Systematic desensitisation- evaluations

Strength- is it’s evidence basis

Odgers et al carried out a meta analysis of studies into the effectiveness of exposure therapies including systematic desensitisation, for treating specific phobias

Exposure in general was found to be very effective, with no differences in effectiveness for different kinds of exposure (delivered in a single session or multiple sessions)

This means that systematic desensitisation is likely to be helpful for people with phobias

Limitation- it is less effective for people with particular cognitive characteristics

A systematic review by Bohnlein et al looked at 111 studies of exposure therapies and found evidence to show that exposure is less effective for certain groups of people such as people with low self efficacy and people with high trait anxiety

This means that the exposure part of systematic desensitisation may not work

Limitation- there is doubt whether clinical psychologists should use VR for exposure

Traditional SD involves exposure to the phobic stimulus in a real world setting

However, there are advantages to conducting the exposure part of SD in virtual reality (VR)

Exposure through VR can be used to avoid dangerous situations e.g. height and is cost effective because the psychologist and client need not leave the consulting room

On the other hand there is some evidence to suggest that VR exposure may be less effective than real exposure for social phobias because it lacks realism

This means that the findings lack ecological validity, as clients may respond differently to virtual social situations than they would in real life, limiting the effectiveness of VR based SD

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