Phobia Treatment

• Fear can be aquirred through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
• Systematic Desensitisation - a form of exposure therapy that involves gradually exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus
• Flooding - a technique used to treat phobias by completely exposing the patient to the feared stimulus
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  1. Strength of SD = more appropriate than other therapies and more appropriate for the wider population
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  2. Strength of SD - Can use VR - avoids dangerous situations (heights) and is cost-effective (clients don't even have to leave consulting room)
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  3. Weakness = SD doesn’t really cure phobias but just masks the symptoms - not a full explanation
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  4. Strength of flooding = cheaper and only takes one session

  Therefore is the most cost-effective treatment for phobias
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  5. Weakness = Flooding has high attrition rates as it takes place in a high stress environment
• Explanation of the behavioural approach as treatment for behaviour:

  6. weakness - a highly unpleasant experience - raises ethical issues of psychologists knowing causing stress to patients
• Ad de Jongh et al (2006) found that 73% of people feared dental treatment experienced something traumatic in dentistry
• Gilroy et al (2003) followed 42 people who had SD for phobia of spiders. Results showed that the SD group were less fearful than the control group at 3 and 33 months
• There are three processes involved in Sensitive Desensitisation:

  • The Anxiety Hierarchy
  • Relaxation
  • Gradual Exposure
• The anxiety hierarchy is:

  • put together by a client and a therapist
  • lists situations that provoke anxiety ordered from least to most frightening
• Relaxation - Reciprocal Inhibition

  It is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time so one emotion prevents the other
• Relaxation:

  • clients might be taught mediation techniques
  • clients taught mental imagery techniques
• Exposure takes place when the patient is in a relaxed place and starts at the bottom of the hierarchy and moves up when the patient can stay relaxed during that level of exposure
• Flooding involves immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus
• Flooding stops phobic responses quickly as it takes away the option of avoidance and so patients learn that the phobic stimulus is harmless
• In some cases of flooding patients achieve relaxation because they exhausted by their own fear response
• Flooding definition - when a person is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus
• It is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time so one emotion prevents the other - which is known as recirpocal inhibbition