Most students arrive at [college] using “discrete, concrete, and absol

Most students arrive at [college] using “discrete, concrete, and absolute categories to understand people, knowledge, and values.” These students live with a dualistic view, seeing “the world in polar terms of we-right-good vs. otherwrong-bad.” These students cannot acknowledge the existence of more than one point of view toward any issue. There is one “right” way. And because these absolutes are assumed by or imposed on the individual from external authority, they cannot be personally substantiated or authenticated by experience. These students are slaves to the generalizations of their authorities. An eye for an eye! Capital punish- ment is apt justice for murder. The Bible says so.

Most students break through the dualistic stage to another equally frustrating stage—multiplicity. Within this stage, students see a variety of ways to deal with any given topic or problem. However, while these students accept multiple points of view, they are unable to evaluate or justify them. To have an opinion is everyone’s right. While students in the dualistic stage are unable to produce evidence to support what they consider to be self-evident absolutes, students in the multiplistic stage are unable to connect instances into coherent generalizations. Every assertion, every point, is valid. In their democracy they are directionless. Capital punishment? What sense is there in answering one murder with another?

The third stage of development finds students living in a world of relativism. Knowledge is relative: right and wrong depend on the context. No longer recognizing the validity of each individual idea or action, relativists examine everything to find its place in an overall framework. While the multiplist views the world as unconnected, almost random, the relativist seeks always to place phenomena into coherent larger patterns. Students in this stage view the world analytically. They appreciate authority for its expertise, using it to defend their own generalizations. In addition, they accept or reject ostensible authority after systematically evaluating its validity. In this stage, however, students resist decision making. Suffering the ambivalence of finding several consistent and acceptable alternatives, they are almost overwhelmed by diversity and need means for managing it. Capital punishment is appropriate justice—in some instances.

In the final stage students manage diversity through individual commitment. Students do not deny relativism. Rather they assert an identity by forming commitments and assuming responsibility for them. They gather personal experience into a coherent framework, abstract principles to guide their actions, and use these principles to discipline and govern their thoughts and actions. The individual has chosen to join a particular community and agrees to live by its tenets. The accused has had the benefit of due process to guard his civil rights, a jury of peers has found him guilty, and the state has the right to end his life. This is a principle my community and I endorse.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would consider which of the following to be good examples of “dualistic thinking”?

I. People who think “there is a right way and a wrong way to do things”
II. Teenagers who assume they know more about “the real world” than adults do
III. People who back our country “right or wrong” when it goes to war

(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) III only
(D) I and II only
(E) I and III only


2. Students who are “dualistic” thinkers may not be able to support their beliefs convincingly because

(A) most of their beliefs cannot be supported by arguments.
(B) they have accepted their “truths” simply because authorities have said these things are “true.”
(C) they half-believe and half-disbelieve just about everything.
(D) their teachers almost always think that “dualistic” thinkers are wrong.
(E) they are enslaved by their authorities.


3. Which one of the following assertions is supported by the passage?

(A) Committed thinkers are not very sure of their positions.
(B) Relativistic thinkers have learned how to make sense out of the world and have chosen their own positions in it.
(C) Multiplicity thinkers have difficulty understanding the relationships between different points of view.
(D) Dualistic thinkers have thought out the reasons for taking their positions.
(E) Dualistic thinkers fear the power of authority.


4. In paragraph two, the author states that in their “democracy” students in the multiplicity stage are directionless. The writer describes multiplicity students as being in a “democracy” because

(A) there are so many different kinds of people in a democracy.
(B) in an “ideal” democracy, all people are considered equal; by extension, so are their opinions.
(C) Democrats generally do not have a good sense of direction.
(D) although democracies may grant freedom, they are generally acknowledged to be less efficient than more authoritarian forms of government.
(E) in a democracy the individual has ultimate authority over himself, not the state.


5. Which one of the following kinds of thinking is NOT described in the passage?

(A) People who assume that there is no right or wrong in any issue
(B) People who make unreasoned commitments and stick by them
(C) People who believe that right or wrong depends on the situation
(D) People who commit themselves to a particular point of view after having considered several alternative concepts
(E) People who think that all behavior can be accounted for by cause and effect relationships


6. If students were asked to write essays on the different concepts of tragedy as exemplified by Cordelia and Antigone, and they all responded by showing how each character exemplified a traditional definition of tragedy, we could, according to the passage, hypothesize which one of the following about these students?

(A) The students were locked into the relativist stage.
(B) The students had not advanced beyond the dualist stage.
(C) The students had at least achieved the multiplicity stage.
(D) The students had reached the commitment stage.
(E) We have no indication of which cognitive stage the students were in.


7. Which one of the following best describes the organization of the passage?

(A) Four methods of thought are compared and contrasted.
(B) It is shown how each of four types of thought evolved from each other.
(C) Four methods of thought are presented, and each is shown to complement the other.
(D) The evolution of thought from simplistic and provincial through considered and cosmopolitan is illustrated by four stages.
(E) The evolution of thought through four stages is presented, and each stage is illustrated by how it views capital punishment.