Mark and Kathy Take Their Two-Year-Old Son to the Supermarket

question 251

Multiple Choice

Mark and Kathy take their two-year-old son to the supermarket every Saturday. Each week, the same sequence of events unfolds: Their son screams, demanding that they buy him treats. Although they refuse to give in to his demands, he continues to scream. Finally, either Mark or Kathy gets in their son's face and yells at the top of their lungs, "Shut up!" He stops screaming instantly. What operant conditioning concepts are illustrated in this story?

• A) The parents are using negative reinforcement to increase their son's screaming.
• B) The parents are in a very dysfunctional marriage; their child's screaming is his way of trying to get his parents to remain married.
• C) The parents are using punishment to suppress the screaming; their use of punishment is negatively reinforced by the cessation of screaming.
• D) Their son probably learned how to scream by observing his parents at home, and now he is reinforced on a negative reinforcement schedule.

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Definitions:

Pyramid

A structure or system shaped with a broad base that narrows towards the top, often used metaphorically to describe hierarchies.

Personal Examples

Specific instances or experiences from an individual's life used to illustrate or explain a concept or phenomenon.

Insulin

A hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates the amount of glucose in the blood.

Glucagon

Hormone that is secreted by the pancreas to control the levels of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body by increasing the level of glucose in the bloodstream.