SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION

Phobias What is a phobia?

An exaggerated fear of an object or situation

The fear is irrational – the fear of the thing is greater than the risk posed by the thing itself.

What do you think the 10 most common phobias are? Spiders Social Phobia

(afraid of being with people)

Flying Open spaces Small spaces

Heights Being

sick/vomiting Cancer Thunderstorms Death and dead

things

Phobias Does anyone have a phobia?

How do you think phobias could be learned?

Who did we learn about who was given a phobia? Little Albert

How a phobia could be learned According to behaviourists, phobias are learned,

just like any other behaviour

Fill in the gaps to show how a phobia could have been conditioned. Chose one of the following: John has a phobia of dogs. This is because he

was once attacked by a dog If you have a phobia yourself, explain how a

negative experience caused that phobia Make up a phobia, and explain how it came

about

Conditioning of a Phobia

Before conditioningUCS UCR(being attacked) (Fear)

NS No Response(dog)

Conditioning of a Phobia

During conditioningUCS NS UCR(being attacked ) (dog)

(fear and pain)

After conditioning CS CR(dog) (fear)

Systematic Desensitisation (SD) It was first developed by Wolpe

(1958) and is used in the treatment of phobias.

Phobias come about through classical conditioning, but are maintained through operant conditioning. People avoid what they are afraid of.

Less stressful than flooding

Systematic Desensitisation

AIM: This therapy aims to extinguish an undesirable behaviour fear by replacing it with a more desirable one: relaxation.

Link with the assumptions? The beh. approach assumes that all behaviour is learned from the environment. Therefore, we can unlearn conditioned responses by manipulating the environment.

Systematic Desensitisation What is reciprocal inhibition? We can not feel fear and relaxation

at the same time, as the two emotions are not compatible.

Systematic Desensitisation Read the description of the process

of SD

How does it work?

In Vitro or In Vivo? In vivo: direct experience

In vitro: using visualisation

TASK Name some phobias which you

would use in vivo and in vitro for.

Links to the assumptions… SD uses CC. Feared stimuli are

conditioned through therapy to be associated with relaxation. This will lead to extinction of the fear response

SD uses generalisation. It is impossible for the therapist to account for every possible fearful situation. Relaxation learned should be generalisable to other similar stimuli.

Your turn In pairs, come up with a hierarchy of

fear for any phobia

In vivo or in vitro?

Findings from research pg. 23

What did Capafons et al (1998) find?

What did Klein et al (1983) find?

Findings from research McGrath (1990) found that SD is

successful for a wide range of anxiety disorders, with 75% of patients with phobias responding to treatment.

Task Create a flyer for a clinic which treats

phobias with SD. Must contain the following information

The aim of the therapy and how it works The process of the therapy An example of the therapy in action Research evidence which supports it’s

effectiveness It must be written so that someone with

no knowledge of psychology could understand it

A strange phobia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-FGE7QELQ

How would you help this woman?