Flooding

• What is the primary goal of exposure therapy in treating phobias?

  Confront the feared object
• The biology behind exposure therapy involves the body's fight-or-flight
• During the alarm stage, the heart rate increases and adrenaline is released into the blood.
• What happens to the body's stress response after the alarm stage ends?

  Returns to normal
• After the alarm stage, the phobia sufferer learns to associate the feared object with neutral emotions
• Joseph Wolpe's case study showed that exposure therapy can eliminate phobias by reducing fear responses.
• What type of phobias is exposure therapy most effective for?

  Simple phobias
• Flooding is based on classical conditioning
• What are the two components of flooding in behavioural therapy?

  Unavoidable exposure and extinction
• Who developed implosion therapy, which is now known as flooding?

  Thomas Stampfl
• Steps involved in implosion therapy as developed by Thomas Stampfl

  1️⃣ Bombarding patients with detailed descriptions of fearful situations

  2️⃣ Reducing session time using phrases that trigger intense reactions

  3️⃣ Assigning tape recordings as homework
• In vitro therapy in flooding involves imagining the feared situation rather than experiencing it physically.
• Flooding is typically an in vitro therapy, whereas exposure therapy is an in vivo
• Why do phobia sufferers avoid the object they fear?

  To avoid the alarm stage
• Flooding can prevent escape from the feared object, allowing patients to learn to stop fearing it.
• What is the role of extinction in flooding therapy?

  Associate fear with neutrality
• Extinction occurs when the feared object stops being a conditioned stimulus
• Flooding is considered more ethical than exposure therapy because it causes less intense distress.
• What type of phobias is flooding most effective for?

  Complex phobias
• Which study showed that flooding reduced PTSD symptoms in Vietnam veterans?

  Keane et al. (1989)
• Spontaneous recovery occurs when the extinguished phobia suddenly returns
• Flooding replaces the fear response with no response, rather than a positive emotion.
• What is the main difference between systematic desensitisation and flooding?

  Gradual vs immediate exposure
• Systematic desensitisation is considered more ethical than flooding because exposure is gradual and controlled
• Both flooding and systematic desensitisation address the underlying causes of phobias.

  False
• What is one application of flooding in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)?

  Overcoming false beliefs
• In CBT, flooding is often used in conjunction with systematic desensitisation
• Exposure therapy, flooding, and systematic desensitisation can all be used in vitro.
• First Strength

  Flooding has been shown to work:

  Joseph Wolpe (1970)

  He took a girl who was scared of cars and drove her around for 4 hours.

  At first, the girl was hysterical but she calmed down when he realised that she was in no danger.

  Afterwards, her phobia disappeared: she learned to enjoy car rides
• First weakness


  Unethical

  Exposing people at such high levels of anxiety where they do not feel in control is thought to be less ethical compared to systemic desensitisation where the patient is in control of the situation
• Second strength


  Real life situation (therefore, high ecological validity)

  Exposure to therapy and flooding presents the sufferer with unavoidable exposure and this is what often happens in real life.

  It is argued that this therapy better prepares sufferers for occasions when they may be confronted unexpectedly with the object / situation they fear, with no way in getting away from it.
• Second Weakness


  Some people will not able able to tolerate the high levels of anxiety induced by the therapy, and are therefore at risk of exiting the therapy before they are calm and relaxed. This is likely to strengthen (reinforce) rather than weaken the phobia
• Third strength


  Professor Lars-Goran Ost

  He used exposure therapy and found that for specific phobias 90% of patients vastly improved or recovered after just 2 hours of therapy

  Also, it produces a quicker reduction than systematic desensitisation

  Furthermore, it has a lower attrition rate (people are less likely to / less able to drop out) compared to systematic desensitisation
• Third Weakness


  Flooding only removes symptoms of the phobia (anxiety) and not the underlying cause.

  If there is an underlying problem behind the phobia (like trauma in the patients past), then that will still be there and will carry on causing difficulties, even if the phobia is temporarily eased.
• What does flooding therapy involve?

  Involves client's full exposure to their fear stimulus for a prolonged period of time
• How is this exposure done?

  exposure to phobic object or situation done in safe and controlled environment from which escape not possible
• What does flooding generally involve?

  Vivo (actual) exposure to the fear stimulus
• Example of flooding therapy

  A person suffering from claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces) will be locked in a closed for several hours or an individual with a fear of flying would be sent up in a light aircraft
• What is the premise of flooding therapy?

  That fear is a time-limited response
• What happens to a person under flooding therapy?

  At first the person is in a state of extreme anxiety, perhaps even panic, but eventually exhaustion sets and the anxiety level begins to go down.