Exposure Therapy & Response Prevention Flashcards

Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD includes which two primary components?

Answer: Imaginal exposure to the trauma memory and in vivo exposure to avoided reminders

Foa's PE protocol combines imaginal revisiting of the trauma memory with in vivo exposure to safe but avoided trauma-related cues in the real world.

Which statement about 'between-session habituation' is most accurate according to modern inhibitory learning models?

Answer: Between-session habituation is less important than within-session expectancy violation for durable outcomes

Craske and colleagues' inhibitory learning model de-emphasizes habituation across sessions, instead prioritizing the strength of expectancy violation as the key predictor of durable change.

A client with social anxiety avoids making eye contact during exposure role-plays to feel less vulnerable. This is best classified as:

Answer: A subtle safety behavior that should be faded to maximize exposure benefit

Gaze aversion during social exposures is a safety behavior that prevents full disconfirmation of feared outcomes and should be identified and gradually eliminated.

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is considered clinically useful primarily because it:

Answer: Provides standardized, controllable, and repeatable exposure to stimuli that are difficult to access in real life

VRET allows therapists to expose clients to stimuli (e.g., heights, aircraft, spiders) in a controlled setting that can be precisely adjusted, repeated, and customized.

Which ERP principle is violated if a therapist allows a client with OCD to perform one abbreviated compulsion after each exposure to 'take the edge off'?

Answer: The principle of response prevention, which requires full blocking of compulsive rituals

Permitting any form of compulsion—even abbreviated—reinforces the belief that the compulsion is necessary and prevents full inhibitory learning from occurring.

A client with PTSD reports avoiding the neighborhood where her assault occurred. From an exposure therapy perspective, this avoidance is maintained by:

Answer: Negative reinforcement: avoidance removes aversive distress, increasing future avoidance probability

Avoidance is maintained by negative reinforcement: the temporary reduction in anxiety following avoidance strengthens the avoidance behavior and prevents new learning.

When a feared situation is mastered on the fear hierarchy, what should the therapist typically do next?

Answer: Move to the next more challenging item on the hierarchy and repeat the exposure process

A hierarchical exposure protocol involves systematically advancing to the next more challenging item once the current item no longer elicits significant distress, ensuring progressive mastery.