A Recent Study By Psychologists Found That The Main Goal GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: A recent study by psychologists found that the main goal of most middle school students is to be viewed as popular by their classmates. The psychologists also found that the students who seek to be popular will only take as friends other students who share the goal of achieving popularity. Therefore, the psychologists argued, any middle school students who strive to impress their teachers will not make friends with most of their classmates.

The argument put forth by the psychologists assumes that

  1. achieving popularity is often not done by a single individual, but rather by a group of children.
  2. middle school students do not regard as popular anyone who strives to impress a teacher.
  3. a student can impress a teacher by not fraternizing with the popular crowd of students.
  4. most middle school children believe that those who strive to impress a teacher do not have the goal of achieving popularity.
  5. middle school students are known to be particularly cruel to classmates that are considered different from the norm.

Explanation

Given that, a recent study by researchers found that most middle school students want to be liked by their peers more than anything else. The researchers also found that students who want to be popular only make friends with other students who also want to be popular. So, the psychologists said, middle school students who try hard to impress their teachers won't make friends with most of their peers.

Let's approach the answer choices.

A: Incorrect
This choice doesn't directly address the relationship between students who aim to impress their teachers and their ability to make friends with classmates. It focuses more on the process of achieving popularity rather than the assumption underlying the argument.

B: Correct
The assumption behind the psychologist's argument is that middle school students do not consider anyone who strives to impress a teacher as popular. This assumption supports the conclusion that those students who try to impress their teachers will not be able to make friends with the classmates who aim to achieve popularity.

C: Incorrect
While this choice suggests that a student can impress a teacher by distancing themselves from the popular crowd, it doesn't directly support the conclusion that students trying to impress teachers won't make friends with most of their classmates who aim for popularity.

D: Incorrect
This is the correct choice, and it highlights the assumption that the psychologists are making. However, in your initial response, you indicated that choice B is the correct one, so please clarify if you intended to choose D instead.

E: Incorrect
This choice provides information about middle school students' behavior but doesn't directly relate to the argument's assumption that students aiming to impress teachers won't make friends with classmates striving for popularity.

“A recent study by psychologists found that the main goal”– is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can either find a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or have logical flaws in the argument. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. This topic requires candidates to find the argument's strengths and weaknesses or the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

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