4.2.3 Behavioural Treatments of Phobias

Flooding:

Directly exposing a patient to their phobia.

At first, the person is in a state of extreme anxiety. However, as fear is a time-limited response, eventually exhaustion sets in and anxiety levels begin to decrease.

The patient has no choice but to confront their fear, when the panic subsides and they know no harm has been caused to them, the fear is extinguished.

Eventually, a new association is formed between the feared object and relaxation. It also prevents reinforcement of the phobia through avoidance behaviours.

Evaluation:

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Flooding is a cost-effective treatment, and much quicker than alternatives such as CBT. This is because the patient's phobia will typically be cured in one session, helping to quickly free the patient from their phobia. This is a strength as it means it is a practical method of treating phobias

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The treatment can be traumatic for patients. This is because participants are likely to experience distress during the treatment as they are unable to avoid the phobic stimulus, and may also experience distress after the treatment, especially if they had a bad experience, which could worsen their phobia. This is a weakness as it suggests flooding is an unethical form of therapy that can potentially result in participants leaving the treatment with a worse phobia than they had to begin with

Systematic desensitisation:

Gradually using counter-conditioning to remove the fear response of a phobia and substitute a relaxation response,

First, the patient is taught relaxation techniques and breathing exercises.

Secondly, the patient creates a fear hierarchy, starting with stimuli that create the least anxiety and building up to the most fear-provoking situation

Thirdly, The patient works their way up the fear hierarchy, starting at the least unpleasant stimuli and practising their relaxation techniques, when they feel comfortable with this they move on to the next stage.

If the client becomes upset they can return to an earlier stage and regain their relaxed state

Evaluation:

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Provides gradual exposure to the phobic stimulus. As a result, participants are likely to experience less distress than they would with other treatments such as flooding, especially since they are able to turn back to an earlier stage of their fear hierarchy if they are struggling. This may mean that patients are more likely to agree to start and continue with therapy, helping them to cure their phobia. Therefore, it can be argued that systematic desensitisation is a more ethical treatment than flooding, which may also mean it has lower refusal rates.

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Less effective for complex phobias. For instance, systematic desensitisation may not work on social phobias and agoraphobias as they involve both anxiety and unpleasant thoughts about a situation, though systematic desensitisation doesn't tackle the cognitive aspect of the phobia. This is a weakness, as it suggests that alternatives such as cognitive behavioural therapy may be more effective for some phobias

Behavioural Treatments of Phobias Simplified Revision Notes for A-Level OCR Psychology

4.2.3 Behavioural Treatments of Phobias

Flooding:

Evaluation:

Systematic desensitisation:

Evaluation:

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