systematic desensitisation Flashcards
1
Q
who and when was this developed?
A
Wolpe 1958
2
Q
what else is this sometimes known as?
A
- graduated exposure therapy
3
Q
what is treatment based on ?
A
the principles of classical conditioning ( how a stimulus and involuntary response are associated - once the response develops into a phobia it prevents normal functioning occurring.)
4
Q
what does it aim to do?
A
- enable patients to unlearn the conditioned response
5
Q
what is the assumption of modern desensitisation?
A
- that you cant be afraid and relaxed at the same time as they are two different emotions
- staying relaxed long enough in the presence of a phobia will cause the patient to longer fear it. `
6
Q
what does the first step involve?
A
- learning deep muscle techniques that involve grouping muscles together and tensing and relaxing them
- patients may be asked to think about happy scenarios
7
Q
what does the second step involve?
A
- whilst relaxing patients gradually come into contact with their phobia
- the heirarchy of possible forms of contact is decided by the patient
- might start off with imagining the name of the phobia on a piece of paper
8
Q
why does Wolpe prefer to use imagination in certain cases?
A
- because some peoples fears are abstract such as fear of criticism of failure
- he gets those people to think about and imagine that situation
- between sessions they’ll have homework to confront one of these situations in real life
9
Q
what did Levin and Gross find?
A
- they did a literature review of some studies looking at SD and found that 10 said the SD was successful without the need for relaxation
- but 15 said that relaxation added to the success of SD.
10
Q
what did Mcgrath find?
A
- that when dealing with specific phobia’s e.g. spiders 75% showed significant improvement
11
Q
what did Craske and Barlow find?
A
most clients often relapsed after the first 6 months.
12
Q
how is it ethical?
A
most ethical out of flooding and SD
