The Behavioural Approach To Treating Phobias Flashcards
What is systematic desensitisation?
Behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response such as anxiety. ST draws up a hierarchy of anxiety provoking situations related to a persons phobic stimulus teaching the person to relax and then exposing them to phobic situations they then work their way through the hierarchy whilst maintaining relaxation
what is flooding?
behavioural therapy in which a person with a phobia is exposed to an extreme form of phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus this takes place during therapy sessions
what are the three processes involved in SD?
- anxiety hierarchy - client and therapist put a list of situations related to phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety range in order from lease to most frightening and they work their way up to the top of the hierarchy
- Relaxation - therapist teaches clients to relax and impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time. This is called reciprocal inhabitation. relaxation involves breathing exercises and client can imagine themselves in relaxing situations such as laying on the beach. they can also use drugs such as Valium.
- Exposure - client is exposed to phobic stimulus whilst in a relaxed state this takes place in several sessions starting from the bottom to the top of the hierarch
How does flooding work?
It stops phobic responses very quickly. This is because the client quickly learns the phobic stimulus is harmless, in classical conditioning terms. This is called extinction. A learned response is when the condition stimulus(dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus(being bitten) for the result is the condition stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response.(fear)
What are the ethical safeguards of flooding?
Flooding is not unethical but is an unpleasant experience. It’s important that the client gives informed consent and they’re fully prepared before the flooding session. Normally they have the choice of having systematic desensitisation or flooding.
one strength of systematic desensitisation?
one strength of SD is the evidence based for his effectiveness Gilroy followed up 42 people who had SD spider phobia in 3 45 minute sessions. At both three and 33 months. The SD group were less fearful than the control group. This shows SD is effective mainly for specific phobias such as social phobia and agoraphobia.
One strength of flooding?
It is highly cost-effective. clinical effectiveness means when it’s not that expensive but clinically effective, flooding can work in as little as one session opposed to 10 sessions of SD to achieve the same result. This makes flooding more cost-effective.
What is one limitation of flooding?
It is highly an unpleasant experience confronting one’s phobic stimulus provokes tremendous anxiety. Schumacher found participants in therapist rated flooding is more stressful than SD. This raises the ethical issue for psychologists causing stress to their clients. This causes more clients to drop out and therefore the rates are higher than SD.
