The Behavioural Approach to Treating Phobias

Systematic Desensitisation: A behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, such as anxiety. SD involves drawing up an anxiety hierarchy related to a person’s phobic stimulus, teaching the person to relax then exposing them to the phobic stimulus. The person works their way through the hierarchy whilst maintaining relaxation.

Counterconditioning: The learning of a different response to a phobic stimulus

Reciprocal Inhibition: The theory that you cannot be afraid and relaxed at the same time so relaxing when exposed to the phobic stimulus will prevent the anxiety.

Evidence of Effectiveness: Gilroy et al (2003) followed 42 people who had SD for arachnophobia in three 45 minutes sessions. At both 3 and 33 months, the SD group were less fearful than a control group treated by relaxation without exposure.

People with Learning Difficulties: Some people that require treatment for phobias also have learning difficulties and so may struggle with cognitive therapies that require complex rational thought or feel confused and distressed by flooding. This makes SD the most suitable treatment.

Flooding: A behavioural therapy in which a person with a phobia is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus. This takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions.

Extinction: When a patient doesn’t escape their phobic stimulus and learn that it is harmless.

Cost-Effective: Flooding can work in as little as one session as opposed to ten sessions for SD to achieve the same result, making it more cost effective. This means more people can be treated at the same cost with flooding than other therapies

Traumatic: Schumacher et al (2015) found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD which raises ethical issues for psychologists of knowingly causing stress to their clients. It also means attrition (dropout) rates are higher in flooding than in SD.