Answer:
A. associating a pleasant relaxed state with anxiety-arousing stimuli.
Explanation:
Systematic desensitization is a type of technique used in cognitive therapy and it is based on the principle of classical conditioning.
The goal of this technique is to remove a phobia or a stimuli that causes anxiety and substitute it with a relaxation response.
This technique has three phases:
Therefore, we can see that systematic desensitization involves a relaxed state that will be associated with anxiety-arousing stimuli and that will help to get rid of the anxiety. Thus, the correct answer is A. associating a pleasant relaxed state with anxiety-arousing stimuli.