TOEFL iBT Integrated Writing Task

Mead notes
Reading passage
Main idea: Margaret Mead's research on culture and gender rules
MP1 --- society1 (Arapesh), both men and women have feminine characteristics
               -- sensitive to each others feelings
               -- showed emotions
MP2 --- society 2 (Mundugumor), both men and women have masculine characteristics
              -- harsh
              -- aggressive
MP3 --- society 3 (Tchambuli), men have feminine and women have masculine characteristics
              -- men submissive
              -- women dominant
MP4 --- conclusion = gender characteristics come more from society than from biology

Listening passage
Main idea: Criticism of Mead's research
MP1 --- results too neat
              -- research not usually so perfect
MP2 --- found three 'perfect' societies
              -- fitted her categories exactly
              -- extreme behaviour not so usual
              -- humans more complex
MP3 --- results suggest Mead was looking for these results
              -- not really objective
              -- saw only what fitted, ignored what didn't

Sample Essay
In this set of materials, the reading passage describes the research of a famous anthropologist, and the listening passage lists some criticisms of that research.

The reading passage details the work of Margaret Mead on the relationship between culture and gender roles. In order to prove her theory that culture roles were not decided just by biology, Mead studied three different societies in New Guinea. In the first of these both men and women showed characteristics that were largely feminine: they felt for others and did not hide their emotions. In the second, both sexes were harsh and aggressive, characteristics usually regarded as masculine. In the third, men were submissive and women dominant, a reversal of ‘normal’ gender roles. The great differences in these societies led Mead to claim that culture was more important than biology in setting gender roles.

In the listening passage, however, we are told that Mead’s research has been criticized by some. These critics consider her results to be too perfect. Research results are usually not so neat. The fact that Mead found three societies with radically different patterns of rather extreme behaviour was also suspicious, especially as these patterns of behaviour exactly fitted her theory. It is, moreover, unusual for human beings to act in such extreme ways. Some critics suggested that the results of Mead’s research were flawed because she was looking for societies which would give such results. She focused on data that fitted her theory and ignored data which did not. (249)