During Adolescence, The Development of Political Ideology

Reading Passage Question

During adolescence, the development of political ideology becomes apparent in the individual; ideology here is defined as the presence of roughly consistent attitudes, more or less organized in reference to a more encompassing, though perhaps tacit, set of general principles. As such, political ideology is dim or absent at the beginning of adolescence. Its acquisition by the adolescent, in even the most modest sense, requires the acquisition of relatively sophisticated cognitive skills: the ability to manage abstractness, to synthesize and generalize, to imagine the future. These are accompanied by a steady advance in the ability to understand principles.

The child’s rapid acquisition of political knowledge also promotes the growth of political ideology during adolescence. By knowledge I mean more than the dreary “facts,” such as the composition of county government that the child is exposed to in the conventional ninth-grade civics course. Nor do I mean only information on current political realities. These are facets of knowledge, but they are less critical than the adolescent’s absorption, often unwitting, of a feeling for those many unspoken assumptions about the political system that comprise the common ground of understanding—for example, what the state can appropriately demand of its citizens, and vice versa, or the proper relationship of government to subsidiary social institutions, such as the schools and churches. Thus political knowledge is the awareness of social assumptions and relationships as well as of objective facts. Much of the naiveté that characterizes the younger adolescent’s grasp of politics stems not from an ignorance of “facts” but from conventions of the system, of what is and is not customarily done, and of how and why it is or is not done.

Yet I do not want to overemphasize the significance of increased political knowledge in forming adolescent ideology. Over the years I have become progressively disenchanted about the centrality of such knowledge and have come to believe that much current work in political socialization, by relying too heavily on its apparent acquisition, has been misled about the tempo of political understanding in adolescence. Just as young children can count numbers in series without grasping the principle of ordination, young adolescents may have in their heads many random bits of political information without a secure understanding of those concepts that would give order and meaning to the information.

Like magpies, children’s minds pick up bits and pieces of data. If you encourage them, they will drop these at your feet—Republicans and Democrats, the tripartite division of the federal system, perhaps even the capital of Massachusetts. But until the adolescent has grasped the integumental function that concepts and principles provide, the data remain fragmented, random, disordered.

Solution and Explanation

1. The author’s primary purpose in the passage is to

(A) clarify the kinds of understanding an adolescent must have in order to develop a political ideology
(B) dispute the theory that a political ideology can be acquired during adolescence
(C) explain why adolescents are generally uninterested in political arguments
(D) suggest various means of encouraging adolescents to develop personal political ideologies
(E) explain why an adolescent’s political ideology usually appears more sophisticated than it actually is

2. According to the author, which of the following contributes to the development of political ideology during adolescence?

(A) Conscious recognition by the adolescent of his or her own naiveté
(B) Thorough comprehension of the concept of ordination
(C) Evaluation by the adolescent of the general principles encompassing his or her specific political ideas
(D) Intuitive understanding of relationships among various components of society
(E) Rejection of abstract reasoning in favor of involvement with pragmatic situations

3. The author uses the term “common ground of understanding” (Highlighted) to refer to

(A) familiar legislation regarding political activity
(B) the experiences that all adolescents share
(C) a society’s general sense of its own political activity
(D) a society’s willingness to resolve political tensions
(E) the assumption that the state controls social institutions

4. The passage suggests that, during early adolescence, a child would find which of the following most difficult to understand?

(A) A book chronicling the ways in which the presidential inauguration ceremony has changed over the years
(B) An essay in which an incident in British history is used to explain the system of monarchic succession
(C) A summary of the respective responsibilities of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government
(D) A debate in which the participants argue, respectively, that the federal government should or should not support private schools
(E) An article detailing the specific religious groups that founded American colonies and the guiding principles of each one

5. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about schools?

(A) They should present political information according to carefully planned, schematic arrangements.
(B) They themselves constitute part of a general sociopolitical system that adolescents are learning to understand.
(C) If they were to introduce political subject matter in the primary grades, students would understand current political realities at an earlier age.
(D) They are ineffectual to the degree that they disregard adolescents’ political naiveté.
(E) Because they are subsidiary to government their contribution to the political understanding of adolescent must be limited.

6. Which of the following best summarizes the author’s evaluation of the accumulation of political knowledge by adolescents?

(A) It is unquestionably necessary, but its significance can easily be overestimated.
(B) It is important, but not as important as is the ability to appear knowledgeable.
(C) It delays the necessity of considering underlying principles.
(D) It is primarily relevant to an understanding of limited, local concerns, such as county politics.
(E) It is primarily dependent on information gleaned from high school courses such as civics.

7. Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the author’s discussion of the role of political knowledge in the formation of political ideology during adolescence?

(A) He acknowledges its importance, but then modifies his initial assertion of that importance.
(B) He consistently resists the idea that it is important, using a series of examples to support his stand.
(C) He wavers in evaluating it and finally uses analogies to explain why he is indecisive.
(D) He begins by questioning conventional ideas about its importance, but finally concedes that they are correct.
(E) He carefully refrains from making an initial judgment about it, but later confirms its critical role.

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