Psychopathology: Behavioural treatments for phobias Flashcards
Explanation of phobias
Explanation of phobias: A phobia is an exaggerated fear of an object/situation. Phobias can be sorted into three categories: specific, social and agoraphobia. The behavioural approach explains that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and then maintained through operant conditioning. The two ways of treating phobias are systematic desensitisation and flooding.
Systematic desensitisation
Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural therapy designed to reduce anxiety to a stimulus. It is a step-by-step approach where the patient works out a hierarchy of fear from the least frightening to the most frightening situation. The patient then works through the hierarchy learning to use relaxation techniques in the presence of the feared object. Systematic desensitisation is useful for treating phobias as it helps to break down the conditioned fear response slowly allowing a person to slowly learn to cope with their fears.
strength of systematic desensitisation: effective
It is effective: Gilroy et al found that patients with arachnophobia who were treated with systematic desensitisation were less fearful than those in a control group who were only taught using relaxation techniques. This shows that systematic desensitisation is a more successful long-term treatment for phobias.
strength of systematic desensitisation: suitability
It is suitable for a diverse range of patients: patients who are suffers of anxiety disorders/have learning difficulties may have difficulty understanding the processes of flooding/cognitive therapies and for these patients systematic desensitisation is probably the most appropriate treatment
strength of systematic desensitisation
It is acceptable to patients: patients who were given the choice between systematic desensitisation and flooding choose prefer systematic desensitisation because it does cause the same degree of trauma and include relaxation procedures that are pleasant
Flooding
Flooding is a technique where a person, instead of taking steps towards the object of fear, goes straight to their most feared situation, which is usually contact with the object. Flooding works better for specific phobias than social and agoraphobias because these complex phobias are caused by irrational thinking instead of an unpleasant experience which means they are more likely to be treated by cognitive behavioural therapy that treats irrational thinking.
flooding strength
It is cost effective - studies comparing flooding to cognitive therapies have found flooding is highly effective and quicker than alternative which is a strength because patients are free of symptoms as soon as possible which also makes treatments cheaper
flooding limitation: traumatic
It requires a patient to be in good physical health because it is highly traumatic. As flooding can cause a lot of distress it also means that it is not a suitable treatment for children and those of not good physical health.
flooding limitation: ethical issues
Flooding as a treatment arises major ethical issues as during flooding treatment, a therapist takes control and may have to go against the patient’s wishes and this can cause major distress for the patient which may cause the patient to be in a worse state than when they began.
flooding limitation: effectiveness
It is less effective for some phobias - flooding appears to be less effect for treating complex phobias such as social phobia which have cognitive aspects and might be better treated by cognitive therapies that tackle irrational thinking
common criticism: symptom substitution
Symptom substitution: A common criticism for both treatments of phobias is based on the Freudian theorythat if one phobia is treated, another may appear in its place e.g phobia of snakes replaced by a phobia of trains because all symptoms of mental illness are simply a reflection of an underlying unconscious conflict.
