the behavioural approach when treating phobias

Question 1

what is systematic desensitisation

Answer 1

behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principles of classical conditioning. if the person with a phobia can learn to relax in the presence of stimulus they will be cured. new response to the phobic stimulus is learned. this leaning is called counter conditioning.

Question 2

what are the 3 processes in systematic desensitization

Answer 2

1. anxiety hierarchy- list of situations linked to the phobic stimulus starting with the least fearful one at the bottom.
2. relaxation- its impossible to be scared and relaxed (reciprocal inhibition). therefore relaxation techniques its vital part.for eg deep breathing and anti-anxiety drugs.
   3.exposure - exposed to the phobic stimulus while in relaxed state. starts at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy and progresses up to the next level. sd is successful when the patient maintains relaxation during the hierarchy

Question 3

A03 of systematic desensitisation

Answer 3

P: A strength of systematic desensitisation is that it has been proven to be effective at treating phobias.
E: For example, McGrath et al (1990) reported that 75% of patients showed an improvement in their symptoms after systematic desensitisation.
E: Additionally Gilroy, (2003) followed up 42 patients after they had been treated for a spider phobia. 33 months later, they showed less fear than a control group.
L: This evidence is a strength because it shows that systematic desensitisation can be used to treat the majority of patients, and that the effects are long lasting.
P: A second strength of systematic desensitisation is that people tend to prefer it to the alternative behavioural therapy of ‘flooding’.
E: This is largely because it does not cause the same degree of trauma as flooding.
E: This is supported by the fact that SD has low attrition rates (the number of people dropping out of treatment is low).
L: This matters because SD is able to help a higher number of patients than flooding.
It also empowers the person to choose a therapy that is most acceptable to them.
P: However, systematic desensitisation is not an effective treatment for all phobias.
E: Ohman (1975) suggest that SD may not be as effective in treating phobias that have an underlying evolutionary component (e.g., fear of heights, fear of dangerous animals, etc). This reduces the usefulness of this technique of treatment.
E: Additionally, systematic desensitisation is only really suitable for patients who are able to effectively use the relaxation techniques and who have imaginations that are vivid enough to think up images of fear objects/events.
L: Therefore, the therapy may not be appropriate to use for all people with phobias.
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Question 4

what’s flooding

Answer 4

exposing phobia to the patient without gradual progression
instead the client is immediately exposed to the phobic stimulus
this is usually one long session where the phobia is seen at its worst while at the same time practicing relaxation. the session continues until the client is completely relaxed.
flooding stops the patient responding very quickly. this may be because the patient cannot avoid the stimulus. therefore they quickly learn that the phobia is harmless

Question 5

what is extinction in flooding

Answer 5

learned response is extinguished when the person is encountered with a stimuli without the UCS eg dog bite
this results in the conditioned stimulus no longer resulting in fear

Question 6

AO3

Answer 6

Evaluation of flooding (A03)
P: One strength of flooding is that it is a cost effective treatment for phobias.
E: Research has shown that that flooding is just as effective at treating phobias as
SD, however it is significantly quicker (Ougin, 2011).
L: This is a strength as patients are free of their symptoms as soon as possible, and this makes the treatment cheaper than SD.
© P: Perhaps the most serious issue with flooding is that it is a highly traumatic
experience for patients.
E: The problem is not that flooding is unethical (as patients will have given consent) but that patients are often unwilling to see it through to the end.
L: This is a limitation of flooding because time and money are sometimes wasted preparing patients only to have them refuse to start or complete treatment.

P: Finally, although flooding is highly effective for simple (specific) phobias, the treatment is less effective for other types of phobias, including social phobia and agoraphobia.
E: This is because behavioural treatments are unable to treat the irrational thinking! that is more common with these complex phobias.
E: This suggests that other forms of treatment, such as CBT, which treats the irrational thinking, may be a more effective method of treating social and agoraphobia.
L: This is a problem because it appears that flooding is restricted in its usefulness to just specific phobias.