The Martin Family Owned a Home That Was Badly in Need

question 6

Essay

The Martin family owned a home that was badly in need of repair. Mrs. Martin worked outside the home and Mr. Martin took care of the household responsibilities and cared for the two young Martin children. One day, Mrs. Martin left for work and a home repair crew drove up and began to put aluminum siding on the Martin house. Mr. Martin telephoned his wife, told her, and inquired about whether she had hired the workers. When the Martins realized that they never had ordered this work done, Mr. Martin sneaked out the back with the children. He later met his wife at work and they returned home for dinner. By that time, the entire front of the house had been aluminum-sided. The foreman asked, "Mr. and Mrs. Wolf, how do you like the job?" The Martins replied that they loved the job, but the Wolfs lived next door. When it became clear that the repair crew had made an error, the foreman insisted that the Martins had to pay.
a.
Decide the case, and explain the reason(s) for your decision.
b.
Decide the case, assuming that the Martins were away on vacation when the improvements were made, and then returned home to discover the improvements.

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Definitions:

High-Probability Activities

Activities that an individual is highly likely to engage in, often used in behavior modification by allowing access to them as a reward.

Reinforcing

Strengthening a behavior by providing a consequence that will increase the likelihood of the behavior's recurrence.

Probability

A measure of the likelihood that an event will occur, expressed as a number between 0 and 1, where 1 represents certainty.

Reinforcement

In behavioral psychology, a process by which a behavior is strengthened or increased in frequency through the addition of a stimulus following the behavior.