Implosive, eclectic verbal and bibliotherapy in the treatment of fears of snakes

Self‐help and minimal‐contact therapies for anxiety disorders: Is human contact necessary for therapeutic efficacy?

“…Similarly, SA desensitization (via audio tape and booklet) reduced phobic anxiety to the same extent as a PSH and an MC format (Clark, 1973). Further, computerized vicarious exposure (i.e., guiding an on-screen figure to encounter feared stimuli) was as effective as MC therapist-led exposure to pictures of the feared object (Gilroy et al, 2000), and educational reading about snakes was as effective as MC therapist-delivered snake education (Hogan & Kirchner, 1968). Moreover, in one study SA desensitization fared better at the two-month follow-up than the standard-length, therapist-administered version, and MC desensitization (Rosen et al, 1976).…”

“…SA trials have treated phobias of snakes Clark, 1973; Self-Help and Minimal-Contact Therapies for Anxiety 253 Cotler, 1970;Girodo & Henry, 1976;Hogan & Kirchner, 1968;Rosen, Glasgow, & Barrera, 1976) and spiders (Gilroy, Kirkby, Daniels, Menzies, & Montgomery, 2000;Hellstrom & Öst, 1995;Öst, Salkovskis, & Hellstrom, 1991;Öst, Stridh, & Wolf, 1998;Smith, Kirkby, Montgomery, & Daniels, 1997) and have ranged from self-administration solely at home (e.g., Rosen et al, 1976) to self-administration wholly in lab settings without therapist aid (e.g., Clark, 1973;Cotler, 1970;Gilroy et al, 2000;Hogan & Kirchner, 1968;Smith et al, 1997). Further, these studies all employed exposure-based interventions, though some combined exposure with relaxation (Baker, Cohen, & Saunders, 1973;Clark, 1973;Cotler, 1970;Lang, Malamed, & Hart, 1970;Phillips, Johnson, & Geyer, 1972;Rosen et al, 1976;Rosen, Glasgow, & Barrera, 1977), muscle tension techniques (Hellstrom, Fellenius, & Öst, 1996), or cognitive therapy (de Jongh, Muris, ter, Horst, & van Zuuren, 1995).…”

“…For example, of the four studies that found SA equivalent to therapist-directed therapy, three of them conducted the SA interventions in a lab (Clark, 1973;Gilroy et al, 2000;Hogan & Kirchner, 1968), requiring clients to make appointments with people to whom they were accountable and to self-administer treatments in an imposed setting. This is important given that the only study that compared clinic to home self-administration found substantial differences in the percentage of clients who were clinically changed, based solely on the location of the self-exposure (i.e., 63% of clinic self-exposure clients vs. 10% of home self-exposure clients) (Hellstrom & Öst, 1995).…”

Theoretical Implications of Imagery and Fantasy Techniques

“…Breger and McGaugh (1965) have suggested some telling criticisms of the theoretical underpinnings of the so-called learning or conditioning methods and have proposed that some cognitive or conscious factors may also account for some of the undoubtedly good results. Images and fantasies are not static; during the ten or fifteen seconds a patient may be trying to sustain an image of a frightening scene, he may also think 'Behavior therapy usually involves some form, singly or in combination, of desensitization (Lazarus, 1960;Paul, 1967;Wolpe, 1958;Garfield, McBrearty, and Dichter, 1969), aversive conditioning (Marks and Gelder, 1967;McGuire, Carlisle, and Young, 1965), implosion (Hogan and Kirchner, 1968;Stampfl and Leavis, 1970) or symbolic modelling (Homme, 1965).…”

Review of Flooding Procedures (Implosion) in Animals and Man

“…Another study by Hogan and Kirchner (1968) compared the therapeutic effects of implosion, eclectic verbal, and bibliotherapy in reducing snake-phobic behavior. Thirty female Ss were divided into 10 Ss per group.…”