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Question 1
C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
85%
(hard)
Question Stats:
40% (03:22) correct
60%
(03:06) wrong
based on 263
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
Question 2
B
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
55%
(hard)
Question Stats:
51% (01:15) correct 49%
(01:23) wrong
based on 287
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
In her 1977 novel Egalia's Daughters, Gerd Brantenburg creates a fictional matriarchy in which the wim (women) wield the social, political, and economic power, while the menwim (men) are assigned the housekeeping and child-rearing roles. The narrative's denouement is a gender revolution that seems virtually predestined but may, in fact, be based on a questionable assumption. While disadvantage has historically preceded both political and social rebellion, the idea that such an outcome is inevitable is not borne out by sociological research.
System justification theory (SJT) posits that even those disadvantaged by a social system have a tendency to defend and support it, contributing to the stasis of the status quo. If one's relative societal position is sufficiently internalized, it is ultimately seen as something that is fixed and immutable. People "know their place" and resist any cultural vision that suggests that it can, or even should, be changed. They also conform their actions to what they have been taught is normal for their societal position. For example, research has shown that, when placed in an environment that generally perceives women to be poor math students, female students perform worse in math than they did before. This is true even for female students with strong natural math ability. In such an environment, women who could excel at math will reject the suggestion that they consider a career in a math-heavy field. Regardless of their actual ability, their social system has told them that women are not good math students and are unsuited for math-heavy careers, a notion they accept and even defend.
What is not known is whether or not this intransigence in the face of facts would hold true for historically advantaged groups as well. Do advantaged groups automatically defend and support the social system and see their assigned social position as immutable, despite evidence that it has little objective basis? Group consciousness studies to date have focused on the perspective of the disadvantaged group, and any attempt to create, or even simulate, a sudden recasting of the advantaged majority would necessarily provide an artificial result. One might think that an advantaged group would have an incentive to defend a system that maintains its advantage. But in small-scale individual testing in which men were presented with evidence that they believed removed some of their advantaged status, the subjects actually ended up with an increase in self-esteem related to their reduced advantage, embracing the reduction and taking pride in it.
System justification theory (SJT) posits that even those disadvantaged by a social system have a tendency to defend and support it, contributing to the stasis of the status quo. If one's relative societal position is sufficiently internalized, it is ultimately seen as something that is fixed and immutable. People "know their place" and resist any cultural vision that suggests that it can, or even should, be changed. They also conform their actions to what they have been taught is normal for their societal position. For example, research has shown that, when placed in an environment that generally perceives women to be poor math students, female students perform worse in math than they did before. This is true even for female students with strong natural math ability. In such an environment, women who could excel at math will reject the suggestion that they consider a career in a math-heavy field. Regardless of their actual ability, their social system has told them that women are not good math students and are unsuited for math-heavy careers, a notion they accept and even defend.
What is not known is whether or not this intransigence in the face of facts would hold true for historically advantaged groups as well. Do advantaged groups automatically defend and support the social system and see their assigned social position as immutable, despite evidence that it has little objective basis? Group consciousness studies to date have focused on the perspective of the disadvantaged group, and any attempt to create, or even simulate, a sudden recasting of the advantaged majority would necessarily provide an artificial result. One might think that an advantaged group would have an incentive to defend a system that maintains its advantage. But in small-scale individual testing in which men were presented with evidence that they believed removed some of their advantaged status, the subjects actually ended up with an increase in self-esteem related to their reduced advantage, embracing the reduction and taking pride in it.
1. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the position for which evidence is provided in the highlighted portion of paragraph 2?
A. Female students who believe women are poor math students tend to study harder than those who do not hold this belief.
B. Math teachers are more lenient when grading female students.
C. When placed in environments in which women are perceived to be weak in math, men's math performance also declines.
D. When placed in environments in which women are perceived to be weak in math, men's math scores tend to improve.
E. In environments in which there is no perception that women are weak in math, women's math scores tend to be comparable to men's.
A. Female students who believe women are poor math students tend to study harder than those who do not hold this belief.
B. Math teachers are more lenient when grading female students.
C. When placed in environments in which women are perceived to be weak in math, men's math performance also declines.
D. When placed in environments in which women are perceived to be weak in math, men's math scores tend to improve.
E. In environments in which there is no perception that women are weak in math, women's math scores tend to be comparable to men's.
2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes which of the following about social justification theory?
I. It provides a complete picture of how individuals think of their social system.
II. It states that social reform can be repudiated by those who might most benefit from it.
III. It is used primarily to understand gender relations.
A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only
I. It provides a complete picture of how individuals think of their social system.
II. It states that social reform can be repudiated by those who might most benefit from it.
III. It is used primarily to understand gender relations.
A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only
RC Butler 2023 - Practice Two RC Passages Everyday.
Passage # 303 Date: 31 Aug-2023
This question is part of RC Butler 2023. Click here for Details
Passage # 303 Date: 31 Aug-2023
This question is part of RC Butler 2023. Click here for Details
10 Sep 2023, 12:42
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plz explain q2
i believe that statement 2 is inferred by research of individual subjects and not the theory referred in question
i believe that statement 2 is inferred by research of individual subjects and not the theory referred in question
11 Sep 2023, 12:11
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Its_me_aka_ak
Official Explanation
1. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the position for which evidence is provided in the highlighted portion of paragraph 2?
Explanation
Analyze the question stem
This is a Weaken question. The correct answer will be the choice that makes the referenced position less likely to be correct.
Research
The highlighted portion describes how women placed in an environment in which females are perceived to be poor math students experience a drop in math performance. This is an example used to support the idea that societal expectations determine individual behavior.
Make a prediction
The implication is that the women are doing more poorly in math because they believe that is what their society expects of them. Any choice that suggests some other explanation for their drop in performance would weaken the position.
Evaluate the answer choices
If, as stated in (C), the female math students' declining performance was matched by similar declines among male students placed in the same environment, this would weaken the position that the women were simply trying to conform to the society's stereotype. No such stereotype exists for the males, so something else must be going on to explain the drop in performance. (C) is therefore the correct answer.
(A) focuses on study habits, not performance, and so has nothing to do with the claim.
(B) actually strengthens the claim by removing another possible explanation, namely that female performance drops because teachers are more strict with female students.
(D) is incorrect because improvement by men doesn't imply anything about why women do worse.
If anything, (E) strengthens the argument because it suggests that societal expectations are a factor that determines women's performance.
TAKEAWAY: Your prediction to a Weaken question will necessarily be general, as there's no way to know exactly what the test maker will present in the correct answer. However, you can have a good idea of what the correct answer must do in a general sense, such as present an alternative explanation.
Answer: C
Explanation
Analyze the question stem
This is a Weaken question. The correct answer will be the choice that makes the referenced position less likely to be correct.
Research
The highlighted portion describes how women placed in an environment in which females are perceived to be poor math students experience a drop in math performance. This is an example used to support the idea that societal expectations determine individual behavior.
Make a prediction
The implication is that the women are doing more poorly in math because they believe that is what their society expects of them. Any choice that suggests some other explanation for their drop in performance would weaken the position.
Evaluate the answer choices
If, as stated in (C), the female math students' declining performance was matched by similar declines among male students placed in the same environment, this would weaken the position that the women were simply trying to conform to the society's stereotype. No such stereotype exists for the males, so something else must be going on to explain the drop in performance. (C) is therefore the correct answer.
(A) focuses on study habits, not performance, and so has nothing to do with the claim.
(B) actually strengthens the claim by removing another possible explanation, namely that female performance drops because teachers are more strict with female students.
(D) is incorrect because improvement by men doesn't imply anything about why women do worse.
If anything, (E) strengthens the argument because it suggests that societal expectations are a factor that determines women's performance.
TAKEAWAY: Your prediction to a Weaken question will necessarily be general, as there's no way to know exactly what the test maker will present in the correct answer. However, you can have a good idea of what the correct answer must do in a general sense, such as present an alternative explanation.
Answer: C
