In this paper I will cover many topics that are associated with the word phobia. I will describe the meaning of the word phobia, and explain how a phobia is actually a disease. I will also cover the many techniques used in phobia treatment. The specific treatments that are included in this paper are contingency management, modeling, self-control, one-session treatments, desensitization, fears based on wrong beliefs, intense fear exposure or flooding, and group therapy. I will break down contingency management into separate categories. The specific categories of contingency management are positive reinforcement, shaping, extinction, and stimulus fading. I will characterize each of the phobia treatments described above and explain how each proves to be a successful way to treat phobias. I will also illustrate how one can overcome their fears and carry on a normal life with the proper treatments.

What You Can Change; The Treatments for Phobias

Imagine a football player, known for his pure brutality on the field, running to the locker room when a mouse scurries across his feet during a game, a professional stuntman who willingly risks his life everyday fo

In conclusion, I have covered many topics that are associated with phobias. I described the basic meaning of a phobia, and explained how a phobia is a disease. I also covered the many techniques in phobia treatment. The specific treatments included in this paper were contingency management, modeling, self-control, one-session treatments, desensitization, fears based on wrong beliefs, intense fear exposure (flooding), and group therapy. All of these treatments are successful ways to treat phobias. With the right treatment, one can overcome their fears and carry on a normal life. The question at the beginning of this paper asked, “What can we change about our life?” If one uses the treatments that I covered, one can overcome their phobia and change their life.

According to studies performed by Richard J. Morris and Thomas R. Kratochwill, the behavioral approach works the best for childhood phobia treatment (1983). Morris and Kratochwill also concluded that the behavioral approach uses the treatments of contingency management, modeling, and self-control. Contingency management is the systematic use of positive reinforcement, shaping, extinction, and stimulus fading. Positive reinforcement is typically defined as an event or activity that immediately follows a behavior and results in an increase in the frequency of performance of that behavior (Morris & Kratochwill, 1983). A simple example of positive reinforcement would be a mothers praise for good grades on a report card. Shaping is the process of teaching a person the desired behavior in successive steps with each step gradually approximating the desired target behavior. Stimulus fading involves teaching the child to perform the non-fearful response in a different setting. This process is accomplished by gradually shifting the characteristics of the setting. This process is quite complex and uses graded steps. Morris and Kratochwill use the example of a six-year-old girl who had a complete absence of speech in kindergarten (1983). Therapists worked with her one-on-one in a separate classroom. After several sessions she began to speak and she was moved to a new classroom. These successive sessions went on for as long as they were needed until the child finally entered the kindergarten room and engaged in conversations. In their 1983 study, Morris and Kratochwill stated that extinction refers to the removal of those reinforcing consequences, which follow a child’s avoidance response. Typically children with a fear or phobia receive certain reinforcements when they exhibit fears or fear related responses. It is possible to reduce this behavior by making sure the child is not reinforced when they exhibit their phobia or fears. A child’s natural reaction to fear is often times their parent’s attention. If the therapy focuses on removing parental attention during a child’s phobia response, the child will soon realize that they will not receive reinforcement for their fear (Morris & Kratochwill, 1983).

1. Take a deep breath and hold it (for about 10 seconds).

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