GAMSAT GAMSAT Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In GAMSAT Section I, a cartoon depicts a politician as a puppet controlled by corporations. Which rhetorical technique does this represent?
- Satire (Correct answer)
- Parody
- Allegory
- Hyperbole
Correct answer: Satire
Satire uses irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to critique social or political issues, as depicted in the political cartoon.
Question 2: A GAMSAT passage discusses the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance. Which of the following best describes this phenomenon?
- The tendency to remember positive events better than negative ones
- The discomfort felt when holding two conflicting beliefs simultaneously (Correct answer)
- The process of rationalizing poor decisions after they are made
- The preference for information that confirms existing beliefs
Correct answer: The discomfort felt when holding two conflicting beliefs simultaneously
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously.
Question 3: When a GAMSAT Section I question asks about the 'tone' of a passage, what is it asking you to identify?
- The grammatical structure of sentences
- The author's attitude or emotional stance toward the subject (Correct answer)
- The main facts presented in the passage
- The intended audience for the passage
Correct answer: The author's attitude or emotional stance toward the subject
Tone refers to the author's attitude or emotional stance toward the subject matter, revealed through word choice, style, and content.
Question 4: In GAMSAT humanities reasoning, which term describes an argument that attacks a weakened or misrepresented version of an opponent's position?
- Ad hominem
- False dichotomy
- Straw man (Correct answer)
- Circular reasoning
Correct answer: Straw man
A straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting or oversimplifying an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack.
Question 5: A GAMSAT social science passage describes how individuals conform to group expectations even against their personal judgment. Which classic psychological study demonstrated this phenomenon?
- Milgram's obedience study
- Asch's conformity experiments (Correct answer)
- Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment
- Bandura's Bobo doll experiment
Correct answer: Asch's conformity experiments
Asch's conformity experiments demonstrated that individuals often conform to incorrect group answers due to social pressure, even when the correct answer is obvious.
Question 6: In GAMSAT Section I, identifying the 'implicit assumption' of an argument means finding:
- A stated fact that supports the conclusion
- An unstated premise the argument depends on to be valid (Correct answer)
- The conclusion of the argument
- A counterargument the author addresses
Correct answer: An unstated premise the argument depends on to be valid
An implicit assumption is an unstated premise or belief that the argument relies on without explicitly stating it.
GAMSAT GAMSAT Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences 2
In GAMSAT Section I, a cartoon depicts a politician as a puppet controlled by corporations.
Which rhetorical technique does this represent?