Treating phobia Flashcards
(13 cards)
What are the two types of treatments for phobias?
- systematic desensitisation
- flooding
What are the primary goals of systematic desensitisation and flooding?
to replace fear with a relaxation response
What is the term used when relaxation inhibits anxiety?
reciprocal inhibition
Describe the stages of systematic desensitisation?
1) therapist teaches client relaxation skills (breathing exercises)
2) Client then creates an anxiety hierarchy, a list of feared situations with phobic object - from least to worst
3) client exposed to each level of anxiety hierarchy starting from least anxiety level (Client must relax at each stage, moving onto next when client is relaxed)
4) When client can hold phobic object w/o fear, association is extinct and new association is formed (relaxation)
How does flooding differ from systematic desensitisation in terms of exposure to phobic stimuli?
Flooding involves immediate intense exposure, whereas systematic desensitisation involves gradual exposure
How does flooding work?
- Immediate exposure is expected to cause extreme panic
- therapists job is to stop client from escaping the situation
- fear response takes energy
- eventually client becomes exhausted and calms down in the presence of phobic object
What happens if client ends treatment of flooding before calming down?
phobia will be reinforced
According to Wolpe, what is the key technique used in counterconditioning during phobia treatment?
Relaxation
What is the rationale behind the use of flooding in treating phobias?
To associate the feared stimuli with a non anxious response
A03 - Systematic desensitisation - effective treatment
- Gilroy et al followed up 42 patients who had been treated for spider phobias in three 45 minute sessions of systematic desensitisation
- spider phobia was assessed on several measures including the spider questionnaire and by assessing the response to the spider
- Control group was treated by relaxation without exposure
- at both three months and 33 months after the treatment the systematic desensitisation group was less fearful than relaxation group
- Suggests that SD is helpful therapeutic technique in reducing specific phobias and that these effects are long lasting
A03 - Systematic desensitisation - not effective in treating ALL phobias
- Ohman et al suggested that SD is not effective in treating phobias that have an evolutionary survival component (e.g. fear of the dark, fear of dangerous animals)
- This is for a number of reasons; partly because they are impractical in many senses i.e. we cannot realistically create an anxiety hierarchy for touching a shark
- Additionally, these phobias have not been acquired through personal experience
- Suggests that SD may not be useful for all patients, therefore limited use
A03 - Flooding - quick and effective way for treating phobia
- Studies comparing flooding to cognitive therapies (such as Ougrin) have found that flooding is highly effective an quicker than alternatives
- Flooding requires one session to ‘cure’ a patients phobia
- strength as patients are free from their symptoms quicker
- cost effective for the economoy
A03 - Flooding - it can traumatise the patient and reinforce the phobia
- may not be appropriate for everyone
- Flooding can be a highly traumatic procedure
- Unlike SD, flooding is not gradual and so individuals can become severely distressed
- Patients are aware beforehand, even then, they may quit the treatment
- This would then reduce the effectiveness of the therapy for some people
- Therefore, the traumatic nature of the therapy may decrease the effectiveness; questioning whether is should be an appropriate therapy used.
