Behavioural Approach To Treating Phobias: Flooding

Question 1

What is flooding

Answer 1

Flooding involves a sudden, extreme exposure to the phobia stimulus without any prior build up or gradual stage by stage approach

Question 2

How does flooding work

Answer 2

It doesn’t take place in a calm state or have them reactive relaxation techniques
The sudden exposure to the phobic conditioned stimulus is designed to extinguish the fear

Question 3

What does extinction mean according to flooding therapy and how it occurs

Answer 3

Is the absence of fear in the face of the conditioned phobic stimulus
Occurs because the patient cannot avoid or escape the phobic stimulus so they just have to deal with it

Question 4

Strength of flooding (cheap)

Answer 4

Flooding is cheap compared to other forms of phobia therapy
- although individual flooding sessions are usually longer than se sessions fewer sessions are needed overall which equals a lower cost to the patient
Beneficial economic implications

Question 5

Limitation of flooding (traumatic)

Answer 5

Flooding can be traumatic for the patient it can be considered ethically compromised
- a researcher found both patients and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD
This means that therapy lacks ethical validity

Question 6

Limitation of flooding (cause)

Answer 6

Flooding only removes symptoms of the phobia and not the udenerlying cause
If there is an underlying problem behind the phobia then that will still be there ad will carry on causing difficulties

Question 7

Strength of flooding ( ecological validity)

Answer 7

Exposure to therapy and flooding presents sufferer with unavoidable exposure and this is what happens in real life
So it is argued this therapy better prepares sufferers for occasions when they may be confronted unexpectedly with the phobia stimulus