Treatments 4 phobias

• Systemic desensitisation aim

  Based on classical conditioning - therapy aims to extinguish undesirable fear by replacing it w a desirable one - reciprocal inhibition
• 4 processed in SD: 1

  Functional analysis - discussing nature of the anxiety & triggers w a therapist
• Process 2

  Developing an anxiety hierarchy - client & therapist create a new hierarchy of fear from least anxiety-provoking to the worst. Client determines speed of progression up hierarchy
• Process 3

  Relaxation training eg deep breathing
• Process 4

  Gradual exposure - client works through agreed anxiety hierarchy

  Phobia object or situation is gradually introduced

  At each stage relaxation techniques are used

  The therapist always works at the speed agreed by the client
• Flooding

  exposes phobic stimulus to clients without gradual build up - typically longer sessions than SD, sometimes only one session needed to cure phobia

  eg, arachnophobia - make spider crawl over them for an extended period

  not unethical if client gives fully informed consent + prepared. would have choice of SD or flooding
• How flooding works

  Stops phobic responses quickly as there's no option of avoidance behaviour so client sees stimulus is harmless (classical conditioning calls this extinction)

  CS no longer produces CR and some may feel relaxed in presence of stimuli due to exhausting fear response
• Flooding strength

  Cost effective and quicker than alternatives - clients cured quicker so less money spent on treatment

  Studies comparing flooding and cognitive therapies found flooding to be more effective (eg Ougrin 2011)
• Flooding weakness

  May not be effective for social phobias (maybe because they have cognitive aspects)

  Eg someone w a social phobia just have an anxiety response but also thinks unpleasant thoughts about the social situation

  So flooding cannot be sole treatment as it only handles behavioural responses
• SD strength

  Research shows it’s effective in treatment of specific phobias eg. Lisa Gilroy et al compared clients receiving SD for spider phobia w control group. At both 3 months and 33 months after the treatment the SD group were less fearful than the control group.
• SD weakness


  Not always effective Eg. Clients w multiple phobias or other symptoms linked to a history of trauma (eg. Childhood abuse) may benefit from diff therapies that allow them to explore their experiences or alter thought patterns as well as changing behavioural symptoms