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Treating Phobias - Coggle Diagram
Treating Phobias
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Evaluation
SD is mainly suitable for patients who are able to learn and use relaxation strategies and who have imaginations vivid enough to conjure up images of feared objects/situations
Although patients can gradually confront phobias in an imaginary sense theres no guarantee this will work with actual objects/situations , suggesting in vivo treatment to be superior to covert desensitisation
Behaviourist treatments work best in treating simple phobias but are less effective with agoraphobia and social phobias , which suggests these types of phobia may not be best explained through behaviourist means
There are ethical considerations with both SD and flooding as they can both be psychologically harmful , though cost-benefit analysis may regard long term benefits of eradicating the phobia as outweighing the short term distress
Flooding is not suitable for patients who are not in good physical health , as the extreme anxiety levels caused by confrontations with feared objects/situations , although short lived , can be very stressful on the body , incurring risks of heart attacks etc
Research
Jones (1924) used SD to eradicate 'Little Peters' phobia of white fluffy animals and objects , for example rabbits and cotton wool . The rabbit was presented to the patient at closer distances each time his anxiety levels subsided to permit movement onto the next stage and peter was rewarded with food to develop a positive association towards the rabbit . Eventually he developed affection for the rabbit , which generalised onto similar animals and objects
Wolpe (1960) used flooding to remove a girls phobia of being in cars . The girl was forced into a car and driven around for four hours until her hysteria was eradicated , demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment
Barlow ( 2002 ) reports that flooding has been shown to be equally as effective in treating phobias as SD , but SD is preferred , as it is better tolerated by most patients
Solter (2007) reported on a case study of a 5 month old baby who showed signs of traumatic stress after a 3 day hospital stay for surgery to correct the shape of his head . Flooding was used , whereby the child was allowed to have a full blown emotional response during several treatment sessions . The outcome was positive , with the disappearance of some symptoms of traumatic stress disorder after the first week , and no remaining symptoms after 2 months . Follow up evaluations for 1 year revealed normal development with no return of symptoms . This suggests flooding is an effective therapy and can be used on very young children
Flooding
Another behaviourist treatment is flooding (also known as implosion) , where instead of a step by step approach patients go straight to the top of the hierarchy and imagine , or have direct contact with , their most feared scenarios
The idea is that patients cannot make their usual avoidance responses and anxiety peaks at such high levels it cannot be maintained and eventually subsides
If phobias are maladaptive behaviours acquired by learning , it should be possible to replace them with adaptive behaviours acquired through treatments using conditioning techniques based on behaviourist principles
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