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. Box 5.2 gives details of relaxation procedures. 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.…” |