Sharon knows that kathy frequently completes her assignments long after they are due. she has noticed that their teacher willingly accepts kathy’s late assignments because kathy always has a creative excuse for turning them in late. sharon begins to do the same thing—she turns in assignments past the due date and makes up excuses for why she is late. sharon’s increase in excuse-making is due to:

Vicarious reinforcement.

Explanation:

In psychology, vicarious reinforcement refers to our tendency to repeat behaviors which we see others are being rewarded for.

This type of reinforcement takes place when the frequency of certain behaviors increases as a result of observing others do them and being rewarded for them.

In this example, Sharon sees that the teacher accepts Kathy's late assignments because Kathy always has a creative excuse for turning them in late.

So, as a result of observing this behavior (turning the assignment late) being rewarded (the teacher willingly accepts it), Sharon starts to do the same thing and thus she is repeating Kathy's behavior.

Thus, this increase in excuse-makins is most likely due to vicarious reinforcement.

Modeling and vicarious reinforcement

Explanation:

When we are modeling a certain behavior from the person we take as our model there are steps we follow, we first pay attention to their behaviour: This is when Sharon notices that Kathy brings the assignment later but still the teacher accept it.

Secondly is retention of the behaviour we have observed: Sharon remembers that Kathy has done this several times then she can also do it which lead us to reproduction , Sharon now execute the same behavior in which she also brings the assignment later as did Kathy. Now lastly is the motivation to copy the behavior which is affected by what happened to the model.

If the behaviour was reinforced, we are more likely to imitate the behaviour this is referred to as vicarious reinforcement. Sharon saw that Kathy never get punished for bringing up her assignment later but the teacher always takes it which motivated her to do the same.

However, if the model got punished for the behavior you are less likely to imitate the behaviour and this is referred to as vicarious punishment.

answer; observing;