Emotional Processing in the Treatment of Simple Phobia: A Comparison of Imaginal and In Vivo Exposure

Two groups of moderately snake phobic college students were given either imaginal or in vivo exposure treatment. The groups were compared on self-report and physiological measures of fear activation during exposure trials, as well as on within- and across-session habituation of fear responses. On these measures, as well as on treatment outcome, the two groups were found to be very similar. The results lend further support to the importance of the concept of emotional processing in understanding fear reduction processes. Differences in treatment procedure may be important only when one procedure facilitates emotional processing more than another.