phobia treatments

Question 1

systematic desensitisation- SD

Answer 1

• based on classical conditioning
• aims to extinguish an undesirable behaviour by replacing it with a more desirable one

Question 2

what are the 3 stages of systematic desensitisation

Answer 2

stage 1: client taught to relax
- therapists trains client deep relaxation techniques
- control breathing
stage 2: negotiation
- therapists asks client to create a fear of hierarchy from the least feared situation to the highest feared situation
stage 3: graduated exposure
- client work their way through hierarchy
- at each stage, they perform relaxation techniques
- when they feel comfortable at each level they work their way up
- if at any stage, the fear becomes too much, they move down to the previous one until they are relaxed

Question 3

research support for SD

Answer 3

Gilroy (2003)
- following up on 42 patients who had been treated for arachnophobia using SD
- their phobia was assessed including the spider questionnaire and by assessing their response to a spider
- control group was treated by relaxation without exposure
- followed up 3 months and 33 months after the treatment
- the sd group were less fearful than the relaxation group

Question 4

flooding

Answer 4

• unavoidable exposure- involves introducing you to the thing you fear in the most immediate and unavoidable way
• immediate exposure to a very frightening situation
• prevention of avoidance, until they are calm/ anxiety reduced
• learns that the stimulus is harmless
• no longer produces the conditioned fear response
  exposure can be done in 2 ways
• vitro= client imagines exposure to the phobic stimulus
• vivo= client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

Question 5

positives of flooding

Answer 5

• cost effective= highly effective and quicker
• research suggested flooding is comparable to other treatments, but is significantly quicker

Question 6

negatives of flooding

Answer 6

• less effective for some types of phobias (social phobias)
• ethical issues, treatment is traumatic for patients

Question 7

positives of sd

Answer 7

• appropriateness= behaviour therapies are quick and require a lot less effort than psychotherapy
• sd is successful for range of phobias it can treat

Question 8

negatives of sd

Answer 8

• it may appear to resolve problems, but simply eliminating or suppressing may lead to symptom substitution