Maria is known to favor some of her employees over others. For those she dislikes, she sets impossible performance goals so that they cannot possibly succeed, and their motivation suffers. This is an example ofA. positive reinforcement.B. negative reinforcement.C. punishment.D. extinction. E. motivation.

Explanation: Extinction is a method in reinforcement theory. As per reinforcement theory one can change someone behavior by using three methods reinforcement, punishment and extinction. In simple language extinction is stopping someone from performing a learned behaviour. Extinction is, followed by a discriminative stimulus, a response is no longer reinforced.

In this case study maria is doing extinction as she is discriminating employees on the basis of her preference for stopping them to succeed .