Compare And Contrast The Five Psychological Perspectives

Emily Darby
Psychology 102
September 24, 2012

Contrasting Perspectives on the Treatment of Fears:

1. Psychologists consider a phobia to be an irrational fear, meaning it is a fear reaction that is out of proportion to the reality of the danger. This differentiates itself from a normal fear reaction because the apprehension felt towards something alarming is to a real danger.

2. According to the Freudian concept of psychoanalysis, phobias are believed to originate from childhood traumas. This perspective also supports the idea that phobias may be replacing other hidden fear or anger that the individual is reluctant to face. Fortunately, these anxieties can be treated. Such techniques in which to do so include those from the
perspective of Freudian or psychoanalytic theorists. Ways that psychoanalyst’s attempted to aid sufferers of phobias included in the following. Firstly, they would help an individual to gain awareness into unconscious feelings. Consequently this would release the hidden emotion, therefore ridding them of their irrational fear in the process. Although, techniques such as this were proven unsuccessful in freeing individuals of phobias. It was discovered that even when the primary unconscious causes were found, the phobia still continued to trigger anxiety.

3.
Of the five psychological viewpoints this psychoanalytic approach is consistent with that of the psychodynamic perspective. This perspective, as well as the psychoanalytic approach, argues that our behavior is a result of the unconscious mind and childhood experiences.

4. Another method of treatment Joseph Wolpe has refined since it was first suggested is, the systematic desensitization behavioral technique. This behavioral tactic is considerably different from the psychoanalytic view. This is because it is not focused on the unconscious causes of the problem or on the inhibited troubles. Instead, it concentrated on the idea that since you have learned this unproductive behavior, being the phobia, you must now unlearn it.

5. The psychological perspective in which Wolpe’s method of treatment is consistent with is, the behaviorist perspective. This perspective and Wolpe’s approach are both concerned with how environmental factors affect apparent behavior and use conditioning as a
treatment.

6. The reasoning behind the use of deep relaxation as an anxiety-inhibiting response is as follows. Wolpe’s theory stated that you couldn’t experience both deep physical relaxation and fear at the same time. As a behaviorist Wolpe’s reason for having a phobia was because you learnt it at some point in your life through the practice of classical conditioning. Meaning that in that individual’s lifetime the object or experience they have developed a phobia over had been associated in the brain with extreme fear. So in order to treat that phobia the person must experience deep relaxation, since it is inhibitory to fear or anxiety.

7. If Wolpe were to treat me for a phobic fear of going to the doctor’s office for medical treatment, the three stages I would go through in treatment would involve the following.
Firstly, I would have several sessions focusing less on my actual phobia and more on the process of how to relax my body.
Wolpe would then introduce me to a form of progressive muscle relaxation that involves the tensing and relaxing of different muscle groups. These muscle groups can include that of the arms, hands, face, back, stomach, legs and so on. If I can come for this treatment earlier, hypnosis would have also been used on me. Although, since in most cases hypnosis has been shown to be unnecessary when obtaining full relaxation, this was not required. I would participate in the practice of this relaxation ritual until I could place myself into this state whenever I
desired.

The second stage of therapy is the construction of an Anxiety Hierarchy. This is basically a list of anxiety-producing situations or scenes involving my phobia that he and I would develop together. The list would start with a situation concerning my phobia that I felt only vaguely uncomfortable with and would progress through increasingly terrifying events, until reaching the most anxiety-producing event imaginable. The following is an example of my Anxiety Hierarchy is my phobia was “latrophobia”, which is the irrational fear of visiting the doctor’s office for medical treatment.

1. Talking to someone about his or her doctor’s visit. 2. Watching a television show that involves medical treatment. 3. Walking past my doctor’s office. 4. Calling and making an appointment to see the doctor. 5. Visiting the doctor’s office with a friend or family member and watching them have a medical procedure done on them. 6. Visiting the doctor to receive medical treatment.

The third and final stage is the actual “unlearning” of my phobia. This process is called desensitization. Wolpe would assure me that no direct contact with my fear would be made in order to desensitize my phobia. This is because the same outcome can be achieved from the use of descriptions and visualizations. Wolpe and I would proceed with the treatment by going step by step through my Anxiety Hierarchy. If I were to become anxious at any point of this treatment all I would have to do is raise my index finger to make him aware of my anxiety. We would then begin again with descriptions from an area further down my list until I have maintained my relaxed state. This process would continue like this until I am able to remain relaxed through out the entire hierarchy. Since the average number of sessions needed to successfully treat phobias is 12, I would need to return to Wolpe and repeat this process. I would do so until I felt no anxiety towards my fear of going to the doctor’s and receiving medical treatment.

8. Psychoanalytic therapists have criticized Wolpe’s approach. This was due to the fact that in the 1950’s when this was taking place, psychoanalysis was still an extremely common and accepted form of psychotherapy. The result of Wolpe’s behavior therapies caused controversy as it became more mainstream in clinical psychology.
A psychoanalytic therapist would believe the root of an individual’s fear of the doctor’s office is because there is an underlying cause of the phobia. They may even believe that it is the result of a frightening childhood experience that the individual does not want to face. A psychoanalytic therapist would believe the root of an individual’s fear of the doctor’s office is because there is an underlying cause of the phobia. They may even believe that it is the result of a frightening childhood experience that the individual does not want to face.

9. Wolpe’s work is an example of applied research. This reason for this is that he was not the first person to suggest the use of the systematic desensitization behavioral technique. Although, Wolpe is recognized as refining this method and applying it to the treatment of anxiety disorders. Therefore, this technique of Wolpe’s would be considered to be applied research as he has built upon existing basic research.