The goal of the therapy is for the individual to learn how to cope with and overcome their fear in each level of an exposure hierarchy.
In this regard, patients' avoidance behaviors can become reinforced – a concept defined by the tenets of operant conditioning.
With older children and college students, an explanation of desensitization can help to increase the effectiveness of the process.
In recent decades, systematic desensitization has become less commonly used as a treatment of choice for anxiety disorders.
It is believed that the decrease of systematic desensitization by practicing psychologist is due to the increase in other techniques such as flooding, implosive therapy, and participant modeling.
[8] In 1947, Wolpe discovered that the cats of Wits University could overcome their fears through gradual and systematic exposure.
[9] Wolpe studied Ivan Pavlov's work on artificial neuroses and the research done on elimination of children's fears by Watson and Jones.
[10] Wolpe found that if he presented a client with the actual anxiety inducing stimulus, the relaxation techniques did not work.