The technique is based on the principle of extinction, which suggests that when a person is exposed to a feared stimulus repeatedly and for a prolonged period without any negative consequences occurring, their fear response will diminish.
Flooding aims to help individuals confront their fears directly and experience the absence of harm or negative outcomes, leading to the extinction of their anxiety response.
For example, a claustrophobic will be locked in a closet for 4 hours, or an individual with a fear of flying will be sent up in a light aircraft.
Flooding aims to expose the sufferer to the phobic object or situation in a safe and controlled environment for an extended period. Unlike systematic desensitization, which might use in vitro or virtual exposure, flooding generally involves vivo exposure.
Fear is a time-limited response. At first, the person is in extreme anxiety, perhaps even panic, but eventually, exhaustion sets in, and the anxiety level decreases.
Of course, normally, the person would do everything possible to avoid such a situation. Now they have no choice but to confront their fears, and when the panic subsides, they find they have come to no harm. The fear (which, to a large degree, was anticipatory) is extinguished.
Prolonged intense exposure eventually creates a new association between the feared object and something positive (e.g., a sense of calm and lack of anxiety). It also prevents the reinforcement of phobia through escape or avoidance behaviors.
Critical Evaluation
Flooding is rarely used, and it can be dangerous if you are not careful. It is not an appropriate treatment for every phobia.
It should be used cautiously as some people can increase their fear after therapy, and it is impossible to predict when this will occur.
Wolpe (1969) reported the case of a client whose anxiety intensified to such as degree that flooding therapy resulted in her being hospitalized.
Also, some people will be unable to tolerate the high levels of anxiety induced by the therapy and are, therefore, at risk of exiting the therapy before they are calm and relaxed.
This is a problem, as an existing treatment before completion will likely strengthen rather than weaken the phobia.
However, one application is for people who fear water (they are forced to swim out of their depth). It is also sometimes used with agoraphobia.
In general, flooding produces results as effective (sometimes even more so) as systematic desensitization.
The method’s success confirms the hypothesis that phobias are so persistent because the object is avoided in real life and is therefore not extinguished by the discovery that it is harmless.
For example, Wolpe (1960) forced an adolescent girl with a fear of cars into the back of a car and drove her around continuously for four hours: her fear reached hysterical heights but then receded and, by the end of the journey, had completely disappeared.
References
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The Behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century.
Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Wolpe, J. (1960). In behavior therapy and the neuroses.
Wolpe, J. (1969). Basic principles and practices of behavior therapy of neuroses. American Journal of Psychiatry, 125(9), 1242-1247.
Further Information
- Aversion Therapy: How It Works & What to Expect
- List of Support Groups
- Campaign against Living Miserably
- Men do cry: one man’s experience of depression
- NHS Self-Help Guides
- Wolpe, J., & Plaud, J. J. (1997). Pavlov’s contributions to behavior therapy: The obvious and the not so obvious. American Psychologist, 52(9), 966.
