AO1

• Behaviourist therapies are based on the idea that phobias are learnt through association to fear, so therapies attempt to replace the fear association with one of relaxation/calm
• Systematic desensitisation is an attempt to use the same classical conditioning techniques that are thought to have caused the phobia in a process to “counter condition” the phobia by replacing the association between the phobic object and fear with an association with relaxation/calm instead.
• Flooding counter conditions phobias by immediate full exposure to the maximum level of phobic stimulus
• Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural therapy designed to reduce phobic anxiety through gradual exposure to the phobic stimulus. It relies upon the principle of counterconditioning i.e. learning a new response to the phobic stimulus i.e. one of relaxation rather than panic. This works due to reciprocal inhibition i.e. it’s impossible to be both relaxed and anxious at the same time.
• Flooding is a behavioural therapy designed to reduce phobic anxiety in one session, through immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus. This occurs in a secure environment from which the patient cannot escape - without the option of practising avoidance behaviour, such behaviour is not reinforced and so the phobia is not maintained