During a psychotherapy session, when a client is being treated with behaviour therapy and is taught to practice relaxation while imagining an anxiety-provoking situation, identify that which of the following technique is being used?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Systematic Desensitization
Option (1) Modelling — Incorrect. In modelling the client learns a behaviour by observing a role model, often the therapist, and small changes towards the model’s behaviour are rewarded. Nobody is being watched or copied in this session, so it is not modelling.
Option (2) Systematic Desensitization — Correct. Wolpe introduced this technique for phobias or irrational fears. The therapist and the client prepare a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations; the therapist relaxes the client and asks her/him to imagine the least frightening situation while staying relaxed, and over the sessions moves up to more severe ones. Relaxation and the anxious scene cannot exist together, so the anxiety is overcome. Practising relaxation while imagining an anxiety-provoking situation is this very procedure.
Option (3) Positive Reinforcement — Incorrect. Positive reinforcement gives a pleasant consequence after a wanted behaviour so that it occurs more often, as when a mother cooks the child’s favourite dish whenever homework is done on time. The session described rewards nothing; it pairs relaxation with an imagined fear.
Option (4) Token Economy — Incorrect. In a token economy a person gets a token every time a wanted behaviour occurs, and the tokens are later exchanged for a reward such as an outing. No tokens or rewards are used here.
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.…” “…Modelling is the procedure wherein the client learns to behave in a certain way by observing the behaviour of a role model or the therapist who initially acts as the role model. Vicarious lear ning, i.e. lear ning by observing others, is used and through a process of rewarding small changes in the behaviour, the client gradually learns to acquire the behaviour of the model.…” |