Final answer:
Building an anxiety hierarchy during counterconditioning is a true representation of the therapeutic process used to treat phobias and anxiety disorders. The process involves associating positive responses with the feared stimulus and gradually exposing the individual to more anxiety-inducing situations. So option (a) is correct.
Step-by-step explanation:
Building an anxiety hierarchy about one's fear of snakes is an example of something one would do during counterconditioning. This statement is true. Counterconditioning is a behavior therapy technique that involves the conditioning of an unwanted behavior or response to a stimulus into a wanted behavior or response by the association of positive actions with the stimulus.
In this context, creating a hierarchy of anxiety-inducing situations related to snakes allows the individual to gradually face their fears in a controlled manner, usually starting with the least frightening scenario and moving up to the most frightening. This technique is commonly used in treating phobias and anxiety disorders.
In Watson and Rayner's experiments, the phenomenon Little Albert experienced was known as stimulus generalization, wherein after being conditioned to fear a white rat, he began to fear other furry white objects as well.
According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, if you encounter a venomous snake crawling up your leg while under the influence of a drug that prevents sympathetic nervous system activation, you would not experience the same level of fear as you normally would. The theory suggests that emotions are experienced as a result of physiological reactions to events.
The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in Watson and Rayner's experiment was the loud noise, the conditioned stimulus (CS) was the white rat, the unconditioned response (UCR) was the fear caused by the loud noise, and the conditioned response (CR) was the fear of the white rat.