Reading Comprehension

In 1977 the prestigious Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea, announced the opening of the first women's studies program in Asia. Few academic programs have ever received such public attention. In broadcast debates, critics dismissed the program as a betrayal of national identity, an imitation of Western ideas, and a distraction from the real task of national unification and economic development. Even supporters underestimated the program; they thought it would be merely another of the many Western ideas that had already proved useful in Asian culture, akin to airlines, electricity, and the assembly line. The founders of the program, however, realized that neither view was correct. They had some reservations about the applicability of Western feminist theories to the role of women in Asia and felt that such theories should be closely examined. Their approach has thus far yielded important critiques of Western theory, informed by the special experience of Asian women.

For instance, like the Western feminist critique of the Freudian model of the human psyche, the Korean critique finds Freudian theory culture-bound, but in ways different from those cited by Western theorists. The Korean theorists claim that Freudian theory assumes the universality of the Western nuclear, male-headed family and focuses on the personality formation of the individual, independent of society. An analysis based on such assumptions could be valid for a highly competitive, individualistic society. In the Freudian family drama, family members are assumed to be engaged in a Darwinian struggle against each other-father against son and sibling against sibling. Such a concept projects the competitive model of Western society onto human personalities. But in the Asian concept of personality there is no ideal attached to individualism or to the independent self. The Western model of personality development does not explain major characteristics of the Korean personality, which is social and group-centered. The "self" is a social being defined by and acting in a group, and the well-being of both men and women is determined by the equilibrium of the group, not by individual self-assertion. The ideal is one of interdependency.

In such a context, what is recognized as "dependency" in Western psychiatric terms is not, in Korean terms, an admission of weakness or failure. All this bears directly on the Asian perception of men's and women's psychology because men are also "dependent." In Korean culture, men cry and otherwise easily show their emotions, something that might be considered a betrayal of masculinity in Western culture. In the kinship-based society of Korea, four generations may live in the same house, which means that people can be sons and daughters all their lives, whereas in Western culture, the roles of husband and son, wife and daughter, are often incompatible.

Which of the following statements about the Western feminist critique of Freudian theory can be supported by information contained in the passage?
(A) It recognizes the influence of Western culture on Freudian theory.
(B) It was written after 1977.
(C) It acknowledges the universality of the nuclear, male-headed family.
(D) It challenges Freud's analysis of the role of daughters in Western society.
(E) It fails to address the issue of competitiveness in Western society.

Lets discuss
[spoiler]1) the type of question - is it According to Passage or purely inference based question[/size]
2) How to approch such a question
3) view why A better than C[/spoiler]

Thanks
Patanjali

Hey good question , i went for C in 1st go , then analysed again and got why A is better than C .

Reason :-
--> The author clearly cites " the Korean critique finds Freudian theory culture-bound".


Mistakes commited (ways to approach the problem) :-
--> Read the question very carefully .
--> Read minutely i.e its asking about what was critique's opinion .And as usual i assumed the question is asking about the zest of para 2 .
--> Guess the answer before looking at the options .

It took me some 4.5 mins , including time to cross check the right answer ans reasons .What was your approach and timing Patanjali ?

I agree with the above as far as the answer explanation.

Speaking to your questions...

(A) This is an inference problem. Note the use of the phrase "can be supported" in the question stem. Typically detail questions will have the phrase "according to the passage" or some such in them.

(B) Inference questions are like "must be true" questions in the critical reasoning section, except the stimulus is huge which makes them a bit more challenging. There are premises and you must draw an inference (or state what must be true) from the premises. The number one rule that I follow in doing these is what is called the "fact test" in the CR Bible: the correct answer to a must be true question can always be proven by referring to the facts stated in the stimulus.

For C

p: the korean critique, like the western feminist critique, finds Freudian theory culture bound
p: the korean theorists claim that freudian theory assumes the universality of the western nuclear, male headed family
c: the western feminist critique of freudian theory acknowledges the universality of the nuclear, male headed family

Would you pick (C) in a CR question? Not likely because all you really have is that the western feminist critique is like the korean critique in one aspect (culture boundedness) and that the korean critique makes the claim of assumption. Nothing exists to link the two together

For A

p: the korean critique, like the western feminist critique, finds Freudian theory culture bound
p: the korean theorists claim that freudian theory assumes the universality of the western nuclear, male headed family
c: the western feminist critique of freudian theory recognizes the influence of western culture on freudian theory

It states that the western feminist critique shares a similarity with the korean critique: the culture aspect. The second premise says that the korean theorist claim freudian theory assumes this western culture thing. Since the only cultural aspect mentioned in the passage about the freudian model is the western influence you are okay to draw that conclusion.

I don't usually write the p's down in RC problems because it takes too much time but for the purpose of illustration I put those up.

In the passage, the only sentence pertaining to the Western feminist critique of Freudian model is the first sentence in the second paragraph: For instance, like the Western feminist critique of the Freudian model of the human psyche, the Korean critique finds Freudian theory culture-bound, but in ways different from those cited by Western theorists.

The rest of the passage discusses specifically how Korean theorists argue that the Freudian model is culture-bound and does not reflect on the Western feminist critique in any way.

So the best answer would appear to be A, which pertains to the influence of culture.