systematic desensitisation

Question 1

who and when was this developed?

Answer 1

Wolpe 1958

Question 2

what else is this sometimes known as?

Answer 2

• graduated exposure therapy

Question 3

what is treatment based on ?

Answer 3

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.)

Question 4

what does it aim to do?

Answer 4

• enable patients to unlearn the conditioned response

Question 5

what is the assumption of modern desensitisation?

Answer 5

• 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. `

Question 6

what does the first step involve?

Answer 6

• learning deep muscle techniques that involve grouping muscles together and tensing and relaxing them
• patients may be asked to think about happy scenarios

Question 7

what does the second step involve?

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

why does Wolpe prefer to use imagination in certain cases?

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

what did Levin and Gross find?

Answer 9

• 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.

Question 10

what did Mcgrath find?

Answer 10

• that when dealing with specific phobia’s e.g. spiders 75% showed significant improvement

Question 11

what did Craske and Barlow find?

Answer 11

most clients often relapsed after the first 6 months.

Question 12

how is it ethical?

Answer 12

most ethical out of flooding and SD