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Does Stimulus Elaboration Potentiate Exposure in vivo Treatment? Two Forms of One-Session Treatment of Spider Phobia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Arnoud Arntz  and
Edith Lavy
Arnoud Arntz
Affiliation:
Limburg UniversityThe Netherlands
Edith Lavy
Affiliation:
Limburg UniversityThe Netherlands
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Extract

The hypothesis that elaboration of the phobic stimulus potentiates exposure in vivo treatment was put to the test in a clinical experiment. Forty-one female spider phobics, who applied for treatment, were randomly allocated to one of two conditions. In both conditions a 2.5 hour therapist-directed exposure treatment was given. In the elaboration condition Ss were required to attend to and describe the objective features of the spider constantly. In the non-elaboration condition the therapist tried to prevent this. A manipulation check suggested that Ss in the elaboration condition had indeed elaborated more extensively on the objective features of the spiders during exposure than Ss in the non-elaboration condition. However, Ss in the elaboration condition practised with somewhat fewer spiders than Ss in the non-elaboration condition, probably because of the time the elaboration took. Contrary to the hypothesis, elaboration did not potentiate either short-term or long-term effects of the exposure treatment. It seems superfluous to let patients elaborate on the phobic stimulus during exposure in vivo treatment: the processing of phobic stimulus information which is needed for an effective treatment seems to occur spontaneously when the patient engages in exposure in vivo exercises.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1993

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