Ch. 24 - Fear and Anxiety Reduction Procedures Flashcards
What is fear composed of?
Both operant and respondent behaviour.
What do people with fears exhibit in response to the feared stimulus?
Unpleasant autonomic system arousal and escape or avoidance behaviour.
What is anxiety?
The respondent bodily responses.
What are the conditioned stimulus and response for an arachnophobe?
The conditioned stimulus is the presence of a spider, the conditioned response is the autonomic nervous arousal.
What is the operant response for an arachnophobe?
The person’s reaction to the spider that is reinforced by the removal of the stimulus (via avoidance or escape).
What distinguishes true fears from claims for attention?
A true fear has a conditioned response.
What are the three overarching procedures to reduce fears and anxiety?
Relaxation training, systematic desensitization, and in vivo sensitization.
What are the effects of relaxation therapies?
To decrease autonomic arousal, counteracting the effects of the conditioned response.
What are the 4 procedures within relaxation therapies?
Progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, attention-focusing exercises, and behavioural relaxation training.
What is progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)?
An exercise in which the client tenses and relaxes each muscle group; may involve using cue words.
What is diaphragmatic breathing?
Involves a person breathing in a slow, rhythmic fashion (as opposed to the rapid, shallow breathing associated with fear).
What are attention-focusing exercises?
Exercises that produce relaxation by directing attention to a neural or pleasant stimulus.
What are some examples of attention-focusing exercises?
Meditation, guided imagery, and hypnosis.
What is behavioural relaxation training?
A person being taught to relax each muscle group by assuming relaxed postures.
What differentiates behaviour relaxation training from PMR?
PMR involves tensing before relaxing, BRT does not.
What is systematic desensitization?
A procedure in which the person with a phobia practices relaxation while imagining scene of a fear-producing stimulus.
When is a fear a phobia?
When the level of anxiety or escape/avoidance behaviour is severe enough to disrupt the person’s life.
Why has systematic desensitization been called reciprocal inhibition?
Because the relaxation response inhibits or prevents the occurrence of the fear response.
What are the three steps to systematic desensitization?
- The client learns to relax.
- The therapist and client develop a hierarchy of fear-producing stimuli.
- The client practices relaxation skills while the therapist describes scenes from the hierarchy.
When is systematic desensitization complete?
When the client can maintain relaxation during each scene in the hierarchy.
How is the hierarchy developed?
Using a fear rating scale to identify the amount of fear that is produced by a variety of situations.
What is the fear rating scale called?
The subjective units of discomfort scale (SUDS)
What is in vivo desensitization?
A procedure similar to systematic desensitization, however in vivo involves the client actually approaching the feared stimulus.
Other than relaxation, what techniques might the therapist use during in vivo desensitization?
Reinforcement for approach behaviour or contact desensitization.
What is contact desensitization?
The use of physical, reassuring contact between the therapist and the client.
What advantage does in vivo have over systematic desensitization?
In vivo involves the client actually making contact with the feared stimulus.
What is the disadvantage of in vivo desensitization?
It is more difficult, time consuming, and costly.
What advantage does systematic have over in vivo desensitization?
It is easier and more convenient.
What is the disadvantage of systematic desensitization?
Results may not fully generalize to the fear-producing situation.
What are two other treatments for fears?
Flooding and modelling.
What is flooding?
A procedure in which the person is exposed to the feared stimulus at full intensity for a prolonged period.
How does flooding work to ease fear?
Initially, there is heightened fear, but over time the perceived threat is realized to be irrational and anxiety decreases through respondent extinction.
What is modelling?
The client (normally a child) observe another person approaching the feared stimulus or engaging in a feared activity.
