Treatment for Phobias - Flooding Flashcards
How does Flooding work?
exposing the patient directly to their worst fears
(S)he is thrown in at the deep end
What is the aim of flooding?
expose the sufferer to the phobic object or situation for an extended period of time in a safe and controlled environment
What is fear?
A limited time response
What does prolonged intense exposure create?
a new association between the feared object and something positive (e.g. a sense of calm and lack of anxiety). It also prevents reinforcement of phobia through escape or avoidance behaviors
What is one issue with flooding
It can be dangerous.
It is not an appropriate treatment for every phobia. It should be used with caution as some people can actually increase their fear after therapy, and it is not possible to predict when this will occur. Wolpe (1969) reported the case of a client whose anxiety intensified to such as degree that flooding therapy resulted in her being hospitalized.
What is an application of using flooding?
people who have a fear of water
It is also sometimes used with agoraphobia. In general flooding produces results as effective (sometimes even more so) as systematic desensitisation. The success of the method confirms the hypothesis that phobias are so persistent because the object is avoided in real life and is therefore not extinguished by the discovery that it is harmless.
What did Wolpe (1960) do?
forced an adolescent girl with a fear of cars into the back of a car and drove her around continuously for four hours: her fear reached hysterical heights but then receded and, by the end of the journey, had completely disappeared.
