Behavior Therapy Case Study

Jerry is a 19 year old African-American male college student who has developed a phobia with heights. When he tries to walk across a bridge, for example, he begins to panic, which results in him backing away and avoiding going across at all. It has interfered with his life to the point that he avoids taking classes that are on the upper floors of buildings, and chooses to drive to school from over an hour away in order to avoid staying in a dorm room, since the only ones that were available were on the fifth floor and above. He has had fears of heights ever since he was 10, after he had a traumatic experience when he was trapped on a rollercoaster when it stalled for several hours while he was on it, forcing him to be caught looking down at

Behavioral therapists measure the effect on using a functional assessment, which is explained by Corey (2013) as being the ABC model, with the A standing for antecedents (the events prior to the behavior), B standing for behaviors, and C standing for consequences. The important concept to understand about behaviors in Behavior therapy, which is indicated by Corey (2013) is that it is not limited to observable actions, but also to processes that are unobservable such as thoughts, feelings, beliefs and other psychological phenomena. Using the Behaviorists’ version of the ABC model in assessing Jerry’s phobia, one could say that when he is trying to cross the bridge (antecedent), he panics, backs away and avoids the situation entirely (behavior), resulting in the cessation of the panic (consequence). This would be negative reinforcement, which is described by Corey (2013) as the formation of a behavior in response to a negative stimulus in order to avoid it as much as possible. Uninterrupted, this behavior will continue to be reinforced over

I would use this plan because it has been found to be effective empirically, according to Corey (2013), who describes it as a process in which clients become desensitized to particular anxiety-arousing situations by imagining those situations while engaging with competing behaviors at the same time. I would introduce the client to SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress Scale), which is a scale between 0 and 100 measuring the level of distress that the client reports feels during different activities (R.A. Burwell, personal communication, October 23,2015). We would start with what Jerry reports is the least distressing item to him, which for example could be looking at a picture of the view of the ground over the edge from the top of the Empire State Building, or he could imagine the image of looking down from a bridge in his mind, or whatever he decides to focus on first. Then I would ask him to report his level of SUDS in experiencing the situation. Then I would have him practice some progressive muscle relaxation, which is a behavioral technique described by Corey (2013) that has Jerry assume a relaxed position, take slow and deep breaths, contracting and relaxing particular muscles, and thinking pleasant thoughts in order to help ease his stress and anxiety in facing the situation. Afterwards I would ask him what his SUDS level is, and if he reports that he feels better