phobia treatment - eval

• support

  both techniques are effective
• counter

  not appropriate for all phobias - ohman suggests that systematic desensitisation may not be as effective in treating phobias that have an underlying evolutionary survival component (e.g. dark/heights), than in treating phobias acquired through personal experience
• alternative 1

  a phobia may not be learned and therefore unlearning will not work. the best therapy would depend on the cause, e.g. biological = drugs, cognitive = cbt
• alternative 2

  symptom substitution

  arguably phobias are an underlying condition and when one phobia is removed, another phobia will emerge and take its place. this is known as symptom substitution and it is argued that the therapy is therefore not curing the actual underlying cause of the phobia, merely the symptoms
• applications

  some behavioural therapies are suitable for a wide range of patients

  alternatives to systematic desensitisation such as flooding or cbt do not suit all patients
• i&d

  ethics of therapies

  flooding is a highly traumatic experience and consequently patients may not complete the treatment. technically it is not an unethical treatment as patients give their informed consent so they know exactly what they have agreed to. the problem is that incomplete therapy is not effective, resulting in a waste of time and money