Julian seeks professional help for his fear of spiders. In stages, his therapist shows him pictures, movies, and models of spiders, then a real dead spider, a small live spider in a jar, several live spiders in a jar, and finally a live spider loose in the room. At each stage, he made sure that Julian was fully relaxed. This technique is known as ________.
◦ free association
◦ systematic desensitization
◦ contingency therapy
◦ aversive conditioning
◦ transactional therapy