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Systematic Desensitisation

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

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Systematic Desensitisation

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  1. Systematic Desensitisation

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. Conditioning of a Phobia • Before conditioning UCS UCR (being attacked) (Fear) NS No Response (dog)

  7. Conditioning of a Phobia • During conditioning UCS NS UCR (being attacked ) (dog) (fear and pain) • After conditioning CS CR (dog) (fear)

  8. 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

  9. 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.

  10. Systematic Desensitisation • What is reciprocal inhibition? • We can not feel fear and relaxation at the same time, as the two emotions are not compatible.

  11. Systematic Desensitisation • Read the description of the process of SD

  12. How does it work?

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. Your turn • In pairs, come up with a hierarchy of fear for any phobia • In vivo or in vitro?

  16. Findings from research pg. 23 • What did Capafons et al (1998) find? • What did Klein et al (1983) find?

  17. 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.

  18. 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

  19. A strange phobia • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-FGE7QELQ • How would you help this woman?

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