PrepTest 134 - Section 4 - Passage 3 - Question 18

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Passage A.

Context · Evolutionary psychology is a lens to explain human behavior

Human behavior is explained by how it contributes to the reproductive success of individuals exhibiting that behavior.

Problem / Phenonemon · What's the explanation for altruism?

Altruism is behavior that seems to benefit others at one's own expense.

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Answer / Hypothesis · Psychology of identification and empathy

Because humans share genes with relatives, altruistic behavior could have arisen because it helped spread those genes. E.g., mother rushing to help a child promotes the survival of their shared genes.

Answer / Hypothesis · Altruism applied to groups and later even to larger communities

Altruism could have applied at the group level since kin share genes. Later, it could have applied to non-kin community

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Skepticism · about evolutionary psychology

A parent's interest in helping their child is just that. There's no need to explain it in terms of genes conspiring to propagate themselves.

Monogamy · as explained via evolutionary psychology

Human offspring are slow to mature. Hence, to ensure their maturity and the spread of genes, humans form monogamous families. Presumably monogamous families are better able to raise offspring to maturity.

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Skepticism · of evolutionary psychology's explanation

Author acknowledges that the evolutionary psychology explanation could be right but there are alternative explanations. Author requires the elimination of other explanations. Author believes that some motives don't require further scrutiny, e.g., a parent's motive to promote a child's well-being.

Passage Style

18.

Which one of the following ██████████ ████ ███████ █ ████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██████████ █ ███████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███

Question Type

Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

Read the first paragraph of Passage B again to help understand the meaning. Passage B means that evolutionary psychology explains behavior by suggesting that there’s an interest that the person doing the behavior doesn’t acknowledge or might not be aware of. That interest is the “proliferation of genes.” According to evolutionary psychology, when people engage in behavior, they are interested in spreading the genes that lead to that behavior; but, people might not even know that they have that interest.

Evolutionary psychologists seek ██ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████

Is there anything hidden about the motivation described in (A)? No. There isn’t any suggestion in Passage B that psychologists don’t acknowledge or are unaware that they’re trying to explain behavior from the point of view of evolutionary theory.

Altruism presents a █████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████████

(B) doesn’t suggest anything about someone’s motivation for doing something or that this motivation might be hidden. The claim that altruism is a difficult problem is what leads to Passage A proposing a particular explanation for altruism. This explanation – that genes are interested in propagating themselves – is the “conspiracy theory.” But the problem of altruism isn’t itself the “conspiracy theory.”

An altruistic individual ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████████

(C) describes what altruism is. But it doesn’t refer to the motivation underlying altruism. So, (C) doesn’t fit as an example of the “conspiracy theory” mentioned in Passage B.

Genes may promote █████ ████████████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████████

(D) describes what Passage A says is the motivation underlying altruism – genes have an interest in spreading themselves. And, (D) is the actual example given in Passage B of a “conspiracy theory.” According to Passage B, this interest in the spreading of genes is something that humans who are altruistic do not acknowledge, or might not even be aware of.

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Early humans lived ██ ██████ █████████ ███████

There’s no suggestion of a motivation in (E) or how that motivation might be hidden.

PrepTest 134 - Section 4 - Passage 3 - Question 18

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