A patient who had long feared going into elevators was told by his therapist to force himself to enter 20 elevators a day.The therapist most likely wanted to encourage the ________ of the patient's fear.
A) generalization
B) discrimination
C) spontaneous recovery
D) extinction

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The therapist wanted to encourage the extinction of the patient's fear by exposing him to the feared situation (elevators) repeatedly until the fear response was no longer triggered. This is a form of exposure therapy, which is a common treatment for anxiety disorders. Generalization refers to the tendency for a response learned in one situation to occur in response to similar stimuli. Discrimination is the ability to distinguish between similar stimuli and respond differently to them. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a previously extinguished response after a period of time has passed without any further exposure to the conditioned stimulus.

A Patient Who Had Long Feared Going into Elevators Was