What is the aim of treating phobias?
To extinguish the conditioned association between the situation/object and fear
What are the two ways to treating phobias?
Systematic desensitisation and flooding
Who developed systematic desensitisation?
Wolpe
What is systematic desensitisation?
It is based on classical conditioning with patients learning in stages to replace fear responses with feelings of clam rather than fear. It is a progressive, step by step approach and takes about a month to advance through the entire desensitisation hierarchy
What are the three stages of systematic desensitisation?
- The client is taught relaxation techniques
- A hierarchy is developed that goes from the least fearful situation to the most
- The patient works through each step in the hierarchy whilst reminding relaxed
What is an example of systematic desensitisation?
If someone has a phobia of snakes start off by looking at a picture of a snake and then progressively working through to actually holding one
What is flooding?
Exposing the client to their most feared object without any build up. It involves a sudden exposure. This shows the client that there is no basic for their fear. It is only used in the last resort as the client can be extremely distressed
What did Marks find about flooding?
Found that people with specific phobias can lose their fear after only three sessions
What is an example of flooding?
Someone with a fear of heights would be taken to the top of a high building and encouraged to stay there
What are three strengths of the behavioural approach to treating phobias?
- For some individuals behavioural therapies work week as systematic desensitisation can be extremely effective in the treatment of simple phobias. Barlow et al reported success rates of between 60 and 90%
- There is patient responsibility as the client chooses the stages and can move onto the next stage when they feel. Therefore the client feels in control
- Wolpe used flooding to remove a girls phobia of being in cars. The girl was forced into a car and driven around for four house until her hysteria was eradicated demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment
What are three limitations of the behavioural approach explaining phobias?
- There are ethical issues with flooding as the client is subjected to extreme fear and distress
- Flooding is not suitable for patients who are not in good physical health as it can be very stressful on the body
- There is no attempt to address any deeper underlying psychological or emotional issues as the therapies focus on the symptoms rather than the cause of behaviour
