Question

Kirstin wants to go out and play, but her mother has said no. Kirstin goes to her room and plays her rock music very loud. The noise drives her mother crazy, and Kirstin is allowed to go out and play if she will turn off her music. In this example, _____ was a form of negative reinforcement.

a) Playing rock music
b) Going out to play
c) Kirstin's mother
d) Turning off the music

Answer 1

Turning off the music acted as a form of negative reinforcement by allowing Kirstin to go out to play, making this behavior more likely to occur again in the future.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the scenario described, Kirstin's mother allows her to go out and play on the condition that she turns off her loud rock music. This situation exemplifies the concept of negative reinforcement in behavioral psychology. The removal of an unpleasant stimulus (the loud music) after a certain behavior occurs (agreeing to turn off the music), increases the likelihood of the desired behavior happening again in the future (Kirstin being allowed out to play).

The final answer in this case is d) Turning off the music, as it is the action that removed the negative stimulus for Kirstin's mother, thereby reinforcing Kirstin's behavior of turning off the music to gain the opportunity to go out and play.

In this example, playing rock music was a form of negative reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement is a technique used to increase a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus. In this case, Kirstin's mother was driven crazy by the loud rock music, so she allowed Kirstin to go out and play in order to remove the aversive stimulus.