Question

George is extremely afraid to ride elevators. His therapist treats George’s fear by gradually getting him accustomed to riding in elevators. The therapist begins by teaching George to relax. He then learns to relax while standing close to the elevator and then to relax while standing in an elevator with the doors open, and so on. The two techniques being used by George’s therapist are best described as ________

Answer 1

desensitization and reciprocal inhibition.

Step-by-step explanation:

Desensitization is based on the behavioral principle of counterconditioning, which states that the individual can overcome maladaptive anxiety caused by a situation or object by gradually approximating dreaded situations into a psychophysiological state that inhibits anxiety.

In this technique the client is trained to relax, is placed in contact with a hierarchy of anxiety-generating situations, and is asked to relax while imagining each of them, thus the patient reaches a state of complete relaxation when exposed to the stimulus that causes the anxiety response. In this case the negative anxiety reaction is inhibited by the state of relaxation, a process called reciprocal inhibition.