BEH - TREATING PHOBIAS

• Ways to treat phobias


  • Systematic desensitisation
  • Flooding
• Systematic desensitisation


  A way of treating phobias based on the idea that what is learned or conditioned can be unlearned, developed by Joseph Wolpe
• Systematic desensitisation


  1. Patient imagines their phobia and uses relaxation techniques to relieve anxiety

  2. Patient applies relaxation techniques to real life scenarios

  3. Patient becomes gradually desensitised to the phobia
• Systematic desensitisation steps


  1. Patient is taught how to relax muscles completely

  2. Therapist and patient imagine scenes each one increasing in anxiety (anxiety hierarchy)

  3. Patient meets each scenario and once fully relaxed they move onto the next scenario

  4. Patient eventually masters the feared situation
• Flooding


  Involves overwhelming the patients' senses and feelings with no gradual build up, so they realise there is nothing to fear. Individual is exposed repeatedly and intensively
• In vivo - actual exposure

  In vitro - imaginary exposure
• Flooding


  Stops the phobic responses very quickly as without the option of avoidance behaviour the individual is forced to quickly learn that their phobia is harmless - this process is called extinction
• Extinction


  A learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus, so the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response (fear)
• Wolpe (1960) 

  Used flooding to remove a girl's phobia of being in cars. The girl was forced into a car and driven around for 4 hours until her hysteria had disappeared, demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment 

  ✅Real life application – highly effective method 

  ❌Unethical - no consent – bps ethical guidelines 
• Solter (2007)  

  Case study of 5-month-old baby who seemed traumatically stressed after being in hospital for 3 days whilst having surgery. Used flooding over several treatment sessions. First week = reduction in symptoms. Two months = no symptoms. One year later = no remaining symptoms. 

  ✅Managed to help the phobia at an early age – no restraint 

  ❌Not every individual is able to handle flooding – levels of anxiety
• Gilroy (2002) 

  Examined 42 patients with arachnophobia (fear of spiders). Each patient was treated using three 45-minute systematic desensitisation sessions. When examine three months and 33 months later, the systematic desensitisation group were less fearful than a control group (who were only taught relaxation techniques). 

  ✅Supports long term effectiveness of systematic desensitisation as a method of treating phobias 

  ❌Small sample size - unrepresentative