A phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of an object or situation, and is believed to be a learned response to a stimulus. (eg. Little Albert was made to develop a phobia through classical conditioning)
How a phobia can be developed through conditioning (using the example of a certain food making you sick):
Before conditioning
UCS (illness) → UCR (sick)
NS (food) → No response
During conditioning
UCS (illness) + NS (food) → UCR (sick)
CS (food) → CR (sick)
The aim of systematic desensitisation is to extinguish an undesirable behaviour (fear) by replacing it with a more desirable one (relaxation) - this is reciprocal inhibition, we cannot feel fear and relaxation at the same time.
The subject is first given training in deep muscle relaxation techniques, and then a hierarchy of fear is negotiated between the client and therapist (with most frightening stimulus at one end and least frightening at the other)
An example of a hierarchy of fear (for fear of dogs):
- Think about dogs
- See a picture of a dog
- Be in the same room as a dog
- Sit with a dog while it is held
- Sit next to it while it is loose
- Put a hand on the dog
- Stroke the dog
At each stage of this hierarchy, the subject is made to relax, and will only progress to the next stage once they feel that the fear of the previous stage is gone and they are sufficiently relaxed.
Wolpe claims that 80-90% of patients are cured/significantly improved after 25-30 sessions.
Lang and Lazovik (1963) found that the fear rating of snakes by college students fell between the beginning and the end of an 11-session period. Systematic desensitisation was found to be effect for the majority of the group, and the progress was still evident after 6 months.
Rothbaum et al (2000) found that for a fear of flying, after a virtual reality presentation of the anxiety hierarchy, 93% of people agreed to take a trial flight and their anxiety levels were lower than that of the control group - this improvement was also maintained after 6 months.
EVALUATION OF SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
Strengths:
- It is effective for phobias of animals or objects (as evidence suggests)
- The positive effects on phobias seem to last longer than other therapies
- It is less stressful that flooding or 'being thrown in at the deep end'
- The patient has a lot of control over the treatment, so it is considered an ethical therapy.
- It does not work for all phobias (eg. social phobias)
- It can be stressful
- It is not 100% effective and does not work for everyone
- All stages of the therapy may not be entirely necessary - exposure to the feared object may be enough to combat the phobia alone.
- It can be very time consuming and often expensive
- Some phobias are a result of unconscious/underlying issues and cannot be cured by systematic desensitisation.
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