Discuss the use of one or more psychological treatments of abnormality (12 marks)

Systematic desensitisation to tackle phobias is based on an idea invented by Joseph Wolpe (1958). There are three main stages involved in this theory. The first stage involves teaching the client relaxation techniques. The second stage involves creating a fear hierarchy of scenarios which would cause the client anxiety, starting with the scenarios which would cause the least anxiety and working up to those which would cause the most anxiety. The third and final stage requires the patient to start at the bottom of the fear hierarchy, working their way up to the top and imagine each scenario whilst practicing the relaxation techniques learnt in stage one. Often, for clients with phobias, imagining a scenario can be just as frightening as actually experiencing it. This technique will help them to overcome their fears and eventually, they will master the feared situation that caused them to seek help in the first place.

Systematic desensitisation addresses the actual phobia and not just it’s symptoms. This helps the client to overcome the phobia and conquer their fears, not just learn how to deal with them. Through doing so, it encourages the client to take control of the situation and in teaching them relaxation techniques, helps them to practice self improvement. Furthermore, SD has proven very effective in overcoming phobias. Barlow 2002 showed that it was 60% effective in treating arachnophobia and 90% effective in treating blood phobias.

However, Choy (2007) suggested that flooding can often be a more effective way of overcoming phobias than systematic desensitisation. Furthermore, the SD treatment makes no attempt to address deeper psychological issues i.e. where the fear comes from. By ignoring the root causes of the phobia and simply addressing the phobia itself, the client risks redeveloping the phobia. In addition to this, it is claimed that SD is only relevant to anxiety disorders and cannot be used to address other types of abnormalities, limiting its overall effectiveness as a treatment for abnormality.