Flooding

• What is flooding?

  A behavioural therapy in which a phobic patient is exposed to an extreme form of a phobias stimulus
• what are the features of flooding?

  • without gradual build-up of anxiety hierarchy.
  • immediate exposure to frightening situation.
  • 2-3 hour sessions.
  • sometimes only one session needed to cure phobia.
• how does flooding work?

  stops phobias responses quickly as without the avoidance behaviour, the patient quickly learns the phobic stimulus is harmless.
• what is extinction?

  when a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus (dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus (being bitten)
• what is the result of extinction?

  the conditioned stimulus no longer produced the conditioned response (fear)
• why may patients experience relaxation in the presence of the phobic stimulus?

  become exhausted by their own fear response
• is flooding unethical?

  • no
  • unpleasant experience
  • fully informed consent needed.
  • given a choice.