In her 1977 novel Egalia's Daughters, Gerd Brantenburg creates a ficti

Question

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.    1 
 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.

2 
 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

Sajjad1994 · Answer

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

rishabh1105 · Answer

H2. 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

Lets talk about each of the statements-
I. It provides a complete picture of how individuals think of their social system. - The first line of 3rd paragraph mentions "What is not known is whether or not this intransigence in the face of facts would hold true for historically advantaged groups as well." which means there are missing elements in SJT. 
So the statement cannot be inferred.

II. It states that social reform can be repudiated by those who might most benefit from it. -
"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."
Inference can be drawn

III. It is used primarily to understand gender relations.
SJT talks about "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." - gender examples in the passage are only one type of example shown there can be other groups in the social system that are advantaged/disadvantaged

Hence answer is B

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes which of the following about social justification theory?

Analyze the question stem 
 
 This is an Inference question, as indicated by the word  "inferred."  The answer will be the statement or statements that have direct support from the passage.
Research
 
  "Social justification theory"  is not specific enough to direct any research at this point, as the theory is discussed throughout the second and third paragraphs. Just review the passage map notes for those two paragraphs and proceed to the choices. Be prepared to do further research about each choice.
Make a prediction
 
 The answers to Inference questions—particularly those without strong research clues—are usually not predictable. Keep in mind from the passage map that the theory shows that the disadvantaged tend to defend and support the status quo, but that it isn't clear whether advantaged groups do the same. Correct answers will likely align with this idea. Then review each choice and ask whether there is direct support for that choice in the passage, researching the text as needed.
 
  Evaluate the answer choices 
 
  (B)  is correct, because it is essentially a paraphrase of the statement in the passage that  "even those disadvantaged by a social system have a tendency to
defend and support it." 
 
  (A)  is not supported by the passage and is therefore incorrect. One should always be suspicious of extreme language in Inference question choices, such as   (A)'s  "complete."  As the third paragraph discusses, there is less clarity about advantaged groups. The third paragraph even begins with language of doubt:    "What is not known..."  Thus, the picture provided by SJT is incomplete, and  (A)  must be rejected.

(C)  Rejected.

Answer: B

In her 1977 novel Egalia's Daughters, Gerd Brantenburg creates a ficti

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

In her 1977 novel Egalia's Daughters, Gerd Brantenburg creates a ficti

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