Behavioural Treatments for Phobia

• What are the 2 types of treatments designed by Behavioural approach to cure Phobias?

  Systematic desensitisation.

  Flooding.
• What happens in FLOODING?

  1. A patient is taught relaxation techniques.
  2. Encourages to attempt to exercise these when exposed to stimuli.
  3. They go straight into direct exposure to the frightening stimuli.

  They is no opportunity for avoidance.
• What is the mode of action for this therapy?

  With continuous exposure to aversive stimuli, without corresponding reflex response, the individual anxiety levels will naturally decrease.
• What is absent in flooding therapy?

  Negative Reinforcement
• Research Support - Flooding

  OUGRIN found that flooding has comparable levels of effectiveness with SD and CBT
• Evaluation of Flooding therapy

  Flooding is traumatic as it creates high anxiety and due to this has a high withdrawal rate = LIMITED EFFECTIVENESS and is only effective for simple phobias so cannot be used for all = what the point then.  

   

  It high withdrawal rates limits it effectiveness in treating phobias.

  Also, due to it's traumatic nature the appropriateness of it questioned and whether it should actually be used to treat people.

  Because it cannot help with complex phobias, these may be more cognitive than behavioural so people would benefit more from treatments such as CBT.  
• Evaluation of Flooding Therapy

  Flooding is UNETHICAL even though individual is given informed briefing prior to consent of the experience they still experience when during the experience. This is because reading to someone of the potential experience they may have is not the same as when they are in the room experiencing the fear for real.

  They need to consider that, when a patient reaches a certain level of distress they should allow them to withdraw as in this therapy, they cannot withdraw.
• Evaluation of Flooding Therapy

  Reductionist – reduces phobias to behavioural explanation ignoring other possible explanations that may offer better support and treatments which are less traumatic to the individual.
• What happens during Systematic Desensitisation?

  1. Patients learns deep muscle relaxation
  2. Patient constructs a desensitisation hierarchy.
  3. In VITRO, patients imagines each scene whiles deeply relaxed.

  When anxious feelings rise up, the image is stopped and relaxation is gained.

  • In VIVO, the patient experiences fearful events while deeply relaxed.

  Any time they feel anxious, relaxation is regained - therapy continues until all symptoms are extinguished.
• What type of Conditioning does Systematic Desensitisation use?

  Counter conditioning.

  Uses the principles of reciprocal inhibition to neutralise the conditioned response to the neutral stimulus.
• Who designed Systematic Desensitisation?

  WOLPE
• Evaluation of Systematic Desensitisation - WEAKNESS

  May mask the problem. Not treating the cause= symptom substitution. Cannot treat all phobias – it is not effective when treating phobias with evolutionary survival benefit like fear of heights.  
• Research Support - McGrath

  McGrath - Roughly 75% subjects respond to SD in VIVO but CROMER claims 25% show no recovery at all.
• Strength of SD

  Appropriate and Effective.

  This treatment is effective as it has been found to be 80-90%. Also, it stops when patients are anxious and works slowly overtime to desensitise patients making it appropriate as it does not traumatised patients in any way.
• What did Smith and Glass find?

  In their meta-analysis they found that SD was the most successful form of therapy.

  • Supports the effectiveness of SD therapy being used.