Five-Year-Old Nicholas Just Learned the Rhyme, "Step on a Crack

Five-year-old Nicholas just learned the rhyme, "Step on a crack, break your mother's back." Tonight his mother won't let him eat the candy bar his grandmother just gave him until after dinner.Nicholas waves goodbye to grandma, and then smiles while stepping on all of the cracks in his driveway.This may be an example of _____.

A) delayed aggression
B) learned helplessness
C) passive aggressiveness
D) an Oedipal response