Treatments of Phobias

• What is flooding?

  Where the patient is exposed to their phobic stimulus all at once
• How does flooding work?

  Through unavoidable exposure and extinction
• What is unavoidable exposure?

  The patient is not allowed to engage with their avoidance behaviour, forcing them to experience the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus paired with is
• What is extinction?

  • The association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response being broken.
  • The CS returns to being a neutral stimulus
• Strengths of flooding:

  • Research found that 75% of patients were successfully cured of their phobia
  • Only takes one session, so quick and cost effective
• Limitations of flooding:

  • Does not work well for all types of phobia, research found it is not useful for social phobias
  • The therapy can be traumatic, sometimes it makes the phobia even worse
• What is systematic desensitisation?

  A therapy that aims to gradually reduce anxiety through counterconditioning
• How does systematic desensitisation work?

  The conditioned stimulus (phobia) is paired with relaxation techniques which becomes the new conditioned response
• What is reciprocal inhibition?

  It is not possible to be afraid or relaxed at the same time, so relaxation blocks the anxiety
• What is counter conditioning?

  A new association is formed, the phobic stimulus is associated with relaxation instead of a traumatic event
• What is step one of systematic desensitisation?

  • Building a hierarchy
  • The patient makes a list of objects that trigger their phobia and arranges them from least to most frightening
• What is step two of systematic desensitisation?

  • Relaxation techniques
  • The therapist teaches the patient techniques such as deep breathing
• What is step three of systematic desensitisation?

  • Gradual exposure
  • Starting with the least frightening stimulus, the patient is exposed slowly to the stimuli that scare them.
  • They use the relaxation techniques and only move up the hierarchy once they feel completely calm
• Strength of systematic desensitisation:

  Research support:

  • A researcher studied 42 patients who were treated for a spider phobia, they were compared to a control group who were only taught relaxation techniques, 3 years later the systematic desensitisation group were less fearful than the control group
• Strength of Systematic Desensitisation:

  More suitable than flooding in some situations - age, ethical etc
• Strength of Systematic Desensitisation:

  Can be self administered
• Limitation of Systematic Desensitisation:

  Costly as takes a long time