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. shaping reinforcement extinction generalization

## Step 1<br />The problem presents a scenario where a patient is advised by his therapist to confront his fear of elevators by entering them 20 times a day. The therapist's intention is to encourage the patient to overcome his fear.<br /><br />## Step 2<br />The options provided are all psychological terms that describe different processes of learning and behavior modification. Let's understand each term:<br /><br />### **Shaping**<br />This is a method of training by which successive approximations toward a target behavior are reinforced. It involves reinforcing behaviors that are closer and closer to the desired behavior.<br /><br />### **Reinforcement**<br />This is a term used in operant conditioning to refer to any stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a certain response. It can be either positive (adding a rewarding stimulus) or negative (removing an aversive stimulus).<br /><br />### **Extinction**<br />This is a term used in operant conditioning to refer to the gradual decrease in the frequency of a behavior when the reinforcement is removed.<br /><br />### **Generalization**<br />This is a term used in psychology to refer to the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar situations.<br /><br />## Step 3<br />In the given scenario, the therapist is using the method of "extinction". The patient is being exposed to the feared situation (elevators) repeatedly, but without any negative outcome. Over time, the patient's fear response will decrease as the reinforcement (fear) is removed.