Psycholosy (Counterconditioning theory) - Essay Example

For example, a psychologist named Ivan Pavolov conducted a famous psychological experiment on dogs. He conditioned dogs to understand that when a bell was rang (the stimulus), the dogs began to salivate in reaction to learning that the bell meant food. This was an extremely important part of understanding classical conditioning. Phobias are an irrational fear of an object or setting. Often, this will cause shock with a person in that they are completely unable to function with the phobia present.

One of the ways in which therapists work to help clients overcome their phobia is using behavioral therapy. One of the techniques, which are used, is the exposure technique. The basis behind exposure technique is for the therapist to expose the client to the phobia in which they are experienced in a controlled setting. This is often done in a systematic routine starting with a low threat stimulus working up to complete exposure. For example, if a therapist was working with a client who had a fear of flying in airplanes, they might start by showing a video of an airplane flying.

Next, they would try a flight simulator. These cognitive restructuring steps would build upon one another resulting in the final step of actually riding on an airplane. While this is similar to flooding technique that starts at the extreme of the phobia where exposure technique is done in increments. . de Jong, Jasper A.J. Smits Affiliation Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University Source Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Vol 42(1), Mar, 2011. pp. 117-121. ISSN 0005-7916 Descriptors *Disgust; *Exposure Therapy; *Fear; *Phobias; Arachnida Abstract The present study examines the relative contributions of changes in state fear and disgust emotions to improvements in spider phobia observed with exposure-based treatment.

Sixty-one treatment-seeking spider fearful individuals underwent a one-session exposure in vivo treatment. Growth curve analyses indicated that treatment was associated with significant improvements in state fear and disgust reactions to a live spider and self-reported trait spider phobia symptoms. Mediation analyses demonstrated that changes over time in state fear and disgust each explained unique variance in improvements in phobic symptoms over time. Examination of the effect size of the mediated pathways suggests that changes in fear and changes in disgust are important to reductions in the severity of spider phobia symptoms during exposure-based treatment.

The implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of fear and disgust emotions in the maintenance and treatment of spider phobia are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) Methodology Empirical Study; Interview; Quantitative Study Electronic; Print Electronic Journal; Peer Reviewed Journal Journal Article Accepted Date: Jul 29, 2010; Revised Date: Jul 27, 2010; First Submitted Date: Apr 20, 2010 20110117All rights reserved.. Elsevier Ltd.. 2010. 10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.07.

007 In this study, there was an experiment run in order to see whether exposure therapy worked on treating arachnophobia. They had a sample size of