Psychopathology- treatment of phobias

Question 1

Who developed systematic desensitisation

Answer 1

Wolpe

Question 2

What is a fear hierarchy

Answer 2

This is a list of situations in which the client would feel anxiety, arranged from least to most anxiety produced.

Question 3

What is the first step of SD

Answer 3

Together the client and therapist construct a fear hierarchy.

Question 4

What is the second step of SD

Answer 4

The client is taught different techniques for relaxing. These would probably include controlling breathing (e.g. 7/11) and muscular tension by using PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION and might include other techniques

Question 5

What is the third step pf SD

Answer 5

over the course of 6 to 12 sessions, the client is gradually brought into contact with their phobic object or situation. They start at the bottom of their fear hierarchy and gradually work their way upward.

Question 6

At each level of exposure what MUST the client do

Answer 6

Use their relaxation training until they are able to completely relax with the item of fear e.g. picture of a spider. Once this happens, it is time to move onto the next level of exposure.

Question 7

What is the forth step of SD

Answer 7

Exposure

Question 8

What are the two ways that exposure can happen in

Answer 8

In vitro
in vivo

Question 9

What does in vitro mean

Answer 9

The client imagines exposure

Question 10

What does in vivo mean

Answer 10

The client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

Question 11

What does reciprocal inhibition mean

Answer 11

Two opposite emotions (like FEAR and RELAXATION) cannot co-exist at the same time. Hence, under very specific relaxation techniques you cannot be anxious

Question 12

How many people did Wolpe use SD on

Answer 12

39

Question 13

How many phobias did Wolpe attempt to treat

Answer 13

68

Question 14

How successful was Wolpe

Answer 14

He was successful/partially successful with 91%

Question 15

Evaluating SD
-evidence from Wolpe

Answer 15

There is wealth of evidence that supports the use of Systematic Desensitisation in treating phobias

For example, WOLPE (1961) used SD on 39 patients (68 phobias), and it was successfully /partially successful with 91% (62 phobias)
The other 9% unsuccessful were mostly due to special problems including an inability to imagine the situations presented in the hierarchy

This implies..SD is an effective therapy for UNLEARNING phobias

Question 16

Evaluating SD
-evidence from McGrath

Answer 16

Furthermore, more evidence can be quoted from McGrath

McGrath (1990) found that 75% of patients with specific phobias showed clinically significant improvement following the treatment

This shows the effectiveness of SD in a real life setting showing that SD is credit worthy

Question 17

Evaluating SD
-is it a cure?

Answer 17

S.D. may not be effective as a cure.

S.D. may appear to resolve a problem but eliminating or suppressing symptoms may result in other symptoms appearing (symptom substitution)

This is where patients could develop further phobic responses to different new things

This suggests that the therapy could be considered superficial and only provide temporary relief

Question 18

Evaluating SD
- ethics

Answer 18

The ethics of the therapy can also be praise

The patient is given more control in the SD procedure and will only move on when they are ready to.

The treatment is considered to be far more ethical than others based on classical conditioning e.g. flooding.

In this sense, the patient is PROTECTED from HARM and the therapy should be praised

Question 19

Evaluating SD
-scientific

Answer 19

SD is considered to be a very scientific based therapy

This is because it utilises a systematic procedure, that is fully open to observation

What’s more, as it only focuses on observable ‘behavioural’ aspects on phobias (not cognitions), its seen as very OBJECTIVE

This supports the idea that psychology is a scientific discipline worthy of respect and further funding!

Question 20

How is flooding different to SD

Answer 20

Exposure is immediate

Question 21

What is a key principle of flooding

Answer 21

Revolves around the idea that ANXIETY / fear is a time limited physical response – the initial strong bodily arousal caused by hormones (e.g. adrenaline) can only last so long before the body calms down. Hence, the initial anxiety response becomes exhausted and EXTINCT.

Question 22

What does flooding assume about anxiety

Answer 22

It is a time limited physical response