In her recent book a psychologist described several cases that exhibit the following pattern: A child, denied something by its parent, initiates problematic behavior such as screaming; the behavior escalates until finally the exasperated parent acquiesces to the child's demand. ██ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████
In some cases when a child does not get what they want from a parent, they display problematic behavior. The behavior escalates until the parent gives in to the child’s demand. When the parent gives in, the child stops their misbehavior. This reinforcing pattern of misbehavior and accommodation is repeated with increasing levels of problematic behavior by the child.
We should note that, since this is an “except” question, any strongly supported conclusion will be an incorrect answer choice. We’re looking for an answer choice that is unsupported or least supported. Some strongly supported conclusions can include:
Some children adopt problematic behaviors as a result of getting what they want.
Some child and parent relationships mutually influence each other’s behavior.
Some parents unintentionally cause their children’s problematic behavior.
The cases described by the ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████████ ███████
A child can ███████ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ██████
The stimulus tells us that getting what they want is a direct cause of problematic patterns of behavior.
A child and ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ ███████ █████████
The parent is influencing the child’s behavior by giving in, and the child is influencing the parent’s behavior by misbehaving.
Parents, by their ████████ ███ █████████████ ████████ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ████████████
The parent could inadvertently cause problematic behavior by giving in to the child’s demands.
A child can ███████████████ █████████ █ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████
The influenced behavior by the parent is not contrary to the child’s goals. In the stimulus, we’re told that the parent’s behavior results in the child getting what they want.
A child can ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ███
The child gets what they want from the parent through problematic behavior. Certainly the parent does not want the child to display problematic behavior.
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