Treatment behaviouralist

• Systematic desensitisation-

  Behavioural therapy (classical conditioning) – a new response is learnt to the stimulus (relaxing not crying). There are 3 processes-

  1. Anxiety hierarchy- made by patient and therapist, list of situations that cause the anxiety relating to the phobia from least to most frightening.
  2. Relaxation- therapist teaches client to relax as deeply as possible, cant be both, using mental images, breathing techniques or drugs (Valium).
  3. Exposure- client exposed to the phobia while in a relaxed state across several sessions starting at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy.
• Systematic desensitisation-

  • S- Evidence of effectiveness (Gilroy 2003- 42 patients with a spider phobia and 3 45min sessions, at 3 and 33 months they were less fearful than the control).
  • S- Can be used with people that have learning disabilities due to its simplicity.
  • CPS- Can be used in virtual reality to be safer and more cost effective.
  • CPW- virtual reality isn’t as effective since it lacks realism- Wechsler et al 2019.
• Flooding-

  • Exposing people to their phobia without the build up from the anxiety hierarchy, usually 2-3 hours, and effective from one session.
  • Client learns quickly that the stimulus is harmless.
  • Extinction - conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus.
  • Unethical due to the unpleasant experience so it has to have fully informed consent.
• Flooding-

  • S- Cost effective due to it only being 1 session - allows more people to be treated and less stress on the NHS.
  • W- Traumatic experience (Schumacher 2015 had therapists rate it as more stressful than SD).
  • W- Mask the symptoms do not take long the causes of the phobias.