In Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy

Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy intended to treat anxiety disorders and involves the exposure to the feared object or context without any danger in order to overcome their anxiety. Procedurally it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm in rodent work...

, a hierarchy is a graded list of stimuli that will generate an escalating level of arousal

Arousal

Arousal is a physiological and psychological state of being awake or reactive to stimuli. It involves the activation of the reticular activating system in the brain stem, the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system, leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure and a condition of...

, for the purpose of producing habituation

Habituation

Habituation can be defined as a process or as a procedure. As a process it is defined as a decrease in an elicited behavior resulting from the repeated presentation of an eliciting stimulus...

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The hierarchy may be created in advance of a session of exposure (a static hierarchy) or may arise extempore during the session in response to developments (a dynamic hierarchy). It is not yet known which, if either, of these methods produces the better outcome.

Recommended Reading

• Marks I (1981) Cure and Care of Neuroses: Theory and Practice of Behavioural Psychotherapy John Wiley & Sons Inc 978-0471088080
• Hawton K, Salkovskis PM, Kirk J, Clark DM (1989) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems: A Practical Guide Oxford Medical Publications 978-0192615879
• Richard DCS, Lauterbach D (2006) Handbook of Exposure Therapies Academic Press 978-0125874212