AO3

Cards (4)

  • Behavioural Phobia Treatments: Evaluation Points
    • Research Support
    • Ethics
    • Systematic Desensitisation: used with people with learning needs
  • Behavioural Phobia Treatments: Research Supports
    SD: Gilroy et al evaluated 42 people who had SD for spider phobias in 3, 45 minute sessions. They found that at 3 and 33 months into SD treatment, patients were comparatively less fearful than the control group.
    Flooding: Since 1960, flooding has found to be an effective treatment. Wolf forced a woman into a car (her phobia) and drove her around for 4 hours until her anxiety peaked and then decreased.
  • Behavioural Phobia Treatments: Ethics
    Flooding has been criticised for ethical concerns and violations. Patients are under extreme stress and those with poor health are at risk of collapsing. However, cost benefit analysis justifies these ethical concerns as it is believed that the benefits of the treatment outweighs the costs. On the other hand, systematic desensitisation is considered the more ethical option out of the two as it does not involve such stressful situations and moves at the sufferers own pace and empowers them because they are actively involved.
  • Behavioural Phobia Treatments: SD application
    A strength of systematic desensitisation is that it can be used by people with learning needs. People with learning needs may struggle with cognitive therapies as they involve a high level of logical thought, so a practical therapy such as SD may be more suitable. Flooding can be overwhelming for people with learning disabilities, as it can be confusing and distressing. This makes it the most appropriate therapy for people with a learning disability.