Exposure Flashcards
2 components of exposure
Exposure to feared stimuli without the feared consequence
Plus preventing escape or avoidance and encouraging approach behaviour
The person should stay in the situation long enough to realise that they don’t need to escape or Avoid for the fear to reduce.
Feared stimuli can be
Situations Emotions Things People Imaginal
Define exposure
Procedure that reduces fear and anxiety by exposing person to stimuli that elicit those emotions so the consequences are disconfirmed.
Repeated exposures
Reduce intensity
Habituated fears
Mechanisms of change
Extinction or habituation
Counter conditioning
Extinction works by
Repeated prolonged presentations of the cs withou the us leads to decrease in intensity of emotion because the situational cue no longer elicits the response.
Avoidance behaviours need to be blocked to weaken the cs and us pairing.
Facts about exposure
Old learning not eliminated. New learning can occur.
Can fear same stimuli but in different strengths in different contexts.
So it’s important that we take into account the specific contexts and events that invoke the fear response and make sure we Target those as well
3 theories explains mechanism of change in exposure
Two Factor Theory and langs bioinformational model of emotional processing of fear plus counter conditioning
What is the 2 factor model of Fear acquisition
States that fear is classically conditioned and then generalised and then avoidance leads to negative reinforcement in reduction in anxiety.
Mechanisms of change
The lowering of anxiety last for corrective information that previously feared stimuli and not dangerous and repeated exposure overtime allows for new non fear related elements and memories to be formed
Mechanism of change - Exposure and response prevention
Repeated Exposure to fear stimuli without the feared consreuqmr leads to reduced fear habituation. However need to prevent response so core fear can be disconfirmed that this action is not necessary and fear will reduce.
The lowered anxiety allows new information to be incorporated that safe and not dangerous
Cue exposure
Not sole treatment, used in substance abuse etc
Opposite action
Opposite action to feeling and observe consequence
Steps in exposure before starting
Target, adaptive, type exposure, rationale, stimuli, graded or flooding, sessions
Tarts gfs
Decide which emotions to target Is the emotion adaptive or not Decide on type of exposure Explain rationale with examples Assess all the stimuli and their intensity Graded or flooding Schedule sessions
Guidelines for exposure
Allow anxiety to dissipate by self (no sb and avoidance Take regular suds ratings Ensure habituation Collaborative Repeat session exposures for homework
