The Behaviourist Approach - TREATING

• about behavioural therapies

  - counter condition phobias, replacing the fear association with a relaxation/calm associations

  - assumes that fear and relaxation are opposite emotions and cannot co-exist; reciprocal inhibition
• systematic desensitisation


  - therapist teachers relaxation techniques, then progresses through an anxiety hierarchy created by the client and therapist

  - this hierarchy is worked through from least feared to most feared, with relaxing at each stage

  - gradual exposure leads to extinction of the fear association, and a new association with relaxation formed
• flooding

  - involves immediate and full exposure to the maximum level of the phobic stimulus

  - causes temporary panic in the client, the clinician will keep the client in the situation until temporary panic has stopped due to exhaustion

  - continues until the client is calm in the presence of the phobic object
• A03 - SD vs. F

  - compared to flooding, the client controls SD, making it more pleasurable as they limit their anxiety

  - however, slower process = more sessions of SD compared to F
• A03 - specific vs. social phobias

  - both SD and F are more effective in treating specific phobias than social phobias

  - it is difficult to stimulate social situations/interactions with unfamiliar individual's in a therapists office
• A03 - Garcia-Palacios


  - found 83% of ppts treated with VR exposure to spiders improved compared to 0% in the control group

  - suggests the principles of SD are valid, use of VR allows a wider range of phobias to be treated