Question

Sharif has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. His therapist purposely asks him to think about the unwanted, intrusive, unpleasant thought. These thoughts typically trigger Sharif to feel the need to engage in a particular behavior. However, his therapist does not allow him to engage in that behavior for periods of time. The goal is to decrease and eventually eliminate the need for the compulsion. This technique is called

Answer 1

The answer to the question: This technique is called:____, when referring to Sharif´s case, and his OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder), would be: exposure and response prevention.

Step-by-step explanation:

Obsessive compulsive disorder, also known as OCD, is a psychological condition in which a person, when exposed to a specific stimuli, like in the case of Sharif, a thought, produces a response in the form of a compulsive behavior, which means that Sharif is unable to stop said behavior when the stimulus appears. Unless treated appropriately, the person with OCD simply cannot control his/her response to a stimulus because there is simply no mechanisms for him/her to do so. When Sharif´s therapist purposely forces him to remember the thought, thus exposing him to the trigger, he is using the exposure part of the technique. And then, when he prohibits Sharif from producing the expected behavior as response for a period of time, and thus forces the behavior to start reducing its appearance until it no longer comes, the therapist is using the response prevention part of the technique. Exposure and response prevention is typically the best technique to use by therapists when dealing with people with OCD, although it is not the only one available, given that it is such a difficult condition to treat.