all knowledge of scientific physics from our modem word, not only would we not have cars and television sets, we might even find that the ordinary person was unable to cope with the fundamental mechanical problems of pulleys and levers. On the other hand if we removed all knowledge of scientific psychology from our world, problems in interpersonal relations might easily be coped with and solved much as before. We would still “know” how to avoid doing something asked of us and how to get someone to agree with us; we would still “know” when someone was angry and when someone was pleased. One could even offer sensible explanations for the “whys” of much of the self’s behavior and feelings. In other words, the ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of the self and of other people which, though unformulated or only vaguely conceived, enables one to interact with others in more or less adaptive ways. Kohler, in referring to the lack of great discoveries in psychology as compared with physics, accounts for this by saying that “people were acquainted with practically all territories of mental life a long time before the founding of scientific psychology.”

Paradoxically, with all this natural, intuitive, commonsense capacity to grasp human relations, the science of human relations has been one of the last to develop. Different explanations of this paradox have been suggested. One is that science would destroy the vain and pleasing illusions people have about themselves; but we might ask why people have always loved to read pessimistic, debunking writings, from Ecclesiastes to Freud. It has also been proposed that just because we know so much about people intuitively, there has been less incentive for studying them scientifically; why should one develop a theory, carry out systematic observations, or make predictions about the obvious? In any case, the field of human relations, with its vast literary documentation but meager scientific treatment, is in great contrast to the field of physic in which there are relatively few nonscientific books.

Paradoxically, with all this natural, intuitive, commonsense capacity to grasp human relations, the science of human relations has been one of the last to develop. Different explanations of this paradox have been suggested. One is that science would destroy the vain and pleasing illusions people have about themselves; but we might ask why people have always loved to read  pessimistic, debunking writings , from Ecclesiastes to Freud. It has also been proposed that just because we know so much about people intuitively, there has been less incentive for studying them scientifically; why should one develop a theory, carry out systematic observations, or make predictions about the obvious? In any case, the field of human relations, with its vast literary documentation but meager scientific treatment, is in great contrast to the field of physic in which there are relatively few nonscientific books.    1 
 1. According to the passage, it has been suggested that the science of human relations was slow to develop because

(A) intuitive knowledge of human relations is derived from philosophy
(B) early scientists were more interested in the physical world
(C) scientific studies of human relations appear to investigate the obvious
(D) the scientific method is difficult to apply to the study of human relations
(E) people generally seem to be more attracted to literary than to scientific writings about human relations

2 
 2. The author’s statement that “Psychology holds a unique position among the sciences” ( Highlighted ) is supported by which of the following claims in the passage?

(A) The full meaning of a human relationship may not be obvious.
(B) Commonsense understanding of human relations can be incisive.
(C) Intuitive knowledge in the physical sciences is relatively advanced.
(D) Subjective bias is difficult to control in psychological research.
(E) Psychological facts are too imprecise to lead to great discoveries.

3 
 3. According to the passage, an understanding of the self can be

(A) highly biased due to unconscious factors
(B) profound even when vaguely conceived
(C) improved by specialized training
(D) irrelevant for understanding human relations
(E) more reliable than knowledge about other people

4 
 4. It can be inferred that the author would most likely agree with which of the following statements regarding people who lived before the advent of scientific psychology?

(A) Their understanding of human relations was quite limited.
(B) They were uninterested in acquiring knowledge of the physical world.
(C) They misunderstood others more frequently than do people today.
(D) Their intuitions about human relations were reasonably sophisticated.
(E) They were more likely to hold pleasing illusions about themselves than are people today.

5 
 5. The author implies that attempts to treat human relations scientifically have thus far been relatively

(A) unilluminating
(B) paradoxical
(C) pessimistic
(D) encouraging
(E) uninterpretable

6 
 6. The author refers to people who are attracted to “pessimistic, debunking writings” ( Text in Red ) in order to support which of the following ideas?

(A) Interesting books about human relations are typically pessimistic.
(B) People tend to ignore scientific explanations of human relations.
(C) People rarely hold pleasing illusions about themselves.
(D) A scientific approach human relations would undermine the pleasing illusions people hold of themselves.
(E) It is doubtful that the science of human relations developed slowly because of a desire to maintain pleasing illusions.

7 
 7. It can be inferred that the author assumes that commonsense knowledge of human relations is

(A) equally well developed among all adults within a given society
(B) considerably more accurate in some societies than in others
(C) biased insofar as it is based on myths and folktales
(D) typically unrelated to an individual’s interactions with other people
(E) usually sufficiently accurate to facilitate interactions with others

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

6. The author refers to people who are attracted to “pessimistic, debunking writings” (Text in Red) in order to support which of the following ideas?

Explanation

(A) Interesting books about human relations are typically pessimistic. 
It makes no sense at all. Out

(B) People tend to ignore scientific explanations of human relations. 
It is clearly out of the scope of the passage. Out

(C) People rarely hold pleasing illusions about themselves. 
This is opposite to what is given in the passage. Out

(D) A scientific approach human relations would undermine the pleasing illusions people hold of themselves. 
This is a very beautiful trap providing a very good and authentic piece of information according to the passage. At this point we might need to read the question again and understand what is required by the question.

This option would have been a good answer if only below text would have been present in the passage:

Paradoxically, with all this natural, intuitive, commonsense capacity to grasp human relations, the science of human relations has been one of the last to develop. Different explanations of this paradox have been suggested. One is that science would destroy the vain and pleasing illusions people have about themselves;

Now read the below text

but we might ask   why people have always loved to read pessimistic, debunking writings, from Ecclesiastes to Freud.

By including the above line the answer option  (D)  fails

(E) It is  doubtful  that the science of human relations developed slowly because of a desire to maintain pleasing illusions.

This is the correct answer, we need to concentrate on the word "doubtful"

Answer: E

PS: In my first attempt I selected  D  as my answer but learned from it instantly.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

With 400+ words this passage seems a bit lengthier than a long GMAT passage BUT at the same time, it is equally good for the GMAT RC practice.

4. It can be inferred that the author would most likely agree with which of the following statements regarding people who lived before the advent of scientific psychology?

Explanation

This is an inference question so the answer could or could not be explicitly mentioned in the passage, we have to find the support and apply the proper inference logic to find out the answer. The question asks us to find what the author would most likely agree about the people who lived before the advent of scientific psychology? Lat's read each and every answer choice one by one.

(A) Their understanding of human relations was quite limited.

Quite limited make this option quite impossible to infer. This is an example of extreme answer choice which lies outside the boundaries of the scope of the passage.

(B) They were uninterested in acquiring knowledge of the physical world.

Again same as  (A)  the word  uninterested  makes this choice out of the scope

(C) They misunderstood others more frequently than do people today.

This is totally opposite to what is stated in the second half of the first paragraph

(D) Their intuitions about human relations were reasonably sophisticated.

Below is the related text from the passage:

"......if we removed all knowledge of scientific psychology from our world, problems in interpersonal relations might easily be coped with and solved much as before. We would still “know” how to avoid doing something asked of us and how to get someone to agree with us; we would still “know” when someone was angry and when someone was pleased. One could even offer sensible explanations for the “whys” of much of the self’s behavior and feelings.  In other words, the ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of the self and of other people which, though unformulated or only vaguely conceived , enables one to interact with others in  more or less adaptive ways."

Pay attention to the text in  bold  especially. D can be infer.

(E) They were more likely to hold pleasing illusions about themselves than are people today.

This could be a trap answer choice used with canny words but it is incorrect according to the passage. An extreme answer choice type.

Answer: D

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

5. The author implies that attempts to treat human relations scientifically have thus far been relatively

Difficulty Level:   750

Explanation

Paying too much and unnecessary attention to the second paragraph makes this question hard. Only answer choices (A) and (B) are competitors and the rest all are easy eliminations. Let's read the answer choices one by one.

(A) unilluminating

Admittedly this option seems very boring and very unattractive for the answer and the majority of the students did the same. By not paying too much attention to the second paragraph and paying attention to the overall structure and language used by the passage can be helpful to assess that this is the true answer.

(B) paradoxical

Very traping answer choice, This is a human characteristic that we remember the things we latest have dealt with. Some  "paradoxical"  thing is discussed in the middle of the  second paragraph  which is possible by less than 10 percent of the passage in terms of content quantity. The author has used this option to trap the students. This is incorrect.  Paragraph 1  contains approx 70% of the passage content and all it suggests about the question is  "unilluminating"  and not  "paradoxical"  so  (B)  is well crafted incorrect answer.

(C) pessimistic

Out of scope

(D) encouraging

Opposite

(E) uninterpretable

Out of scope

Answer: A

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Human relations have commanded peoples attention from early times.

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

Human relations have commanded peoples attention from early times.

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards