Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the fear and anxiety reduction of two different imaging:strategies used in systematic desensitization (SD). Response-Oriented Imaging (ROI) and Stimulus-Oriented Imaging (SOI) was compared in two experiments. In both experiments fear and anxiety reduction were assessed monitoring subjective ratings, overt behavior and physiological responses. In Experiment-1, twelve students with rat-phobia were divided into two groups. In One group, subjects used ROI strategy, and in the other group, subjects used SOI strategy. In Experiment-2, twenty students with speech anxiety were trained to achieve a high degree of relaxation by autogenic training, and were treated with SD using ROI similar to Experiment-1. Main results are as follows. In Experiment-1, during imaging session, the heart rate of the ROI group was significantly higher in comparison to the SOI group. However, improvement of ratphobia was not different in the two groups. In Experiment-2, ROI group showed a greater, though non siginificant, improvement in subjective ratings, skin conductance, and overt behavior in comparison to SOI. These results suggest that if subjects achieve relaxation, ROI is more effective in systematic desensitization.
