Amara has a severe, debilitating phobia of dental procedures (dentophobia) which began after a painful tooth extraction during her childhood. Since then, she has completely avoided dental clinics, managing toothache with high doses of painkillers. Amara recently attempted to confront her phobia by booking an appointment, but upon hearing the sound of a drill in the waiting room, she experienced a severe panic attack and fled the clinic.
Amara has just been informed by a doctor that she requires urgent root canal surgery to treat a deep infection. Anxious to save her tooth but terrified of the surgery, Amara is considering systematic desensitisation to treat her phobia.
Discuss how systematic desensitisation could be used to help Amara overcome her fear of dental procedures.
205 exam-style questions on Edexcel A Level Psychology Content, covering Main features of classical conditioning, Pavlov (1927) salivation in dogs, Main features of operant conditioning, Properties of reinforcement, Behaviour modification and shaping, Main features of social learning theory, Social learning stages, Bandura (1961, 1963) Bobo doll experiments, Bandura (1965) vicarious reinforcement, Learning theories and phobias, Treatments for phobias, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.