PrepTest 126, Section 3, Question 6
In her recent book a psychologist described several(68 more words not shown)
The cases described by the(8 more words not shown)
- AA child can(12 more words not shown)
- BA child and(7 more words not shown)
- CParents, by their(9 more words not shown)
- DA child can(13 more words not shown)
- EA child can(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The child is learning that a tantrum works.
Imagine the child wants a toy. The parent says no, the child screams louder and louder, and the parent finally hands over the toy. The screaming stops. From the child's side, misbehaving produced the desired reward. From the parent's side, giving in produced immediate relief. Both have a reason to repeat what they just did, even though the pattern makes later tantrums worse.
That two-way influence is the important part of the description. The parent wants the bad behavior to stop but ends up encouraging more of it. The child wants something and learns a way to get it.
What we’re looking for
This is an EXCEPT question: four generalizations are illustrated by those events, and we want the one that isn't. Don't reject an answer just because it describes an unfortunate outcome. Compare what it says about each person's goals and behavior with what actually happens in the example.
Working the answers
- A
This is illustrated. Getting the toy rewards the child's behavior, and the child repeats and escalates that behavior. The passage explicitly describes the troublesome pattern developing as the parent keeps giving the child what it wants.
- B
The influence runs both ways. The child's screaming gets the parent to give in, and the parent's giving in encourages the child to scream again. Neither person has to consciously plan the entire pattern for each one's actions to influence the other.
- C
This fits the parent's side of the interaction. The parent chooses to give in for relief, but the pattern produces steadily increasing misbehavior. The parent can be trying to end this tantrum while unintentionally encouraging worse ones later.
- DCorrect
The child's influence doesn't produce an outcome contrary to the child's goal here. The child wants something, changes the parent's behavior, and gets that very thing. Perhaps children sometimes influence parents in ways that frustrate their own goals, but these cases don't illustrate that. The outcome described is in line with what the child wants.
- E
Exactly: the child gets the toy by screaming, which is behavior the parent wants to stop. The parent's relief when the screaming ends helps explain why the parent gives in. E captures the mismatch between the parent's preferred behavior and the behavior that gets rewarded.
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