When martha was a child, a cockroach landed on her hair and she began screaming. her mother quickly got rid of the insect, and martha was lavished with soothing attention. she began screaming whenever she saw a cockroach, and her family would try to calm her. as she grew older, martha would experience a fear reaction and scream even at just the mention of cockroaches. which of the following would be a behaviorist's conclusion about martha's behavior? martha developed kastaridaphobia—a morbid fear of cockroaches—after encountering one at an early stage in development. martha subconsciously yearned for attention and could only obtain it with her fear of cockroaches. martha was classically conditioned to have a fear response to cockroaches because the attention acted as positive reinforcement. martha was genetically predisposed to fear cockroaches, and her mother's reaction indicates that she inherited this tendency from her mother.