Final answer:
Tim's therapist is likely using the exposure therapy technique of gradually exposing Tim to more realistic spider images to assist with his arachnophobia, focusing on making sure Tim understands there's no real danger, akin to the psychology principle of habituation and not associating spiders with additional negative stimuli or rewards. The correct answer is option: He has been gradually showing Tim more and more realistic spider images. Each time he makes sure that there is no real threat to Tim.
Step-by-step explanation:
If Tim's therapist is using exposure therapy to help him cope with his fear of spiders, the therapist is likely using the method of gradually showing Tim more and more realistic spider images, each time ensuring that there is no real threat to Tim. This professional approach aligns well with the concept of habituation, which involves the reduction of one's reaction to a stimulus after repeated exposure. It also involves the understanding of conditioned responses as demonstrated in the case of Little Albert, where Watson and his graduate student created a conditioned fear response using classical conditioning.
The options of pairing the sight of spiders with loud noises, giving candy as a reward for interaction with spiders, or randomly placing spiders in his house do not align with the principles of exposure therapy but rather reflect elements of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and flooding, respectively.
In the case of Little Albert, and referring to the classical conditioning terms, the UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus) is the loud noise, the CS (Conditioned Stimulus) is the white rat, the UCR (Unconditioned Response) is Little Albert's fear upon hearing the noise, and the CR (Conditioned Response) is the fear elicited by the white rat after conditioning. The generalization of fear to other furry objects is an example of stimulus generalization.