Exposure/response prevention confrontation technique is the development of a systematic desensitization technique.
Confrontation means putting a person in a frightening situation. Usually, the person has a pronounced fear reaction, accompanied by avoidance behavior. According to learning theory, avoidance behavior was reinforced by negative reinforcement, as it led to a decrease in the fear response. The main purpose of this method is to prevent the avoidance reaction. The prohibition against avoidance may be, for example, in the form of a contract with the client to conduct an experiment, the purpose of which is to make sure that their own fears are unfounded.
For example, you can offer a client with social fears and the expectation of hostile reactions from others to ask passers-by on the street what time it is. As such an experiment is carried out and the bulk of the responses are benevolent or calmly indifferent, the client becomes convinced of the groundlessness of his fears (the reaction of fear does not find reinforcement) and his tension on the street subsides, that is, as a result of a confrontation with a frightening situation, behavior changes: expectations and expectations change. learning takes place.
Implosive therapy, flooding
The «flooding» technique, popular in the USA, is simply the most brutal variant of the confrontation technique, mass confrontation, so to speak.
The client is offered an immediate confrontation with the most unpleasant stimulus, and, accordingly, he must experience the most pronounced reaction of fear, anger, etc. The use of this technique requires the client to be very motivated and quite stress resistant. Being in a situation in spite of fear and direct real experience of the unfoundedness of one’s fears usually leads to a noticeable breakthrough and a sharp overcoming of old reactions. An important advantage of this technique is a high preventive effect. In practice, avoidance behavior stops in other situations as well, since it is not reinforced as a life strategy, but, on the contrary, confrontation receives reinforcement. Usually the technique of mass confrontation is applied in vivo, that is, by placing the patient in a real problem situation. However, in some cases it is also possible to work with imaginary situations. The main thing is to remain immersed in the situation until the fear or anger reaction gradually decreases. As a rule, repeated repetition of a massive confrontation is necessary for learning. See →
Similar Methods
A.P. Egides taught self-confident behavior in Soviet times, when he trained the participants in the training to confront unscrupulous employees of the welfare service.
Similar methods are often used in working with fear, in training for the development of confident behavior, for example, the exercise Unusual actions