Eight-month-old Gabriel reaches for one of his mother's long, dangly earrings and gets quite upset when she won't let him grab it. Gabriel's behavior reflects which one of the following principles?

a. children's behavior is often goal-directed

b. as children get older, they begin to acquire personal interests

c. children tend to form eternal attributions about their failures

d. many children increasingly internalize other people's values

A). Children's behavior is often goal-directed.

Explanation:

Piaget gave his theory of 'child development' where he elaborates how a child experiences different stages of cognitive development in order to form a mental construct/replica of the world he is surrounded by.

'Goal-directed' behavior is illustrated as the 'infancy' stage of cognitive development in which the child (infant) develops learning of their environment and begins to indulge in the deliberate behavior which is 'goal-oriented' in order to get their goal accomplished.

In the given situation, Gabriel's intentional behavior is exemplified by her distress (upset behavior) when her mother 'forbids her' to get her target 'dangly earrings' accomplished. Thus, option A is the correct answer.