behaviourist approach treating phobias

• systematic desensitisation

  gradually adjusting to most intense version of a phobia by making individual relax when faced with different level of fear
• counterconditioning in systematic desensitisation

  taught new association -associate phobic stimulus with new response

  relaxation instead of fear so anxiety reduced
• relaxation in systematic desensitisation

  therapist teaches patient relaxation techniques such as focusing on breathing and taking slow, deep breaths
• desensitisation hierarchy in systematic desensitisation

  gradually exposing person to feared situation one step at a time so not as overwhelming

  at each stage practice relaxation so situation less overwhelming
• strength of systematic desensitisation

  lang and lazovik 1963 investigated use of sd with students suffering from ophidiophobia

  participants rated fear before and after

  reduced after treatment , progress maintained 6 months after therapy
• strength of systematic desensitisation

  capons et al 1998 investigated use of sd for a situational phobia

  volunteers matched on age, gender and strength of fear then randomly allocated to received treatment or without treatment

  received treatment made more improvements
• strength of systematic desensitisation

  Gilroy et al 2003 investigated use of sd on arachnophobia

  one group exposed to spiders while practising relaxation

  other group practised relaxation but no exposure

  fear assessed before and after

  exposed to spiders while relaxing-less afraid of spiders
• strength of systematic desensitisation

  ethical - gradual anxiety increase and practising relaxation so less likely to cause psychological harm

  suitable for children
• limitation of systematic desensitisation

  can only occur when particular situation / object can be identified and put in a hierarchy so only effective for particular phobias
• limitation of systematic desensitisation

  requires patient to be active in approach to therapy

  homework tasks may be given - patients speed and success of treatment may depend on effort
• limitation of systematic desensitisation

  ignores biological processes

  anti-anxiety drugs reduce anxiety levels around phobic stimuli- so we have biological mechanisms that maintain phobias and sd alone may not relieve individual of phobia
• flooding

  one session where patient experiences phobia at its worst while practising relaxation

  continues until fully relaxed in phobias presence
• flooding

  exposed to phobia for 2-3 hours

  fear response- and release of adrenaline, has a time limit - whilst this decreases a stimulus-response link can be learned between feared stimulus and relaxation
• strength of flooding

  wolpe 1973 investigated effectiveness of flooding when treating a patient with driving phobia

  therapist took patient on long car journey - anxious but calmed down when realised she was safe

  effective
• strength of flooding

  kneebone and al-dafarty 2006 investigated flooding on patient with phobia of feet being touched

  substantial change in tolerance of physiotherapists touching feet so effective
• strength of flooding

  ost et al 1991 found anxiety reduced in 90% of patients after one session so effective and quick
• weakness of flooding

  exposing people to fears rapidly means high anxiety

  if anxiety is too much and therapists let them leave before extinction phobia could become worse
• weakness of flooding

  ethical issues- immediate exposure to phobia too much for patients so protection from harm
• weakness of flooding

  inappropriate for children which limits application as only adults
• weakness of flooding

  ignores biological processes as anti-anxiety drugs reduce anxiety around phobic stimuli so we have biological mechanisms that maintain phobias

  flooding alone may not relieve individual of phobia