One Session of Flooding as Treatment for Conditioned Avoidance Responding in Humans: Effect of Individualization of Treatment Duration

Abstract

An avoidance response was conditioned to three stimuli (tone, vibrator, and light) presented in serial order. Following conditioning, each group of subjects underwent a different treatment procedure. Group 1 received a completely individualized flooding procedure distributed over multiple trials. Duration of the conditioned stimulus presentations was individualized by making them contingent upon termination of conditioned suppression, and duration of the treatment session by termination of conditioned avoidance. The Group 2 flooding procedure was completely non-individualized, massed into one trial and yoked to Group 1 to control for the amount of exposure to each of the conditioned stimuli and the duration of treatment sessions. Group 3 experienced non-individualized duration of treatment, individualized conditioned stimulus presentations distributed over trials and controlled for the duration of the treatment session and the distribution of trials. Analysis indicated that individualized duration of the flooding session utilizing a measure of anxiety dissipation significantly hastened the extinction of avoidance responses. Implications for the effective practice of implosive therapy were discussed.

References

Adams

H. E.

Hughes

H. H.

Animal analogues of behavioral treatment procedures: a critical evaluation. In Herson

Eisler

R. M.

Miller

P. M.

(Eds.), Progress in behavior modification. Vol. 2. New York: Academic Press, 1976. Pp. 207–239.

Baum

Extinction of an avoidance response following response prevention. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1969, 1, 57–62.

Baum

Extinction of avoidance responding through response prevention (flooding). Psychological Bulletin, 1970, 74, 276–284.

Baum

Flooding (response prevention) in rats: the effects of immediate vs. delayed flooding and of changed illumination conditions during flooding. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 1972, 26, 190–200.

Borkovec

T. D.

Heart-rate process during systematic desensitization and implosive therapy for analog anxiety. Behavior Therapy, 1974, 5, 636–641.

Church

R. M.

Systematic effect of random error in the yoked control design. Psychological Bulletin, 1964, 62, 122–131.

Coulter

Riccio

Page

Effects of blocking an instrumental avoidance response: facilitated extinction but persistence of “fear.”

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1969, 68, 377–381.

Davis

Conditioned suppression: a survey of the literature. Psychonomic Monograph Supplements, 1968, 2, 283–291.

Hughes

H. H.

An investigation of the assumptions of implosive therapy and systematic desensitization using an animal analogue. Dissertation Abstracts International, 1971, 31, 4996–4997.

10.

Linton

Riccio

D. C.

Rohrbaugh

Page

H. A.

The effects of blocking an instrumental avoidance response: fear reduction or enhancement?

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1970, 8, 267–272.

11.

Marrazo

M. J.

Riccio

D. C.

Riley

Effects of Pavlovian conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus pairings during avoidance response-prevention trials in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1974, 86, 96–100.

12.

McCutcheon

B. A.

Adams

H. E.

The physiological basis of implosive therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1975, 13, 93–100.

13.

McNamara

J. R.

Systematic desensitization versus implosive therapy: issues in outcomes. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 1972, 9, 13–16.

14.

Miller

B. V.

Levis

D. J.

The effects of varying short visual exposure rime to a phobic test stimulus on subsequent avoidance behavior. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1971, 9, 17–21.

15.

Monti

P. M.

Smith

N. F.

Residual fear of the conditioned stimulus as a function of response prevention after avoidance or classical defensive conditioning in the rat. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1976, 105, 148–162.

16.

Morganstern

K. P.

Implosive therapy and flooding procedures: a critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 1973, 79, 318–334.

17.

Prochaska

J. O.

Symptom and dynamic cues in the implosive treatment of test anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1971, 77, 133–142.

18.

Rabavilas

A. D.

Boulougouris

J. C.

Stefanis

Duration of flooding sessions in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive patients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1976, 14, 349–355.

19.

Rachman

Studies in desensitization: II. Flooding. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1966, 4, 1–6.

20.

Rachman

Treatment by prolonged exposure to high intensity stimulation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1969, 7, 295–302.

21.

Rohrbaugh

Riccio

D. C.

Paradoxical enhancement of learned fear. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1970, 75, 210–216.

22.

Rohrbaugh

Riccio

D. C.

Arthur

Paradoxical enhancement of conditioned suppression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1972, 10, 125–130.

23.

Stampfl

T. G.

Levis

D. J.

Essentials of implosive therapy: a learning-theory-based psychodymanic behavioral therapy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1967, 72, 496–503.

24.

Staub

Duration of stimulus-exposure as determinant of the efficacy of flooding procedures in the elimination of fear. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1968, 6, 131–132.

25.

Watson

J. P.

Gaind

Marks

I. M.

Physiological habituation to continuous phobic stimulation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1972, 10, 269–278.

26.

Wolpin

Raines

Visual imagery, expected roles and extinction as possible factors in reducing fear and avoidance behavior. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1966, 4, 25–38.