Which of the following is considered to be the most suitable therapy for the treatment of phobia?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Systematic Desensitisation
Option (1) Token economy — Incorrect. A token economy rewards a wanted behaviour with tokens that are exchanged later for a treat. It builds behaviours that occur too rarely; it does not reduce fear.
Option (2) Negative Reinforcement — Incorrect. Negative reinforcement strengthens a response that lets a person escape or avoid a painful stimulus. Escaping and avoiding is what keeps a phobia going, so it cannot cure one.
Option (3) Systematic Desensitisation — Correct. Wolpe introduced it for treating phobias or irrational fears. With a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations, the relaxed client imagines them one by one from the least to the most frightening, and relaxation overcomes the anxiety step by step.
Option (4) Aversive Conditioning — Incorrect. Aversive conditioning pairs an undesired response with an unpleasant consequence, as with alcohol and a mild shock, to make the person give the behaviour up. A phobic person already avoids the feared object; adding more unpleasantness would only increase the fear.
NCERT (2025-26): “Behavioural Techniques … You read about phobias or irrational fears in the previous chapter. Systematic desensitisation is a technique introduced by Wolpe for treating phobias or irrational fears. The client is interviewed to elicit fear provoking situations and together with the client, the therapist prepares a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli with the least anxiety-provoking stimuli at the bottom of the hierarchy. The therapist relaxes the client and asks the client to think about the least anxietyprovoking situation. … The client is asked to stop thinking of the fearful situation if the slightest tension is felt. Over sessions, the client is able to imagine more severe fear -provoking situations while maintaining the relaxation.…” |