| Abstract: | 50 snake-phobic female Ss were matched on degree of behavioral avoidance and subjective fear and then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 desensitization or 2 control groups: (a) imagined stimuli presented in order of increasing aversiveness, (b) stimuli presented in a decreasingly aversive order, (c) random order presentation, (d) pseudodesensitization, and (e) no-treatment control. Ss in the 3 desensitization groups showed significantly greater improvement than did Ss in either control group. While no differences were found between Ss exposed to an increasingly aversive hierarchy and Ss who received a decreasing order, the random order tended to be less effective than the other 2. An ascending aversive order of stimulus presentations is not an essential and integral part of successful desensitization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
