Behavioural approach - SD and flooding

• Systematic desensitisation

  • SD is a behavioural therapy designed to phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning
  • If the software can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus they will be cured and essentially a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned as it’s paired with relaxation instead of anxiety.
  • This learning of a different response is called counter conditioning and in addition is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time so one emotion prevents the other. This is called reciprocal inhibition
• There are 3 processes involved in SD:

  • the anxiety hierarchy is put together by the therapist and this is a list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged an order from lease to most frightening.
  • Relaxation is where the therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible and this might involve breathing or the patient might learn mental imagery techniques.
• SD processes 


  • exposure is when finally the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed day and this takes place across several sessions starting at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy
  • When the patient can stay in the presence of the lower levels of the phobic stimulus they can move up in that hierarchy and treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations that are high on the anxiety hierarchy
• SD

  • step one - patient is taught how to relax their muscles completely
  • Step two- therapist and patient together construct a desensitisation hierarchy which is a series of imagine seeing each one causing a little more anxiety than the previous one
  • Step 3 - patient gradually works his/her way through decentralisation hierarchy visualising each anxiety of both event while engaged in the competing relaxation response
  • Step four- once a patient has mass one step in the hierarchy they are ready to move on the next
  • Step five- patient eventually masters feared situation
• Flooding:

  • Instead flooding involve the immediate exposure to a very frightening situation
  • Flooding sessions are typically longer than SD sessions, one session often lasting 2 to 3 hours
  • Sometimes only one long session is needed to cure a phobia
  • It stops phobic responses rarely quickly and this may be because without the option of avoidance behaviour the patient quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless
  • in classical conditioning terms, this process is called extinction.
• Flooding 


  • response is extinguished when the condition stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus the result is that the condition stimulus no longer produces the condition response
  • In some cases the patient may achieve relaxation in the presence of the phobic stimulus simply because they become exhausted by their own fear response
• Ethical safeguards:

  • flooding is not ethical per se but is an unpleasant experience so it’s important that patients give fully informed consent to this traumatic procedure and that they are fully prepared before the flooding session
• Flooding 


  • step 1: patient is taught how to relax their muscles completely
  • Step 2: patient masses of fear situation that caused them to seek help in the first place , this is accomplished in one session
• AO3 - SD:

  • one strength of SD is that a successful for a range of phobic disorders
  • For example, McGrath et al reported that about 75% of patients with phobias responded to SD
  • SD is more likely to be successful if patients of actual contact with a third stimulus rather than pictures or imagining
  • this shows that SD is successful for the majority of phobia patients
• AO3 - SD:

  • one limitation of SD is that it may not be appropriate for all types of phobias
  • Ohman et al suggest the SD may not be as effective in treating phobias that have an underlying evolutionary survival component
  • Instead, they are more effective when treating phobias which have been acquired as a result of personal experiences
  • therefore, SD may not always be a successful treatment for all phobias
• AO3 - SD:


  • a strength of behavioural therapies is that they are relative quick, require less effort from the patient and can be cheaper, compared to treatment such as CBT
  • A further strength of SD is that it can be self administrated
  • Humphrey found that this method proves successful with social phobia
  • This is the strength of SD because it makes therapy much cheaper if the patient does not need to pay for a therapist
• AO3 - flooding:

  • limitation of flooding is that it may not be suitable for every patient/therapist
  • This is because it can be a highly traumatic procedure
  • although patients are made aware of the procedure beforehand, they may still quit during the treatment
  • This therefore reduces the ultimate effectiveness of the therapy for some people
• AO3 - flooding:


  • strength of flooding - effective treatment and relatively quick
  • For example, choy et al reported that flooding was more effective than SD at treating phobias
  • However, craske et al fun the two treatments were equally effective in treating phobias
  • Nevertheless, there was research to support the effectiveness of flooding in treating phobias