SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION

Question 1

Why is SD an appropriate therapy?

Answer 1

• Behaviourist approach believes normal behaviour can be learned through classical conditioning or operant conditioning to encourage a desirable behaviour to occur again.
• Behaviourists would argue abnormal behaviour also occurs as a result of these processes; a person can be classically conditioned to associate a fear w/ a particular stimulus such as spiders. As a result the person avoids the stimulus which makes them feel better consequently reinforcing their fear.
• A behaviourist would argue that SD is an appropriate therapy as it aims to help the person re-learn a more functional response instead to the stimulus. Incorporating the principle of classical conditioning, SD aims to gradually + systematically break down the faulty association replacing it w/ a more functional response known as counter conditioning.
• As the person moves through the desensitisation hierarchy they feel more relaxed + rewarded w/ each stage completed. This +ve reinforcement encourages them to continue from least to most feared phobic scenario. Hopefully providing them w/ a more normal behavioural response.

Question 2

What are the main components of SD?

Answer 2

• The aim of mastering the relaxation technique is that it will allow the client to establish a new stimulus-response link to the phobic object. This is the process of changing the association made w/ the stimulus from fear to relaxation, this is based on the principles of classical conditioning.
• Over time the client will move from responding w/ fear to a more relaxed response in the presence of the once feared object. This process is known as counter conditioning because it teaches the client a new association which runs in place of the original -ve association. Wolpe also called this reciprocal inhibition because the relaxation inhibits the anxiety.
• The client constructs a desensitisation hierarchy which is a series of levels starting w/ the least feared scenario working towards the most feared scenario. Each level is a little more anxiety provoking than the one previously. The process of working their way through each stage successfully is a rewarding one + this is where the principles of operant conditioning apply.
• In the past the more popular way of moving through this process was in vivo desensitisation where the client had to confront their fear directly. More recently clients are asked to perform the process in vitro desensitisation where they were asked to imagine the phobia.
• Modelling has also been incorporated, whereby the client watches someone who is coping well w/ the feared stimulus (Comer 2002).

Question 3

When is SD complete?

Answer 3

It is only complete when when the principles of C.C. have been successfully applied + the client reaches the top of their anxiety hierarchy.
- The client no longer associates fear w/ the stimulus. Instead they have been counter conditioned to associate a calm + relaxed response in the presence of the stimulus.