Systematic desensitization as a counterconditioning process.

Abstract

Systematic desensitization, demonstrated in both clinical and experimental studies to reduce avoidance behavior, entails the contiguous pairing of aversive imaginal stimuli with anxiety-competing relaxation. If, as is widely assumed, the efficacy of the procedure derives from a genuine counterconditioning process, a disruption of the pairing between graded aversive stimuli and relaxation should render the technique ineffective in modifying avoidance behavior. This hypothesis was strongly confirmed: significant reduction in avoidance behavior was observed only in densensitization Ss, with none occurring either in yoked Ss for whom relaxation was paired with irrelevant stimuli or in yoked Ss who were gradually exposed to the imaginal aversive stimuli without relaxation. Other theoretical issues were raised, especially the problem of transfer from imaginal to actual stimulus situations.Recent years have witnessed increasing application of the systematic desensitization procedure, as developed by Wolpe (1958), to the modification of a wide range of neurotic disorders. In this therapeutic method the client is deeply relaxed and then instructed to imagine scenes from a hierarchy of anxietyprovoking stimuli. Initially he is asked to imagine the weakest item in the list and, if relaxation is unimpaired, is gradually presented incremental degrees of aversive stimuli until eventually he is completely desensitized to the most upsetting scene in the anxiety hierarchy.In numerous publications, both Wolpe (e.g., 19S2, 1958) and other clinical workers (e.g.,

Heterosexual anxiety: Stable multichannel assessment for therapy outcome research

“…According to this strategy, one (control) group of fearful experimental participants is exposed to a theoretically ninert placebo "treatment," and any dependent-variable improvements resulting from the inert placebo are subtracted from global measures of treatment effects in order to yield pure or net measures of the effects from explicit behavioral procedures (cf. Borkovec, 1972;Davison, 1968;Marcia et al, 1969;McGlynn et al, t971;Paul, 1966). While Borkovec et al quite satisfactorily showed a subset of their measures of shyness to be unresponsive to simple, preassessment, experimental-demand instructions, they did not show these measures of shyness to be unresponsive to any of the elaborate, multisession placebo treatments that fear-therapy researchers might actually employ.…”

“…The procedure labeled "pseudotherapy" was a version of the relaxationplus-irrelevant-imagery placebo strategy that was popularized by Davison (1968) and used widely by behavioral investigators up to a few years ago. It is treated as a placebo here because it has not heretofore been shown to have demonstrable therapeutic impact and because it is not active theoretically.…”

Réduction de l’anxiété en laboratoire d’enseignement en éducation physique

“…En ce qui concerne les traitements portant sur l'anxiété sociale et les phobies, il semble que l'exposition à l'agent anxiogène constitue l'ingrédient principal responsable de la baisse d'anxiété (Lamontagne, 1973;Marks, 1978). Ainsi, un certain nombre d'études ont démontré qu'un traitement de désensibili-sation systématique, où le sujet se voit confronté à la situation anxiogène, pouvait entraîner une baisse du niveau d'anxiété (Davison, 1968;Garlington et Coder, 1968;Goldfried, 1971;Kanter et Goldfreid, 1979;Meichenbaum, Gilmore et Fedoravicius, 1971). Certains programmes de formation universitaire d'enseignants, comme c'est le cas pour la présente étude, sont structurés de façon à exposer graduellement et systématiquement les étudiants à des situations d'enseignement (laboratoires d'enseignement) entre pairs.…”

Effizienz psychologischer Verfahren zur Entbindungsvorbereitung

“…von der psychoprophylaktischen Vorbe reitungsmethode nach Leboyer [1974] -auch Verhaltenstherapeuten auf den Plan gerufen. Die Desensibilisierungstechnik [Wengle, 1974;Paul, 1966] gilt als bislang effektivste Möglichkeit zur Reduktion relativ um schriebener Ängste [Meyer und Chesser, 1971;Paul, 1968;Davison, 1968]. Diese Methode schliesst eine Reihe von Massnahmen ein, die darauf abzie len, «in der Therapiesituation Bedingungen herzustellen, unter denen der Patient mit bestimmten, für ihn angstauslösendcn Situationen oder Stimuli konfrontiert werden kann, ohne dass bei ihm nennenswerte Angstreaktio nen auftreten [Wengle.…”