Discuss the behavioural approach to treating phobias

• SD - AO1


  Begins with the participant creating an anxiety hierarchy with a therapist by ranking different stressful experiences or objects which are associated with their phobia. Taught different relaxation techniques such as meditation which they will use as they pass through the hierarchy. And so, starting at the bottom the participant will pass through each stage in the hierarchy whilst practicing their relaxation techniques which breaks the association of the phobic object and fear, since they cannot be relaxed and fearful at the same time, due to reciprocal inhibition. 
• Flooding - AO1


  This is a more intense method which places the participant in direct exposure of their phobia with no build up or gradual exposure, and usualy occurs in one 2-3 hour session. With immediate exposure to the phobia avoidance in not possible, and so the participant realises that their phobias is not actually harmful.  
• AO3 -Research support


  E: Gilroy (2003) used a sample of 42 people with a spider phobia after 3 SD sessions and found that after 3 and 33 months were less fearful than the control group.

  E: This shows that SD is effective at treating phobias and so is a useful method which can be used.

  CA: However, the study only has a small sample size of 42 participants and so may not be representative of the population in which the conclusions are applied to. Cannot tell us about the effectiveness of treating other phobias with SD and therefore lacks internal validity. 
• AO3 - SD less cost effective than flooding.

  E: This is because successful SD take place over many sessions to pass through each stage of the anxiety hierarchy each of which requires a trained therapist.

  E: Whilst flooding can treat a phobia theoretically in one session and so overall the cost of one session would be less than that of multiple sessions.

  L: This means that SD may be less accessible to patients with phobias and so may lead to people with severe phobias not being able to acsess treatments which would be beneficial for them, since flooding is not effective for everyone. 
• AO3 - Reductionist


  E: Treat phobias formed through conditioning, by breaking the association of the phobic object and fear. This method therefore oversimplifies reasons for phobias by ignoring other influences which can lead to phobias.

  E: Ignores phobias which are biological and serve evolutionary purposes such as a fear of snakes, for most people do not come from negative experiences.

  L: Therefore, using this approach to treatment is not useful for every case as follows a nomothetic approach to apply general laws for treatment, and so ignores the individual experience of the patient.
• AO3 - Flooding has high attrition rates, as many participants are not able to complete the treatment.


  E: This is because flooding can cause high levels of stress and trauma due to the immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus and instead of treating the phobia may intensify the origional phobia.

  E: Because of this flooding is often not successful and may put off patients from continuing treatment.

  L: This therefore makes flooding a further waste of resources, time and money as can just worsen the situation of the patient and prevent them from seeking help for their phobia.