Exposure therapies can be combined with other psychological interventions, such as relaxation training and cognitive restructuring. Patients can continue to apply these skills on their own, without the aid of a therapist. Graded in vivo exposure is particularly important because it involves teaching patients skills for overcoming their fears. For patients who are extremely phobic, the least demanding form of exposure (systematic de-sensitization) is typically the exposure intervention to be used first. Of the exposure therapies, graded in vivo exposure and flooding are among the most effective treatments of phobias, and play an important role in treating disorders in which fear plays a prominent role (e.g., social phobia, agoraphobia). Exposure therapies can successfully reduce conditioned fears and fears arising from other forms of learning. Patients play an active role in choosing what they will be exposed to, and when the exposure will occur. Exposure involves having the person repeatedly exposure himself or herself to a feared stimulus until fear abates. According to contemporary views, extinction of the CR can be regarded as a process of exposure to corrective information. Classical conditioning theories have led to a number of important treatments, with the most widely used being the exposure therapies for reducing fear. As theories of fear have developed, other pathways to fear acquisition have been added, although classical conditioning continues to be seen as important. Modern conditioning models emphasize the role of cognitive factors such as memory processes and expectancies in the etiology and maintenance of conditioned responses.
SummaryĬlassical conditioning theories have become considerably more complex since the early formulations by O. Steven Taylor, in Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy, 2002 VI.
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