Systematic Desensitisation is based on the principle of Classical Conditioning and uses Counterconditioning. Classical Conditioning explains how previously neutral stimuli (such as spiders, snakes or buttons) can provoke anxiety in some people because they have become associated with a different even that we naturally find distressing. Counterconditioning involves reducing the conditioned response (such as anxiety or fear) by establishing the incompatible response (relaxation) to the same conditioned stimulus (snake or button). The procedure involves working through an anxiety hierarchy, a series of gradual steps that are determined at the beginning of therapy when the patient and therapist work out a hierarchy of feared stimuli. In this hierarchy, the patient is taught how to relax their body completely, as a relaxed state is incompatible with anxiety.
This is done by forming a hierarchy of fear, involving the conditioned stimulus (e.g. a spider), that are ranked from least fearful to most fearful. The patient works their way up starting at the least unpleasant and practicing their relaxation technique as they go such as deep breathing and mild hypnosis. When they feel comfortable with this they move on to the next stage in the hierarchy. Systematic Desensitisation is a
The rhesus monkey experiment "nature of love" (1958), undertaken by Harry F. Harlow bolstered our understanding of the emotional bond between a baby and its mother. Harlow was able to distinguish between emotional attachment and the biological desire for food. Harlow had left behind an extraordinary legacy relating to the ethical implications which lead to deprived love at a young age, Hock (2013) depicts the inhumane treatment towards the infants needs and how the research that Harlow had produced could not be done on humans as it would harm their psychological and physical state, as it had already done to the infant monkeys. The experimental research deprived the infants of their original mother by replacing them with a cloth, although he only did these with the infant monkeys due to the ethical principles. Harlow had found that the infant monkeys as young as a day old, became very attached to the cloth pads used in the experiment, most for comfort and security.
Evaluate two psychological treatments for phobic disorders (16 marks). One of the psychological treatments for phobic disorders is behavioural therapy. Behavioural therapies aim to replace maladaptive behaviours with adaptive ones by using conditioning techniques. Systematic desensitisation (SD) is the main behaviourist treatment for phobias. It was developed by Wolpe (1958), SD is based on classical conditioning, with patients learning in stages to associate fear responses with feelings of calm, rather than previous associations between phobic objects, situations or fear.
Describe how the behaviourist approach has been applied to one therapy (12) Systematic desensitisation is a therapy developed by Wolpe (1958). Systematic desensitisation is based on the assumption of the role of the environment, which relates to how behaviour can be changed as well as thoughts, for example maladaptive thought processes can be changed to adaptive. Systematic desensitisation also uses generalisation as it is impossible for the therapist to account for every possible fearful situation, but relaxation responses learned in response to one set of stimuli, should be generalisable to other similar stimuli. Phobias come about through classical conditioning, but are maintained through operant conditioning. Feared stimuli are conditioned through therapy to be associated with relaxation.
In this perspective it clearly states that behaviour is learnt through experiences. For example phobias are learnt, they are learnt through bad experiences and fears which then leads to becoming a phobia. In the health sector, they would use the classical conditioning techniques which are used as behavioural therapy to remove appropriate methods of treatments and to treat anxiety disorders such as phobias, addictions and post-traumatic stress disorders. However even though the systematic desensitisation is effective for reducing phobias, it is not regarded as suitable for treating mental disorders like schizophrenia. The classical conditioning would say that if they would expose an individual to their fear then this would change their fear.
Two important learning theories proposed by the behaviourist approach are operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Classical conditioning you learn to associate two stimuli when they occur together, such that the response originally generated by one stimulus which is transferred to another. The person learns to produce an existing response to a new stimulus. For example, Little Albert (Watson & Rayner1920) was conditioned to respond with anxiety to the stimulus of a white rat. This was achieved by pairing the rat with a loud noise that already made Albert anxious.
Firstly there is exposure, and in this element, the patient is repeatedly presented with the feared stimulus until anxiety subsides, known as habituation. The exposures move gradually from least to most threatening in manner similar to systematic desensitization. However, If the pace is too slow, patients may lose motivation. The underlying principle of this explanation is that the anxieties persist due to negative reinforcement. ERP aims to break this cycle by forcing the patient to experience the stimulus and learn, through association and relaxation, that it no longer produces anxiety.
J., 2011). The behavioral perspective states it is through operant conditioning that a person gains dissociative disorder. The person lets their mind drift for a bit to relieve the stress and anxiety from a recent trauma. The person is reinforced with forgetting so it occurs more and sometimes severely later on. Treatments There are three major types of treatment that seem to be successful; psychodynamic therapy, drug therapy, and hypnotic therapy.
Very detailed as the clients walks though different levels of feelings that start at the most intense feeling about a phobia or disorder and once a specific belief is resolved, beleifs are resolved until the phobia or the anxiety disorder is resolved. The goal of systematic desensitization is to expose gradually clients to phobias until it is relieved. This process cannot be applied to all phobias as some phobias may have deep psychological attachment that may require another form of therapy. Aversive conditioning or avoidance avoid objects or situations that's not favorable. With conditioning an individual learn to respond based on a negative or positive response from a stimuli.