Treatment for Phobias  Posted on Saturday, August 15, 2009 - 0
comments -  Simple or specific phobias have been quite
effectively treated with behavior therapy (Marks, 1987). The
behaviorists involved in classical conditioning techniques
believe that the response of phobic fear is a reflex acquired to
non-dangerous stimuli. The normal fear to a dangerous stimulus,
such as a poisonous snake, has unfortunately been generalized
over to non-poisonous ones as well. If the person were to be
exposed to the non-dangerous stimulus time after time without
any harm being experienced, the phobic response would gradually
extinguish itself. Also, this assumes that the person does not
also experience the dangerous stimulus during that same extended
period of time. In other words, one would have to come across
ONLY non-poisonous snakes for a prolonged period of time for
such extinction to occur. This is not likely to occur naturally,
so behavior therapy sets up phobic treatment involving exposure
to the phobic stimulus in a